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Objectification is the treatment of a person as a body, or a collection of body parts, as something to be used to the benefit of others; it strips individuals of their humanity such that their status is demoted to something less than fully human. Scholars have noted that the objectification of women may be theoretically important in sexual violence (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997; Gervais & Eagan, 2017; MacKinnon, 1989). Mainstream heterosexual pornography is an especially persistent source of objectification. It not only portrays women in objectifying and degrading ways (Gorman et al., 2010), but it also frequently pairs such objectification with explicit acts of aggression (Bridges et al., 2010). Moreover, pornography consumers often reenact behaviors they observe in pornography (Rothman et al., 2015), which may lead to the reproduction of objectifying treatment and aggressive behaviors in people’s own sexual encounters. The aim of this dissertation is to test a model containing men’s objectification of women, pornography use, and perpetration of sexual aggression. This model positions objectification of women and porn sex scripting as mediators of the relationship between pornography use and sexual aggression. In the first path, it was hypothesized that men’s pornography use would positively predict objectification of women, which in turn was predicted to be associated with perpetration of sexual aggression. In the second path, pornography use was predicted to be associated with greater porn sex scripting, which was expected to subsequently be related to higher levels of sexual aggression. Data from 261 heterosexual or female-attracted, cisgender young men were analyzed. Structural equation modeling indicated the proposed model was a good fit for the data. Pornography use frequency predicted porn sex scripting, which was associated with greater sexual aggression perpetration. Objectification of women also predicted sexual aggression but was not associated wi

Objectification is the treatment of a person as a body, or a collection of body parts, as something to be used to the benefit of others; it strips individuals of their humanity such that their status is demoted to something less than fully human. Scholars have noted that the objectification of women may be theoretically important in sexual violence (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997; Gervais & Eagan, 2017; MacKinnon, 1989). Mainstream heterosexual pornography is an especially persistent source of objectification. It not only portrays women in objectifying and degrading ways (Gorman et al., 2010), but it also frequently pairs such objectification with explicit acts of aggression (Bridges et al., 2010). Moreover, pornography consumers often reenact behaviors they observe in pornography (Rothman et al., 2015), which may lead to the reproduction of objectifying treatment and aggressive behaviors in people’s own sexual encounters. The aim of this dissertation is to test a model containing men’s objectification of women, pornography use, and perpetration of sexual aggression. This model positions objectification of women and porn sex scripting as mediators of the relationship between pornography use and sexual aggression. In the first path, it was hypothesized that men’s pornography use would positively predict objectification of women, which in turn was predicted to be associated with perpetration of sexual aggression. In the second path, pornography use was predicted to be associated with greater porn sex scripting, which was expected to subsequently be related to higher levels of sexual aggression. Data from 261 heterosexual or female-attracted, cisgender young men were analyzed. Structural equation modeling indicated the proposed model was a good fit for the data. Pornography use frequency predicted porn sex scripting, which was associated with greater sexual aggression perpetration. Objectification of women also predicted sexual aggression but was not associated wi