Online Supplement for Guizzo, F., Cadinu, M., Galdi, S., Maass, A., & Latrofa, M. (2017). Objecting to objectification: Women’s collective action against sexual objectification on television. Sex Roles. Francesca Guizzo, University of Padova. Email:
EXPERIMENATAL MANIPULATION:
Description of the SO and Critique SO videos
Please notice that the video in the Critique SO was the same as in the SO condition and was taken from the original documentary Women’s Body (Zanardo et al., 2009; from the minute 18.48 till the end) except that the SO video did not include the commentary by the author, which was replaced with pop music. The original video with English subtitles is available at the following link: https://youtu.be/Y42hqlTmM00
Description of the visual component of SO and Critique SO video (that was identical in the two conditions).
The video starts with a scene (from a popular daytime program) in which Elisabetta Gregoracci (an Italian showgirl) is standing on a mechanical surf that is moving. She is wearing a skimpy dress that, due to her movements, reveals her cleavage and her rear end.
Afterwards the video shows a gallery of very brief scenes taken from daytime or primetime programs in which, for example, a woman is showing her breast, four young female assistants wearing aprons pretend to assist the male host with a recipe, and a group of female assistants and guests are in the background of the scene like decorations while the male host is interviewing a male guest.
The video progresses by showing some scenes taken from a popular program (Libero), in which, for example, a woman is presented under a table in a Plexiglas cage, or female assistants scantily dressed are mocked by the male host.
Then the video shows other scenes in which the host is female, but, for example, she is wearing a very provocative dress or she is dancing together with a group of scantily dressed soubrettes or she sensually throws herself with another girl on a sort of mattress. In another scene, the female host is conducting a game in which a female guest (again wearing a provocative dress) takes a shower in front of the camera.
The video then shows as an allegory a brief extract from “Kontakthof” ballet by Pina Bausch in which the dancer is standing still while male dancers touch or fondle her.
The video concludes with the scene in which a woman in underwear is hanging on a hook with the camera zooming on her rear end, which looks similar to a series of prosciutto hams that are hanging close to her. The final scene shows a man pretending to brand her rear end like the prosciutto hams.
Transcription of the audio component of the Critique SO condition, which includes the critique commentary by Lorella Zanardo (please notice that the video is also available online https://youtu.be/Y42hqlTmM00 and that the audio of the SO video is pop music).
Zanardo voice over commenting the surfing scene: On the TV show “Bagaglino” a few weeks after the demeaning “Valettopoli” scandal, Elisabetta Gregoracci confirmed her humiliating role in the “sexual favours for TV jobs” scandal by singing “La rumba del lecca lecca” (the lollipop rumba)”
Zanardo voice over commenting the scenes in which women are just decorations: “At primary school, my teacher taught me to draw “grechine” (pretty little pictures used as frames or separating lines to introduce a new piece of work on the same page of a notebook. These were decorative figures that would frame my work. In TV shows, women acting as decorative frames are like “grechine”, some of them having an erotic attitude, others just being pretty decorations, young and fresh faces that are there during a commercial break, or serve as furniture, exactly like pretty little frames (“grechine”).”
Female commentator commenting on the role of women in TV (major daytime Italian TV program): “Who said that to go on TV you have to have skills? I mean you don’t have to know how to dance, sing.. They are pretty!”
Zanardo voice over commenting on the famous primetime TV program (Libero) in which a woman is presented under a table in a Plexiglas cage: “Can a woman crawl under a Plexiglas table, pretending she is the leg of the table, spend a long time under there, pretending that it’s only a silly game? Can this be done without leaving a scar somewhere in her body? And what should people who are watching the program feel about it? On TV there is a woman, and a man is using her as the leg of a table. When the program was first aired some people complained about it, but the authors of the program and the presenter (Mammucari) said that: “the girl is a living sculpture and in the cage she even has breathing holes”.
Extract from Libero with Mammucari, the TV host playing with two female soubrettes: “Keep the banana, the orange, the lemon, the apple. You got the lemon?” Female assistant: “Yes” Mammucari: “No, you don’t even have a brain… Let’s send a message, what’s the name of the video?” Female assistant: “I don’t know” Mammucari: “See people! .. God damn! You should work for Schicchi [pornography director]! You would make more money for less trouble. Mammucari turns to a woman in the audience: “Look at that pretty face. What’s your name?” Reply: “Chicca” Mammucari: “Chicca.. come here Chicca… Where are your boobs? Did you leave them at home?”
Zanardo voice over commenting on female hosts: “An infinite number of humiliated women. Many female adult presenters on Italian TV are as powerful as men, and somehow they feel the urge to act like men by demeaning the younger women, who have less power.”….
Zanardo voice over on the allegory of the Bausch’s ballet scene: “For years I believed that Television had nothing to do with me, or with millions of women who work hard and who have goals in life. But these images keep appearing on television and keep entering our homes, feeding fantasies, reaching the eyes of our children and invading the world. The survival of our identity is at stake.”
Zanardo voice commenting on the woman hanging like a prosciutto ham: “Why don’t we do something about it? Why can’t we show our own truth? Why do we keep accepting this constant humiliation? Why don’t we fight to protect our rights? What are we afraid of?”
TV PROGRAMS’ PRETEST
A pretest was conducted in which an independent group of N = 20 participants (N = 10 female) (Mage = 23.80, SDage = 3.05) rated a list of 20 popular Italian TV programs on their level of sexism (1 = not all sexist, 7 = very sexist) and on the role of women in the program (1 = decorative, 7 = competent). Twelve programs were selected for the Study, half of which were rated as more sexist (a = .85, M = 4.30, SD = 1.51) than the other half (a = .83, M = 1.97, SD = .78), t(19) = 8.07, p < .001. These results did not vary by Gender (p >. 24). Moreover, participants rated the female role of the six more sexist programs as more decorative (a = .77, M = 1.61, SD = .76) than the other half (a = .79, M = 4.15, SD = 1.08), t(19) = 9.35, p < .001. These results did not vary by Gender (p >. 90). Below is the list of the programs selected for the Study.
Sexist programs: / Chiambretti NightCiao Darwin
L’Eredità
Striscia la Notizia
Contro Campo
Veline
Neutral programs: / Geo & Geo
La prova del cuoco
Pomeriggio 5
Zelig
Verissimo
Le Iene