Sexy self-portrait photographs of women clearly tend to be posted more in areas where income gaps between men and women are larger

By Verónica Bautista

In behaviors that women take their sexy appearances on smartphones and make them public on SNS etc., the background is not the cause of "women being discriminated" or "being in a socially vulnerable position" A research result that the economic disparity that exists between men and women is affecting has been announced.

Income inequality not gender inequality positively covaries with female sexualization on social media | PNAS
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2018/08/20/1717959115

Sexy selfies part of a complex game of evolution | UNSW Newsroom
https://newsroom.unsw.edu.au/news/science-tech/sexy-selfies-part-complex-game-evolution

There's a Disturbing Link Between Women Posting Sexy Selfies And Income Inequality
https://www.sciencealert.com/sexy-selfies-on-social-media-are-more-common-when-there-s-income-inequality

This research result was presented by Khandis Blake et al., A team of gender psychologists and co-authors of the University of New South Wales. Among newly published papers, actions that women make sexy self-portraits to express sexual appeal include women's suppression that recognizes women as sexual targets F culture "f It has been revealed that it is not influenced as a strategy to combat unequal income.

According to the paper, it is highlighting that women are unconsciously using sexual elements as weapons to counter unequal income. Blake said, "When a young lady is smartphone retagging her bikini in a provocative manner, women are not thinking about submission to an unequal patriarchal system." "In a detailed laboratory From our research on sexy self-portraits including case studies, it seems that women feel the power, aggressiveness, and control of themselves at that time. "

The research team gathered more than 68,000 sexy self-portraits posted on Twitter and Instagram and identified the location information of each photo. Next, based on the obtained geographical data, the research team collected data on inequality disparities between men and women in 5567 cities in the United States and 1622 in the county and verified the data. Then, it turned out that it became clear that women tended to post more sexual self-portraits as the area of ​​income disparity between men and women became larger.

By Miroslav Vajdic

The research team also collects sales data for hairdressers and apparel for women. Then, in areas where there are many sexy self-portraits, sales of goods and services related to the appearance of women turned out to be relatively high relative to other areas.

Based on these results, the research team thinks that women's efforts to improve sexy self-portrait photographs and appearance are indicators of intense competitiveness among women. About this, Mr. Blake said, "In psychology, economic inequality is known to affect the concern about the relative social status of individuals and the status of people at the level of every social class," he says, It shows that anxiety due to the disparity exists in the background of sexy self-portrait photography.

Mr. Blake said, "The results of this study is that in developed countries where the gap between" possessors "and" people who do not have "is expanding as a result of improving the social status of women such as the US and Singapore, It suggests that there is a high possibility of spending time and effort to post sexy self-portrait photographs. "The same trend is highlighting the analysis of SNS postings in 113 countries I reveal it.

From this research, sexy self-portraits of women are not actions based on "self obsession" or "narcissism", but in an environment where there are few means to choose, "appearance" is a way for women to improve their lives There is a possibility that it is one of the methods is shown. Blake says, "To persuade young women to take sexy self-portrait photographs is like asking young people to abandon their capital, knowing that their value decreases over time." I said.

By Ellen De Vos