Jennifer Stevens Aubrey, an associate professor of communication at the University of Arizona, will present a lecture titled “Self-objectification and its Consequences: A Review of the Effects of Mediated Sexual Objectification on Adolescents and Young Adults” on Monday, April 20 at 7:30 p.m., in room 3024, Taylor Science Center. Aubrey’s lecture is sponsored by the Psychology Department and is free and open to the public.
Aubrey’s research focuses on the media’s effects on emotional, mental and physical health in young people, with an emphasis on issues related to sexuality and body image. Using Fredrickson and Roberts’ (1997) objectification theory as a framework, this lecture will discuss the role of the media in cultivating trait levels of self-objectification, as well as activating short-term self-objectifying states in adolescents and young adults. The lecture will address the trend of self-sexualization in mainstream and social media.
In 2011, Aubrey was named an Emerging Scholar by the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC). In 2008, she was awarded the Gold Chalk Award by University of Missouri’s Graduate Professional Council in recognition of significant contribution to the education and training of graduate students. She has been an invited speaker for the Medical Institute for Sexual Health and the SPARK Summit.
Aubrey’s current research projects examine the effects of sexual objectification in the media on emerging adults’ self-consciousness about their bodies, the impact of sexually oriented media on emerging adults’' beliefs about the “hookup culture,” and the impact of popular reality television programming on adolescents’ attitudes and beliefs about teen pregnancy. Her research has been published in such journals as Communication Research, Media Psychology, and Journal of Communication.
