Experiences and Psychopathological Manifestations among Victims of Sexual Objectification

Sexual Objectification (SO) refers to the act of viewing an individual’s body as a mean of satisfying sexual desire. In 2018, the #MeToo Movement empowered Indian women to speak up about their experiences of sexual harassment. Such traumatic experiences have shown to be positively correlated with mental health disorders such as anxiety, depression, eating disorders, stress disorders and trauma related disorders. The present study aims to explore the experiences and psychopathological manifestations among the female victims of sexual objectification in India. The Interpersonal Sexual Objectification Scale (ISOS) was used as a screening tool and a semi-structured interview was conducted on the ten chosen female, Indian subjects, ranging from 18 to 25 years of age. This was followed by a thematic analysis by Braun and Clarke. The results showed that SO experiences lead to depressive and anxiety symptoms, suicidal ideations, social withdrawal, fear from the male gender, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), paranoid feelings, dissociation, sexual and intimacy issues along with multiple emotional, psychological and physiological changes. It was also seen that the victims blamed various factors for such experiences including their clothes and people’s mindset and used various help seeking behaviours and coping mechanisms to deal with their mental health issues. Thus, SO experiences can have long term psychopathological effects.
The current data includes the ISOS, the consent form and the colour coding and themes of the data analysis. Since, the research takes into account a very sensitive topic - sexual objectification, the responses, audio recordings of the interview as well as the transcripts cannot be shared (as mentioned in the consent form signed by the subjects). The codes and themes show the mental health issues faced by the subject after they became the victims of various experiences of sexual harassment, abuse, rape, etc. The Interview Schedule used has been added in the research manuscript itself. The themes have also been explained in detail with verbatim in the manuscript.

性客体化（Sexual Objectification，SO）指将个体身体视为满足性欲之手段的行为。2018年，#MeToo运动赋予印度女性发声权利，使其能够公开讲述自身遭受性骚扰的经历。此类创伤性经历已被证实与焦虑、抑郁、进食障碍、应激障碍及创伤相关障碍等精神健康障碍呈显著正相关。本研究旨在探讨印度女性性客体化受害者的经历与精神病理表现。研究采用人际性客体化量表（Interpersonal Sexual Objectification Scale，ISOS）作为筛查工具，对10名年龄介于18至25岁的印度女性受试者开展半结构化访谈。随后采用Braun与Clarke提出的主题分析法进行编码分析。结果显示，性客体化经历可引发抑郁与焦虑症状、自杀意念、社交退缩、对男性的恐惧情绪、创伤后应激障碍（Post Traumatic Stress Disorder，PTSD）、偏执感受、解离状态、性与亲密关系问题，以及多种情绪、心理及生理层面的变化。研究还发现，受害者会将此类经历归咎于诸多因素，包括自身着装与他人观念，并通过各类求助行为与应对机制处理自身的精神健康问题。由此可见，性客体化经历可产生长期的精神病理影响。
本数据集包含人际性客体化量表、知情同意书，以及数据分析所用的编码规则与主题分类结果。鉴于本研究涉及性客体化这一高度敏感的话题，受试者的访谈录音、转录文本均无法共享（详见受试者签署的知情同意书）。编码与主题分类反映了受试者在遭受各类性骚扰、性侵犯、强奸等经历后所面临的精神健康问题。本研究手稿中已附上所用的访谈提纲。手稿中还结合逐字转录文本对主题分类进行了详细阐释。