A work of images on societal medium has found that in space where there is keen income inequality , women are more likely to upload images of themselves that underline their sexual attractiveness . On the other hand , no affiliation was find between how sexual the images were and the stage of local discrimination against women .
Fretting about images regarded as “ too sexy ” is an years - sometime pursuit , and social medium has given citizenry plenty to worry about . Dr Khandis Blakeof the University of New South Wales has taken the rarified approach of investigating potential causes , rather than evidence - free pontification .
As Blake notes inProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences : “ [ sexualize ] depiction are often take to be outcomes of a culture of sexuality inequality and female subjugation , but , paradoxically , late rises in sexualization are most notable in societies that have made impregnable progress toward sex parity . ”
Blake compared the geolocations of 68,562 self - portraits on Twitter and Instagram that were accompanied by hashtags of words like “ sexy " and “ red-hot ” with mensuration of both income and sexuality inequality .
Looking first within the United States , Blake see that more economically unequal cities and counties bring on more images ( permit for population ) hold sexualized . However , there was no difference in image numbers between arena consider more sexist and those where women are freer , establish on theUN Gender Inequality Index’smetrics . Blake emphasized to IFLScience that her income inequality meter are “ between people generally ( like between home ) ” rather than the male - female wage gap .
The findings are consistent with the hypothesis that the pressure of dwell in a company with extremes of wealth and poorness make slap-up competition , and some women perhaps respond by advertising their physical attraction . This is usually explained in terms of women assay a wealthier partner , but Blake told IFLScience income inequality may drive this tendency in other ways , pointing to the money “ Instagram influencers ” earn through merchandise promotion .
Correlational studies like this ca n’t rule out the possibility that some other factor associated with income inequality is the true deportment - modifier , but Blake confirmed the connexion ( whether causal or not ) in other ways . She repeated the analysis across 113 countries and found a similar correlation , although it was unattackable in economically acquire nations . Blake also bump that arena of the United States with greater income inequality have more expenditure on beauty salons and adult female ’s wear . In each case , no coefficient of correlation was find with other measures of char ’s subordination , such as entree to breeding .
Blake enjoin IFLScience she has n’t done an tantamount study of virile behaviour , but would expect that “ in surround of high income inequality – where fight is emphasized , and people are preoccupied with their place on the societal hierarchy – men should be more inclined to promote their wallet on-line … manpower might choose to publicise their fancy auto , brand name clothing , etc . ”
There is often concern expressed over post sexual images in that it could re - enforce sexuality inequality , as well as being a mathematical product of it . Blake told IFLScience she has n’t looked at the relationship over clip and is not aware of anyone else having tested the human relationship in this way either , but she has acknowledged elsewhere that “ fixate on our appearance … can make us more vulnerable to run through disorder . ”
Studies in this field are often manipulate to imply that an entire contemporaries are deport the same path . “ There are many women around the reality who do choose to choose out of the “ beauty game ” , so to speak , and they terminate up glad [ and ] healthy , ” Blake noted . Moreover , she added the benefits can be overstated , “ If you ’re a jerk interpersonally , people are finally live to realise you are a jerking – aphrodisiac selfie or not . ”
