II.

LITERATURE REVIEW

A. REVIEW OF RELATED STUDY

This research will discuss the topic of the victim's psychological impact from self

objection due to body shaming. Two related studies are needed to provide insight into research

similar to the topic to submit a new research proposal. There are "Bullying or Body Shaming?

Young Women in Patient Body Dysmorphic Disorder" by Sumi Lestari (2019) and

"Psychoeducation on the Impact of Body-Shaming on Adolescents" by Sumi Lestari (2020). To

see the relationship, the first article explains how body dysmorphic disorder is experienced by

young women due to ridicule or humiliation of their body shape or body shaming, and other

articles discuss the impact that victims experience when experiencing body shaming. Through

those related studies, the readers are expected to see the depth of the topic and explore its

relationships with the associated studies below.

First, according to Sumi Lestari in her study of "Bullying or Body Shaming? Young

Women in Patient Body Dysmorphic Disorder" explained that body shaming is an important

phenomenon to pay attention to because it is a form of bullying. This is a criticism of one's

appearance and a destructive form of social media related to ideal beauty standards (Gulf News,

2018), body shaming can occur in communities regardless of age, body shape or specific skin

color (Lestari, 2018) so that victims or perpetrators are of various ages. Body shaming is a form

of commentary on the appearance of oneself and others (Evans, 2010). Intense body shaming can

affect body image (Lestari, 2018). Body image can affect a person's mental condition. The

effects include feelings of anxiety, shame, insecurity, anger, low self-esteem, hate self-

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appearance, strict diet, eating disorders, and mental disorders. Some forms of mental disorders

due to body shaming are eating disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorders, and body dysmorphic

disorders (Lestari, 2018). Body dysmorphic disorder is a minimal lack of self-perfection but has

an excessive response (Phillips, 2009). In addition, Evans (2010) explains the impact of body

shaming is experiencing depression for those who feel depressed and stressed about the

environment they feel they do not accept because of excessive body size or not in accordance

with society's ideal standards. Research based on Ellasdotir (2016) explains that body predictions

predict physical illness and reports of individual physical health. The results of the study in this

report state that the higher the increase in humiliation towards a person's body, the higher the risk

of physical disease. This happened in Lamont (2015) 's research on body shaming related to a

person's physical health. Related to previous research, Moradi, Dirks, and Matteson (2005) stated

that body shame can predict eating disorders: Anorexia, Nervous Bulimia, and Binge eating.

Next, Sumi Lestari explained in her study on "Psychoeducation on the Impact of Body-

Shaming on Adolescents" that body-shaming is vulnerable to adolescence because adolescence is

a period of self-discovery, so that external or standard values, namely plural society, are easily

internalized in adolescence. This is due to several factors that cause body shaming, especially in

adolescents, namely the mismatch of ideal beauty standards applied by society with individual

personal appearances. Body shaming is considered a common behavior without hurting the

victim, and the perpetrator does not know the impact of body shaming. According to Lamont

(2015) in his research body-shaming behavior can have a significant positive correlation with

victims related to deteriorating physical health, meaning that the higher the occurrence of body

shaming in adolescents, the worse the occurrence of body shaming in adolescents' physical

condition will be. When the victim experiences body shaming, the teenager will engage in

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unhealthy dietary behavior to get the body or appearance he wants. The results of research

conducted by Lestari (2018; 2019) explain that the effects of body shaming are anxiety, shame,

insecurity, insecurity, anger, self-isolation and stress. Psychoeducation is needed to minimize

body-shaming behavior in society, especially among adolescents. Psychoeducation is a form of

individual, group and community psychological intervention that aims to treat, reduce adaptive

behavior. This is a form of preventive behavior against mental disorders to not cause problematic

behavior (Morgan & Vera, 2011).

B. REVIEW OF RELATED THEORY

1. Character and Characterization

Some people will enjoy reading a story if they know what kind of characters are in the

story. If they understand what character a character in a story has, they can easily understand the

story or what message the writer wants to convey in the story.

A character is a person, or sometimes even an animal, who takes part in the action of

a short story or other literary work. Writers use characters to perform the actions and speak

dialogue, moving the story along a plot line. A story can have only one character (protagonist)

and still be a complete story. This character’s conflict may be an inner one (within him/herself),

or a conflict with something natural, such as climbing a mountain. Most stories have multiple

characters interacting, with one of them as the antagonist, causing a conflict for the protagonist.

In A Glossary of Literary Terms, Abrams defines the characters are the persons presented

in a dramatic or narrative work, who are interpreted by the reader as being endowed with moral

and dispositional qualities that are expressed in what they say -the dialogue- and what they do –

the action (1981: 20). Abrams also stated that basically, based on the importance, the character

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can be divided into two categories. They are major characters and minor characters. A major

character usually appears in the whole of the story. They become the focus of the story. The

events that appear in the story always involve him directly or indirectly. On the other hand, a

minor character is often said as the supporting character. The roles are less important than the

main characters because they are not fully developed characters and their roles in a story are just

to support the development of the major character (1981: 20).

Characterization is a literary device that is used step-by-step in literature to highlight and

explain the details about a character in a story. It is in the initial stage in which the writer

introduces the character with noticeable emergence. After introducing the character, the writer

often talks about his behavior; then, as the story progresses, the thought-processes of the

character. Characterization as a literary tool was coined in the mid15th century. Aristotle in his

Poetics argued that “tragedy is a representation, not of men, but of action and life.” Thus

the assertion of the dominance of plot over characters, termed “plot-driven narrative,” is

unmistakable. This point of view was later abandoned by many because, in the 19th century, the

dominance of character over plot became clear through petty bourgeois novels.

According to Baldick, characterization refers to the presentation of persons in narrative or

dramatic works by means of the characters’ action, speech, or physical appearance (1991: 34). It

means that a character can be differentiated from others because they have their own personality

and physical attributes.

An author may present his character either directly or indirectly (Perrine, 1974: 68-69). In

direct presentation, or also called telling method, he tells us straight out, by exposition or

analysis, what a character is like, or has someone else in the story tells us what he is like. The

author describes the character directly by telling the readers what people look like. For example,

8
in this study, Catherine is described directly by the author. The author gives her physical

description directly by giving the statement such as "She has long brown legs". In indirect

presentation, or showing method, the author shows us the character in action. The author only

simply presents his character talking, acting and the author leaves the reader to find out what

motives and dispositions lay behind what they say and do.

2. Self-Objection in Psychological Perspective

In psychology, theories are used to provide a model for understanding human

thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. Throughout psychology's history, a number of theories have

been proposed to explain and predict various aspects of human behavior.

According to the American Psychological Association, Psychology is a multifaceted

discipline and includes many sub-fields of study such as human development, sports, health,

clinical, social behavior and cognitive processes. Psychology aims to be able to predict future

behavior from the findings of empirical research. If a prediction is not confirmed, then the

explanation it is based on might need to be revised. Personality psychology looks at the patterns

of thoughts, feelings, and behavior that make a person unique. Some of the best-known theories

in psychology are devoted to the subject of personality, including the trait theory of personality,

the "big 5" theory of personality, and Erikson's theory of psychosocial development.

Theories need to be supported by empirical data obtained through careful and controlled

observation and measurement of behavior. Watson (1913) stated that: 'Psychology as a

behaviorist views it as a purely objective experimental branch of natural science. Its theoretical

goal is … prediction and control.' (p. 158). The components of a theory should be as simple as

possible. Behaviorists propose the use of operational definitions (defining variables in terms of

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observable, measurable events). This self-objectification is then predicted to have several

consequences for women who have high self-objectification. Psychological consequences of

self-objectification in the form of feelings of shame, anxiety, feeling insecure, and decreased

sensitivity to the internal body. In addition, these psychological consequences will allow mental

health consequences such as eating disorders, depression, and sexual dysfunction (Fredrickson &

Roberts, 1997; Fredrickson, Roberts, Noll, Quinn, & Twenge, 1998).

a. Definition

Self-objectification is an assessment of one's own body, internalizing the perspective of

an observer who focuses on observing body parts such as how I see others, and less judging

based on judgments that observe the uniqueness and potential of what the body can do and how

the body feels (Fredrickson & Robert, 1997). The theory of objectification shows that self-

objectification increases the chances of an individual feeling embarrassed, especially ashamed of

a body (Noll & Fredrickson, 1998). Body shame is a feeling of shame that arises in one part of

an individual's body when other people's judgments and self-assessments are not in accordance

with the ideal self that is expected by the individual (Noll & Frederickson, 1998). Research by

McKinley (1996) shows body shame is related to self-esteem, diet and symptoms of eating

disorders. In addition, in the research of Noll and Fredrickson (1998), body shame as a mediator

of the relationship between various variables, for example self-objectification with eating

disorders, can increase body shame due to relationship contingency and the importance of

finding a partner as a society demand (Sanchez et al., 2008).

Another impact of self-objectification is a decrease in psychological aspects in a person,

one of which is related to self-confidence. Someone who gets body shaming treatment may

10
experience decreased motivation to do something. As a result, they will feel worthless which

then if it continues will lead to feelings of hopelessness. Not infrequently, this feeling of despair

leads to suicidal thoughts in someone.

At a psychological level, this pervasive external evaluation may lead women to adopt a

view of themselves as objects that are valued for use by others. This adoption of an observer’s

view of their physical self then inevitably leads to preoccupation with appearance. Fredrickson

and Roberts (1997) emphasize that this results in having plenty to worry about but little to

control.

b. Aspect of Self Objection

The self-objection aspect is that each individual gives a different response to the

objectification culture. The response is influenced by factors of age, ethnicity, gender roles, and

the personality of each individual. It can be concluded that self-objectification is an attitude of

prioritizing the role of aspects of physical appearance rather than the role of aspects of physical

competence to determine one's self-quality. There are several figures who explain the aspect of

self-objectification.

First, according to Fredrickson (1997), there are 10 attributes that become aspects of self

-objection, that divide into two groups, including:

a. Appearance-based (physical attractiveness, body weight, sex appeal, body

measurements, and muscle torus).

b. Competency-based (strength, physical coordination, health, fitness, and energetic

level).

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 The second is the aspect according to Mckenlye & Hyde (1996) as follows:

a. Body Surveillance

Body surveillance is a condition when individuals monitor their bodies because they feel

that their appearance is being seen and judged.

b. Internalization of body standards culture and feelings of shame

Cultural internalization is the process of adding value to a person or individual that will

shape their mindset in seeing the meaning of the reality of experience. These values can

be from various aspects of religion, norms, values, culture, and so on.

c. Confidence in appearance control (responsibility for belief in appearance control)

The belief in appearance control is that people can control their appearance the way they

want without listening to what other people have to say about their appearance.

The third is the aspect of self objectification according to to (Sarah Dahl, 2014) there are

2 aspects, namely:

a. Self-Esteem (Self Worth)

That is an act of appreciating physical appearance based purely on the condition of one's

physical appearance.

b. Success (Success)

That is an act of appreciating physical appearance because it is based on what can be

obtained or can be utilized from that physical appearance (such as friends or income).

c. Factors that Affect Self Objection

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a. Objectification practices in objectification cultures emerge in three ways (Fredrickson &

Roberts, 1997):

1) In interpersonal and social relationships, which shows that:

a) Women are more numerous and often feel observed, evaluated, and judged by

the social environment and partners.

b) Men often judge, observe, evaluate and look at women walking on the road or

in public places.

c) When other people observe women, it is usually accompanied by comments

that judge the woman's body.

2) In various media that describe interpersonal and social relationships. According to

Goffman (1979, in Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997), advertisements broadcast on

television and in print media often depict men observing a woman from a distance and

imagining the woman.

3) In visual media that highlights the female body. Visual media highlighting women's

bodies is an example of a form of objectification.

b. Individual needs and value systems in the process of cultural internalization and

objectification.

According to Fredrickson and Roberts (1997), an objectified culture that is formed to

treat women as objects that are seen, observed, assessed, and evaluated for their physical

appearance seduces women to adopt other people's views of the body. Therefore, many other

people adopt other people's perspective on their appearance. The process of adopting

another's perspective on one's own body is called internalization.

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 According to several studies, individuals who lack confidence, are less valuable, lack

motivation, and lack satisfaction with the body will internalize a culture of objectification to

get feelings of worth, belief, motivation, and body satisfaction for social recognition and self-

awareness from society towards the individual. (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997). In other

words, individuals internalize a culture of objectification so that they have self-objectification

and produce self-objectification behaviors. This is because the individual is trying to get a

feeling of worth or fulfill their needs through self-awareness and social recognition from the

community or the surrounding environment.

Based on the explanation above, it can be concluded that self-objectification can be

influenced by various forms of objectification culture in the form of observation, assessment,

and evaluation of women's bodies, especially in the form of comments, glances, and calls.

The culture of objectification occurs in various situations, such as in interpersonal and social

relationships as well as in print and visual media, which often highlight the female body as

the target of evaluation.

d. The Effect of Self-objectification and Body Shame on Self-Confidence

Women's beauty standards that focus more on the state of the body's physical shape

formed by society will potentially make someone do self-objectification (Fredrickson & Robert,

1997). Self-objectification is a condition in which people see themselves as an object to be

monitored and assessed in terms of physical appearance. This tendency to do self-objectification

can lead to feelings of shame about oneself (shame) or anxiety (anxiety) about body shape or size

(Strelan, et al., 2003).

According to Fredrickson (1997) people who cannot accept body-shaming treatment will

tend to feel something is wrong in themselves or feel incompetent to do something because of

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low self-confidence. In women, the impact of body shaming can be very visible, women who

tend to pay attention to their physical appearance, often not because of an inner desire, but to

avoid negative comments that are likely to be directed at themselves (McKinley & Hyde, 1996).

Another impact of self-objectification is the decrease in psychological aspects in a person, one of

which is related to the self-confidence of someone who gets body-shaming treatment, may

experience a decrease in motivation to do something. As a result, victims of body shaming will

feel worthless which furthermore if it goes on continuously will lead to feelings of hopelessness

and even make the victim commit suicide attempts.

3. Body Shaming

Body shaming is a feeling of shame about one part of the body when other people's

judgments and self-assessments do not match the ideal self that the individual expects (Damanik,

2018). This makes individuals feel that their behavior, personality, activities, thoughts and

feelings or emotions are embarrassing.

Body shaming is the act of humiliating someone's body. Now body shaming is a term

known as the treatment or action of a person in giving bad comments about the condition of a

person's body or appearance, both consciously and unconsciously. The criticism given is not in

the form of constructive criticism, but with the intention of bringing down other people or

humiliating them through physical criticism they have. Not only from other people, but body

shaming is also an act of commenting on oneself as a form of low self-esteem or lack of gratitude

that someone has (Fitriana, 2019).

According to a survey data, due to the lack of knowledge about the actions or treatment

of body shaming, many victims claimed to have experienced the incident from within the home

environment by their own parents or relatives (Miller, 2016). Events like this are very

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unfortunate, many people do not have full awareness in choosing words or sentences in a

communication that has a big impact on the other person. Small talk in a conversation is ranked

first as an introduction to body shaming in a forum or group conversation. The culture that keeps

changing over the years has affected people's concern for one another, resulting in a very clear

insensitivity and more detrimental to themselves and others, and this is after many people began

to adopt popular culture.

In terms of body shaming, there are several terms, namely fat shaming and thin shaming.

a) Fat Shaming

Fat Shaming is a term for the act of humiliating the bodies of people who are

considered big or fat (Cambridge Dictionary, 2019). This humiliation of the body to

people who are categorized as big comes from the conceptual idea that only a slim

body looks the most beautiful part on someone’s body, whereas someone who looks

bigger actually looks bad because it shows the impression of being greedy and does

not take care of health.

Obese people are generally characterized by having an appearance that

emphasizes excessive weight such as folds in the neck, waist, distended abdomen

and other limbs that look swollen and this is often seen as disgusting. The fear and

concern that this can happen to everyone in society is what triggers the idea that

being fat and overweight is a bad thing and can make people socially marginalized.

b) Thin Shaming

Thin shaming is the opposite of the term fat shaming, which is a term for the

act of humiliating the body of a thin or underweight person. Sometimes a thin body

is a hereditary or gene that a person has in his family for generations and cannot be

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changed. Although thin treatment shaming has fewer findings than body shaming

but still it is not true and is not acceptable.

The stigma attached to society regarding thin people is weak people who are

lazy and don't want to eat and are sick, of course all of these things are not entirely

true. Many of the victims of thin shaming are often humiliated because their adult

body size is considered small and does not match the standard and then there are

coercions to take weight gain supplements to overcome the appearance that looks

shabby and helpless (Brewis & Bruening, 2018, p.15). There were also several

findings of thin shaming victims who were people with eating disorders or eating

disorders and none of this happened initially because of mental disturbances

regarding the concept of being overweight. In the case of a thin shaming victim who

suffers from an eating disorder, it can be ascertained that previously the victim had

experienced body shaming actions which resulted in impaired mental health.

Body shaming or comments about the physical shortcomings of others can be

categorized as verbal or verbal bullying. In simple terms, body shaming can be

interpreted as a negative attitude or behavior towards a person's weight, body size,

and appearance. The term body shaming also refers to the term body image which

according to the psychological dictionary (Chaplin, 2005) body image or commonly

called body image is a person's idea of how he looks in front of others. This body

image is certainly greatly influenced by the level of self-confidence of each person.

There are three characteristics of body shaming actions (Mawaddah, 2020),

including:

a) Criticize yourself and then compare with others.

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 For example, seeing yourself as fatter than other people.

b) Criticizing other people's appearance in front of them.

For example, says that other people seem to have darker skin so it's necessary

to use facial lightening products.

c) Criticizing other people's appearance without their knowledge.

For example, talking about a friend's appearance that looks inappropriate with

others.

Body shame is a special feeling of shame on the condition of the body individual.

Aspects of body shame (Gilbert & Miles, 2002) include:

a) Social or external cognitive component

The social cognitive component refers to people's thinking others who judge

as someone who is low or not good so that it results in looking down on himself.

b) Components of self-evaluation that come from within

This component refers to a bad view of yourself that comes from negative

thoughts about yourself. This is also based on criticism that attacks with

demeaning words so that it results in a decline self-confidence and cultivate

shameful thoughts from within.

c) Emotion Component

The emotions contained in feelings of shame include feelings of anxious,

angry, and disgusted with themselves. This is caused by negative thoughts on

himself and the inability to follow the existing standards of the environment.

d) Behavioral Components

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 Feelings of shame have a tendency to shy away from the surrounding

environment because there is an uncomfortable feeling arising from the low view

of others and feeling threatened in the environment.

The process of body shame can be formed because of the interaction and the

influence of the environment then the influence has an impact on the individual. These

impacts include:

a) Eating Disorder

Body shame is a cause of low self-esteem and is related to diet. A person tends to

make changes to his body by going on a diet to lose weight or consuming a lot of

food to gain weight. It can be said that the higher the level of body shame, the more

likely it is to make a significant contribution to eating behavior (Cahyani, 2018).

b) Affects Physical Health

Body shame not only affects eating disorders, but body shame has an effect on

one's health. There is a positive relationship between body shame and infection as

well as symptoms and infection of a disease caused by low body response and

judgment (Cahyani, 2018). When a person is experiencing body shame, there is a

tendency to be susceptible to disease because of a lack of attention to their health

condition.

c) Depression

In extreme situations, the observer's perspective on self may completely

replace a woman's own perspective on her body, this condition allows the individual

to experience a loss of self. When the loss of self condition continues, it can cause

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depression because it will increasingly take the observer's perspective on the self

(Damanik, 2018).

Depression can be experienced by someone because of a negative perspective

that continues to haunt a person. Lack of satisfaction with body shape or body

condition is a trigger for someone to experience depression. Depression is not only

experienced by women, but men can also experience depression, but not as much as

women.

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