The Moralization of Women's Bodies

Women's bodies have long been subject to societal control. We examine a form of gender/sex bias that may be used to justify and maintain such control: the moralization of women's bodies. Across two studies with US samples (total N = 805), we show that people draw more strongly on morality when justifying their views about women's (vs. men's) autonomy over their bodies. Study 1 showed that a wide range of body-related behaviours were seen as more of a moral issue for women than for men—a pattern that was absent for behaviours unrelated to bodily autonomy. Study 2 focused on a context with more opposition to women's bodily autonomy (public toplessness) and showed that people drew more strongly on morality when justifying their opposition to women's, compared to men's, bodily autonomy. Exploratory analyses suggested that sexist beliefs may play an important role in such gendered moralization.