So It Turns Out That I Am An Object?

While I can't exactly vouch for the credibility of this news outlet, I can say that this article on the sexual objectification of women caught my attention.

The gist of the article is that several studies have shown evidence that women are in fact viewed more as objects than men are.

Here's a little summary from one of the studies,

In her experiment, 83 students were shown pictures of human bodies. They were later shown pictures of the same bodies and pictures of parts of bodies. The result was that the subjects remembered women better when they were only shown parts of them, such as breasts or legs. They remembered men best when they saw their whole body a second time. The scientists concluded that people see women as they do inanimate objects: as linked individual parts.

So like I said before, I can't vouch for the credibility of this news source but more so, I can't vouch for the accuracy of these research findings.  What I do find interesting about this article and these supplemental studies is the fact that research is even being done on this particular topic. We can obviously agree then that this is an issue. Some of you may be rolling your eyes at my "Captain Obvious" approach here but you'd really be surprised at the amount of males and females alike who don't believe there is such a thing as "sexual objectification of women"

The broader question for me here is the effect of this research. If in fact these findings are true, what effect will it have on our population? Can you imagine the possibility of this objectification getting worse because people would say, "Well, it just is what it is. Apparently it's in our human nature to objectify women. Why fight it?"

The way I see it, research is done to answer questions and to hopefully help our society. I'm puzzled because these findings would do the opposite. I am skeptical to believe that objectifying women is just an "innate" thing. What do you all make of this finding?