• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.79-90
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• 2004

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between social perception reflected in product advertisement and consumerism toward commodification of sex among college students. Subjects of this study were 1,100 college students in the Daegu metropolitan areas. Social perceptions were assessed by questions such as attitudes toward beauty contests, degree of commodification of sex in product advertisements and buying patterns. Consumerism was assessed by the Korean Featherstone version of consumer culture. Major findings of this study were as follows: a significant difference in the social perception of commodification of sex was found between male and female college students, showing that female students were more negative toward commodification of sex than male students. Higher scores were found for consumerism when subjects had higher perceptions for commodification of sex. Hence, the degree of commodification of sex was positively related to the degree of consumerism. In conclusion, consumerism enforced commodification of sex among college students, resulting negative effects on the sex culture in general.