Objectification

In social philosophy, objectification is the act of treating a person as an object or a thing. It is part of dehumanization, the act of disavowing the humanity of others. Sexual objectification, the act of treating a person as a mere object of sexual desire, is a subset of objectification, as is self-objectification, the objectification of one's self. In Marxism, the objectification of social relationships is discussed as "reification". According to Martha Nussbaum, a person is objectified if one or more of the following properties are applied to them: Instrumentality – treating the person as a tool for another's purposes Denial of autonomy – treating the person as lacking in autonomy or self-determination Inertness – treating the person as lacking in agency or activity Fungibility – treating the person as interchangeable with (other) objects Violability – treating the person as lacking in boundary integrity and violable, "as something that it is permissible to break up, smash, break into." Ownership – treating the person as though they can be owned, bought, or sold (such as slavery) Denial of subjectivity – treating the person as though there is no need for concern for their experiences or feelings Rae Langton proposed three more properties to be added to Nussbaum's list: Reduction to body – the treatment of a person as identified with their body, or body parts Reduction to appearance – the treatment of a person primarily in terms of how they look, or how they appear to the senses Silencing – the treatment of a person as if they are silent, lacking the capacity to speak Nussbaum found people's understanding of objectification too simplistic to serve as a normative concept by which people evaluate the moral implications of sexualization of women. Thus, her project is to clarify the concept by testing out the 7 dimensions of objectification and distinguish between benign and harmful forms in different circumstances in relation to sex.