Course:WMST307: KeyWord Index:Nicole Wayara

Objectification

Objectification, specifically the objectification of bodies, is the notion that denotes the body as separate from humanity; it is seen as or treated as an object.[1] The objectification of bodies, particularly women's bodies, is propagated by the rape culture in which we live, which sexualizes, dehumanizes, and ultimately subjugates an identity (made manifest in the body) for the benefit of the objectifier.[2] An imbalance of power is crucial to objectification; the objectifier may have physical access or vision upon or into the objectified, whose worth or value is considered less than equal to the objectifier. A proliferation of images and messages that ameliorates the particular objectification of women's bodies is present in various media, from movies to music videos to magazine covers, where the gaze of the camera has the intent to sexualize, conflate individuals to singular objects, and remove intrinsic value as a human from the gazed upon. In the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Feminist Perspectives on Objectification quotes Martha Nussbaum (1995, 257) as having identified 7 key features of objectification:

• instrumentality: the treatment of a person as a tool for the objectifier's purposes;

• denial of autonomy: the treatment of a person as lacking in autonomy and self-determination;

• inertness: the treatment of a person as lacking in agency, and perhaps also in activity;

• fungibility: the treatment of a person as interchangeable with other objects;

• violability: the treatment of a person as lacking in boundary-integrity;

• ownership: the treatment of a person as something that is owned by another (can be bought or sold);

• denial of subjectivity: the treatment of a person as something whose experiences and feelings (if any) need not be taken into account.[3]

It should be also understood that objectification is a learned, cultural practice, and in practice it may appear innocent, without aggressive forms of power, and naturalized. These beliefs are common place and so widely accepted in institutionalized and systematic ways that laws and policies (from a microlevel to a federal level) are also in part propagators of the tenets of objectification as listed by Nussbaum.[4] Representations of masculinity in the media re-affirm this naturalized objectification and code it as normal, yet the intent of objectification is to dominate and appropriate, whether overtly or covertly, another individual and render them an object of consumption. Rape culture embraces and is dependent on the objectification of women and marks them as consumable, rapeable and non-agentic.

References

1. Papadaki, Evangelia (Lina). "Feminist Perspectives on Objectification." The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2012 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), forthcoming URL = <http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2012/entries/feminism-objectification/>
2. Szymanski, Dawn M., Lauren B. Moffitt & Erika R. Carr. "Sexual Objectification of Women: Advances to Theory and Research." The Counselling Psychologist 39.1 (2011):6-29. Web. 02 December 2012.

1. Papadaki, Evangelia (Lina). "Feminist Perspectives on Objectification." The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2012 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), forthcoming URL = <http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2012/entries/feminism-objectification/></ref

1. "Rape Culture." Force: Upsetting Rape Culture. n.p. n.d. Web. 1 Dec. 2012.