General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: For those women who think objectifying women as sex objects is OK [View all]yewberry
(6,530 posts)Objectification isn't about seeing someone as an object. At all.
The term refers to a subject-object relationship. The subject retains agency, the object is not afforded agency. Objectification is related to dehumanization in that it removes the burden of seeing the "other" as an individual, as a fully realized person with agency, from the subjective "self." It's like a psychological-cultural version of synecdoche, reducing a larger whole to a functional part, while erasing humanity.
People see people in a myriad of ways, changing from one moment to the next. When you have a fire, you will see a fireman as an object to put out the fire. When the fire is out and he is drinking coffee from a thermos, he magically is seen from a wider perspective as an individual. That is to be expected.
No. This analogy is not apt-- the firefighter never loses agency in this scenario. The firefighter is the agent; the fire is the object. The firefighter performs a function, but never loses capacity for free will or self-determination. Objectification is that: a person (the subject, the doer) seeing another (the object, the done-to) only in relation to the agency/expectations of the subject. The object is the thing that the subject acts upon.
Can you understand why it is difficult to accept being that thing?