General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: For those women who think objectifying women as sex objects is OK [View all]gollygee
(22,336 posts)Women are shown as objects all or almost all of the time in the media. They aren't very often shown as subjects. Men are generally shown as subjects, people who are doing something, have agency, and are autonomous, rather than being done to (or being done, as in "I'd do her."
Feminist Perspectives on Objectification
First published Wed Mar 10, 2010; substantive revision Tue Jun 28, 2011
Objectification is a notion central to feminist theory. It can be roughly defined as the seeing and/or treating a person, usually a woman, as an object. In this entry, the focus is primarily on sexual objectification, objectification occurring in the sexual realm. Martha Nussbaum (1995, 257) has identified seven features that are involved in the idea of treating a person as an object:
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.