objectification

1 the act of representing an abstraction as a physical thing

2 a concrete representation of an abstract idea or principle

English

Pronunciation

• /ɒbˌdʒɛkt.ɪ.fɪˈkeɪ.ʃʌn/

Noun

1. The process or manifestation of objectifying (something).

Objectification is the process by which people assign meaning to things, people, places, activities, (or, in the case of self-objectification, themselves), and thus become part of cultural constructions which inform and guide behavior. This term also refers to behavior in which one person treats another person as an object and not as a fellow human being with feelings and consciousness of his or her own, in other words as, as without agency. In this sense, it is a synonym of reification.

The terms also makes reference to sexual relations; in this context it refers to the reduction of a person solely to their sexual attributes, enacted by an emphasis upon their physical appearance, whilst deemphasising several of their other qualities, such as individual emotion and feeling. Sexual objectification may be enacted by either sex, but it is more commonly associated with an attitude of men towards women, and the term has been used by feminists in reference to the purported mass media portrayal of women as sex objects. As such, it is important within feminist and psychological theory.

See also

• Dehumanization
• Edward Said's Imagined geographies
• sexual objectification