Objectification

[angearia]

So I'm currently taking a Feminist Political Theory course at my university and I wanted to share this bit on objectification by Martha Nussbaum, simply because it articulates nuances involved in the act of objectification (a word which, when used often enough in feminist discourse, begins to lose meaning, becoming a sort of blanket descriptor losing sense of specificity).


Seven Ways to Treat a Person as a Thing

1. Instrumentality: The objectifier treats the object as a tool of his or her purposes.
2. Denial of Autonomy: The objectifier treats the object as lacking in autonomy and self-determination.
3. Inertness: The objectifier treats the object as lacking in agency, and perhaps also activity.
4. Fungibility: The objectifier treats the object as interchangeable (a) with other objects of the same type, and/or (b) with objects of other types.
5. Violability: The objectifier treats the object as lacking in boundary-integrity, as something that is permissible to break up, smash, or break into.
6. Ownership: The objectifier treats the object as something that is owned by another, can be bought or sold, etc.
7. Denial of Subjectivity: The objectifier treats the object as something whose experience and feelings (if any) need not be taken into account.

Cue many thoughts about Elena Gilbert on The Vampire Diaries.