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

Comments

[ever_neutral]

Ha. Yep. How useful. I'm pretty sure the Salvatores have fulfilled each of these at some point or other. RME.

[angearia]

Yeah, considering how the Salvabros are behaving, I thought it worthwhile to share some vocabulary on how to pinpoint and specifically define their shit.

[kudagirl]

Sounds like pure Klaus to me.

[angearia]

For serious. Poor Rebekah (and all his siblings, tbh). But especially Rebekah.

[red_satin_doll]

Oh thank you for this! I use the term "objectification" often enough but you're right it loses meaning - and it loses specificity. (Sort of like the book Frankenstein - we all think we've seen the movie or read the book, but a lot of us have just absorbed the tidbits of it floating around in pop culture, and the nuances are lost.)

I don't think I've ever seen it defined so precisely before?

Cue many thoughts about Elena Gilbert on The Vampire Diaries.

And cue many thoughts about Buffy (because that's where my head is right now.) You probably know that I don't consider those comics canon (AT ALL), but just going down this list I can think of one incident in S9 that is covered by every one of the seven definitions: the robot-body swap that Andrew pulls on Buffy. (And we're supposed to think it's/he's cute and forgiveable? Buffy forgives him? ("Are we ok now?") What the unholy fuck?

[angearia]

You're welcome! I thought it'd be useful fandom info. :D

Yeah, Buffy just as the Slayer called by the Council qualifies for all of these (barring inertness, since she's very active). But what Andrew does to her in Season 9 is gross and obscene in this context -- how can her rage over her Slayer subjugation (which arguably has some good sides to it) so utterly overwhelm what Andrew does to her? She just gets over it, barely even mad about it.

I mean, that's probably what broke me in the comics, and I used to be a big S8 comics fan (and still am, I guess). Because I could see the grossness being treated as grossness (for the most part). But Season 9 just sucks, tbh.

[mikeda]

just gets over it

On the other hand, the Scoobies have always tended to be very forgiving about each other's mistakes.

[angearia]

I think you'd have to seriously strain Buffy's characterization to put Andrew on the same level of intimacy as what she grants Willow, Xander, Dawn, and Giles.

For two, Andrew's demonstrated a pattern of violating women, all as part of being influenced by Warren. For Buffy to so easily forgive him means she's not taking action to prevent him from further victimizing women. The problem here being that she's so internalized responsibility for being victimized that she takes it on more as her fault, when in reality Andrew needs to first show that he understands all the myriad ways he violated her -- and he hasn't done that.

Thus, it came to easily. I expect Andrew to repeat his behavior, well-intentioned or selfish, all because he doesn't recognize the boundaries, he doesn't understand the ways in which he's transgressed.

[gillo]

Hmmm. Angel fits a remarkable number of these too.

[angearia]

Very much so.