Objectification

Objectification is treating or representing a person primarily as an object, body, or instrument for others’ purposes, rather than as an autonomous subject.

Sexual objectification: The representation or treatment of a person primarily as a body or collection of body parts for sexual use or evaluation. It is a prominent form of objectification, especially in analyses of media and gender.
Immanuel Kant: An eighteenth-century German philosopher whose ethics grounds human dignity in rational agency. Kant’s humanity formulation condemns treating people merely as means.
Personhood: The status and qualities by which an entity is recognized as a person. Objectification disputes concern which features of personhood a representation or practice ignores.
Objectification theory: A feminist psychological theory linking sexual objectification to self-surveillance and related harms. It models one pathway from being viewed as a body to monitoring oneself from an observer’s perspective.
Subject–object problem: A philosophical problem concerning how knowing subjects relate to objects of knowledge and experience. Objectification sharpens this distinction when a person is positioned only as an object of another’s attention.
Dehumanization: The denial of full humanity to individuals or groups, often making harm against them seem acceptable. Objectifying someone can strip away perceived agency and make mistreatment easier to justify.
Kantian ethics: An ethical tradition based on duties and respect for persons as rational agents. Its distinction between using someone and treating them merely as a tool shapes objectification debates.
Autonomy: The capacity and right to govern oneself and make meaningful choices. Respect for autonomy marks a key alternative to treating people as objects.
Self-objectification: The internalization of an observer’s perspective on one’s body as a primary way of evaluating oneself. It describes a psychological consequence of recurring sexual objectification.
Recognition theory: A family of social and political theories about the need to acknowledge others as persons with standing and identity. Recognition offers a framework for understanding responses to objectifying denial of someone’s status.

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