When people talk about objectification they usually mean the kind where a man treats a woman as a lust-object. Many feminists stress how violent and damaging it is. But the problem with objectification is that it’s a bit too loosely defined. Officially it just means treating a person like an object.
Think back to your teens. Have you ever seen your teacher outside of your school, and was kind of shocked that they had a life of their own? This can also be said to be an effect of objectification. You didn’t think of your teacher as a full person, with their own wishes and dreams, but you thought of them as a teacher-thing. A person reduced to its function. A two-dimensional character in the story of your life.
In fact, when are you really aware of another person’s subjectivity? Of course theoretically I know that other people have the same wealth of inner life as I have, but the only times I really experience it is when they do something I didn’t expect them to. It’s a terribly anxious feeling usually. Think about when you’re in love, and you’re not sure if the other person feels the same way about you…
Some will say I’m just playing with semantics, but if objectification is only bad in a certain context, maybe the real bad guy is hiding somewhere in this context. Let’s flip the roles; would it be bad when a woman objectifies a man? Of course it wouldn’t, because she will probably not sexually harass said man because of it.
It’s usually assumed that objectification leads to harassment and other kinds of violence against women, but I don’t buy it. Harassment has nothing to do with sexual desire. A man doesn’t whistle at a woman because he hopes it will lead to sex somehow. He does it to put her in her place. He feels threatened by her sexuality and wants her to hide it, so he can feel safe and in control again.
Maarten Schumacher 