So is objectification the problem? I don’t think so. I think people who see themselves as victims have that view for a number of reasons other than objectification. If objectification didn’t exist within our culture, there would be something else, another societal problem that would make people feel like victims because victimization occurs randomly, and it’s nearly impossible to know why anyone becomes a victim of whatever circumstance they’ve found themselves in. So objectification may only be one among many theories to explain why certain people have experienced horrible occurrences in their lives while other theories testing the veracity of the claim have yet to come forward.
In the meantime, let’s just acknowledge that all humans engage a bit in this roguish behavior and enjoy it. We’re going to, whether we think it’s right or not, and as long as we don’t take it too seriously, we can just relax and accept this as a part of our inheritance from the ages. There are enough things that drive a wedge between the sexes- let’s stop beating this one into the ground.
Ed/Pub:LisaM
Article comments
1 - Lisa McKay
I would suggest that there's a qualitative difference between benignly admiring someone's physical attractiveness and the process of objectification, which in essence depersonalizes the other. My personal preference would be a world where we strive to see each other as more human, not less so.
2 - The Searcher
"I have thought it proper to represent things as they are in real truth, rather than as they are imagined. Many have dreamed up republics and principalities which have never in truth been known to exist; the gulf between how one should live and how one does live is so wide that a man who neglects what is actually done for and what should be done learns the way to self-destruction rather than self-preservation. The fact is that a man who wants to act virtuously in every way necessarily comes to grief among so many who are not virtuous."
--Machiavelli