objectification

[ uhb-jek-tuh-fi-key-shuhn ]

noun

1. the act or an instance of treating a person as an object or thing:

   The objectification of women in the media teaches girls that all they have to offer is their body and face, and they should expend all their effort on physical appearance.

2. the act or practice of regarding the natural world, or any part of it, solely as an inanimate object of study or exploitation with no intrinsic relationship to human beings:

   This scientific approach—the objectification of nature, an inability to look beyond its physical aspects—is what Thoreau was rebelling against during his sojourn at Walden Pond.

3. the act or practice of presenting an idea, feeling, or other abstraction as a concrete object that can be seen, touched, etc.:

   This approach to the material culture of clothing understands clothes in terms of their objectification of cultural values.

Other Words From

• de-ob·jec·ti·fi·ca·tion noun
• non·ob·jec·ti·fi·ca·tion noun
• self-ob·jec·ti·fi·ca·tion noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of objectification¹

objecti(fy) ( def ) + -fication ( def )

Example Sentences

In fact, some feminist critics have pointed to a long history of objectification in Star Trek.

From The Daily Beast

Of course, there is the past sexual harassment lawsuit and the general atmosphere of sexual objectification.

From The Daily Beast

The fact of the matter is that misogyny and objectification are commonplace in the entertainment industry.

From The Daily Beast

The objectification of women and girls in advertising is a serious problem.

From The Daily Beast

Appearance and objectification affect women comics disproportionately than their male counterparts.

From The Daily Beast

Schopenhauer conceived reality as Will which was driven to objectification by a sinful bent eternally existing in its nature.

From Project Gutenberg

Language is the medium through which objectification takes place.

From Project Gutenberg

And we have traveled the road familiar to many nursing scholars, the road of expertise in objectification and quantification.

From Project Gutenberg

Nor is it hard to find the ground of this survival in the sense of beauty of an objectification of feeling elsewhere extinct.

From Project Gutenberg

These circumstances prevent the ready objectification of our pleasure in the map itself.

From Project Gutenberg