What does objectifying mean?
Objectifying means treating a person, group, or aspect of identity as an object rather than as a human being with feelings, agency, and individual worth. In its most familiar use, the word describes behavior that turns people into objects of desire, possession, display, or control. Photographers, filmmakers, advertisers, and other media professionals may be accused of objectifying their subjects when their work presents people chiefly as bodies or symbols rather than as individuals. The term can also describe an intellectual practice: reducing a person or culture to a stereotype, a commodity, or a set of measurable properties. Objectifying is often discussed in connection with gender, race, disability, and unequal social power, but it can apply whenever human dignity is obscured by the treatment of people as things. The word is related to the noun objectification, which names the process or pattern itself.
verbTo treat a person, group, or aspect of someone's identity as an object rather than as a person with individual qualities and feelings. It can also mean to reduce something to a material or abstract object, often in a way that ignores its deeper significance.
- Treating a person or group as an object, especially as a thing to be used, desired, or displayed rather than understood as a person.
- Reducing a person, concept, or experience to a material, numerical, or purely objective form and thereby diminishing its human or emotional significance.
"The advertisement was criticized for objectifying women by presenting them as decorative objects rather than as individuals."
"The film was accused of objectifying its female characters through a series of gratuitous scenes."
"Reducing a culture to a few marketable stereotypes amounts to objectifying the people who belong to it."
To objectify a person is to treat them as a thing; the word names a subtle form of dehumanization that can hide inside ordinary images and language.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of objectifying
The word comes from objectify, formed from the noun object, ultimately from Latin obicere, meaning “to throw before” or “to place before.” The Latin root gave English words such as object, objective, and objection, all connected with something presented, perceived, or placed in contrast. Objectify developed in English during the 19th century with the sense of making something into an object; its modern use in describing the treatment of people became especially prominent in the 20th century.
Related word forms
How objectifying is actually used
The word is common in social, cultural, and ethical criticism, especially in discussions of media, advertising, gender, race, and power. It is generally negative, although some academic discussions use it neutrally when analyzing how people or concepts are represented as objects.