objectification

American  

[uhb-jek-tuh-fi-key-shuhn] / əbˌdʒɛk tə fɪˈkeɪ ʃən /

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.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• self-objectification
  noun
• nonobjectification
  noun
• de-objectification
  noun

Etymology

Origin of objectification

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

Explanation

Objectification is when a person is treated as a thing or an idea is represented by a concrete object. An artist might use objectification when she paints a tree that represents "nature" or a bird that stands for "freedom." When you take a vague, abstract concept like "love" and give it a solid form (especially in a work of art or writing), you objectify it — that's objectification. A different kind of objectification happens when people treat others like objects, or as nothing more than their physical bodies: "The objectification of women in music videos — using them as props — is one of the least appealing things about the music industry."

Example Sentences

She added: "These AI images don't appear from nowhere – they're built from real disabled people's images, often without consent – and unmoderated comment threads turbocharge objectification and harassment."

From BBC • Feb. 26, 2026

This adoration necessitated objectification, and from the 1970s onward, Updike’s fiction came in for a good deal of feminist scorn.

From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 10, 2025

Instead, “Companion” is content with being a rough draft of a movie about objectification, a lazy first pass that hopes its audience will mistake the insinuation of progressivism for the actual philosophy.

From Salon • Jan. 31, 2025

“There were moments and lines,” Kim says, “that startled me in how prescient Katherine had been about Asian American identity, objectification, desire and how all these things often get tangled up.”

From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 18, 2024

Meanwhile we can recognise this strife, this subjugation, just as well in the lower grades of the objectification of will.

From The World As Will And Idea (Vol. 1 of 3) by Schopenhauer, Arthur