What is Objectification?

Simone de Beauvoir, known for her work in Existential philosophy, is notable for her feminist accounts in understanding how a woman comes to identify herself with her bodily being, based on the gaze of the Other. She claims a woman considers her body as “an object destined for another” rather than her own.

As a result, she undergoes a covert process of objectification by identifying the entirety of who she is by only her body. In other words, she views herself as a sexual object that exists for other people, through the Other’s eyes over her own.

De Beauvoir is ambiguous to what this Other represents. Many have taken it to be the male gaze, where a man sexually objectifies a woman by perceiving her as a means for his sexual gratification. Or it could mean advertisements and beauty publications, latching onto bodily insecurities in women creating false needs to moderate her appearance with cosmetic products.

Fundamentally, the point is this perspective from the Other becomes part of the woman’s consciousness and exists alongside her sense of self, so much so she becomes interested in satisfying the expectations of an abstract male connoisseur by moderating her appearance, than satisfying her own personal needs. As Bartky, another feminist philosopher elaborating on de Beauvoir’s account, writes:

“The objectifier and the objectified can be one and the same person: a woman can become a sex object for herself, taking toward her own person the attitude of a man.”

De Beauvoir seeks to explain why some women feel a sense of gratification by objectifying themselves — by investing too much time in moderating their appearance for the sake of satisfying this Other, and in some cases, being entirely unaware it is happening.

But I believe this process of objectification is not exclusive towards women, and anyone can be objectified. It is generally a process where someone perceives another as an object to be used for an ulterior end, like using someone for money. It isolates a particular characteristic of someone, and overwrites everything else which crucially makes them who they are.

She is no longer Cassandra, but an attractive barista. He is not James, but a homeless black guy. Though it comes at different severities, objectifying human beings denies them their humanity, and views them instead as objects.

But if someone begins to view themselves through the eyes of an Other, they often completely identify themselves with how this Otherly perspective perceives them, rather than defining themselves according to their own convictions.

After all, if other people continue perceiving you in a particular way, then eventually you may come to believe that you are what they take you to be — an object.