My family divided people‘s worth according to their gender, skin color and age and, by a very early age, I knew where I fit into their value rating, second from the bottom. First off, by the age of five, I had decided that I was grateful to not be the "little black girl" and I was equally grateful to have blond hair and blue eyes. This gratitude came from both sides of my family. My mother’s family are racist, among other things, while my father’s side was German, which meant I knew and understood all about Hitler’s slaughter by the the time I was three. Thankfully, my mother and father were not outright racists, nor were either of them into purifying a people. They never taught me to hate based on color, religion or nationality, even if they themselves had been a bit conditioned. What my parents did believe, however, hurt me more than becoming a racist ever could. Both my parents instilled in me that woman are valued only for their sexuality. They taught this to me through exposure, subtlety or outright teachings. They also taught me that woman were incapable of rational thought, reasoning or any other sort of intellect, they were strickly emotional creatures. Instead, woman were neurotic, ditzy and stupid and therefore only valued in how they could serve men.

How a woman is seen and valued is a hot spot for me; like I said, it is at the center of my self concept. Its easy to verbalize my misgivings for what my parents thought regarding the intellectual ability of woman, though for a long time I believed, without hesitation, that I would never be capable of rational thought. My lack of confidence is probably a derivative of this notion that woman are incapable in the task of reasoning, combined with my mother’s ineptness at teaching me to be self-reliant. I think I struggle with personal autonomy in that, I was discouraged from any true self discovery; I was enabled to be and stay dependant; and I was taught that I was innately incapable of thinking for myself. As a young child, I believed that my only value would one day be assessed by how I looked and how I faired as a sexual servant, though I did not know it in a cognitive way; it was just one of those things you absorb like believing that the earth is round. I never stopped to question, though I rebelled with every fiber of my being. I became a "tom boy". At any rate, below is a "patchwork" of what I could find on the issue, written in a way that best suits my own feelings and experiences. It reflects my own subjective observations but, says it better than I am able to (my feelings do not translate into words well).


Objectification is the practice of treating a person or a group of people like an object. It is normally a form of prioritization where the needs and concerns of other individuals are ranked below the needs and concerns of the an other person or group of people. As such, objectification is rarely emotional in nature.Objectification is often associated with gender discrimination, as-in "objectification of women" which refers to the practice of treating women as domestic servants or as sexual property.

University of Chicago Professor Martha C. Nussbaum classified Objectification into the following categories:
•Instrumentality - Instrumentality is when a person is treated like a tool for another person's own purposes.
•Denial of autonomy - Denial of autonomy is when a person is denied the right to make decisions for themselves.
•Inertness - An Assumption of Inertness describes when a person is treated as if they lack the capacity to act for themselves.
•Ownership - Ownership describes a condition where one person is treated as if they are owned by, or is a slave to, the other person.
•Fungibility - Fungibility describes a condition where one person is treated as if they are dispensable or can be traded or di...

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