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 discarded by another person.
•Violability - Violability describes a situation where a person is treated as if it is ok to hurt, or destroy them.
•Denial of subjectivity - Denial of subjectivity describes a condition where a person is treated as if there is no need to show concern for their feelings.

Acts of objectification typically enrich the perpetrator at the expense of the victim. Sexual objectification refers to the practice of regarding or treating another person merely as an instrument (object) towards one's sexual pleasure, and a sex object is a person who is regarded simply as an object of sexual gratification or who is sexually attractive. The objectification of women involves the act of disregarding the personal and intellectual abilities and capabilities of a female; and reducing a woman's worth or role in society to that of an instrument for the sexual pleasure that she can produce in the mind of another. Some feminists and psychologists argue that such objectification can lead to negative psychological effects including depression and hopelessness, and can give women negative self-images because of the belief that their intelligence and competence are currently not being, or will never be, acknowledged by society.

Objectification Theory is based on the principle that girls and women develop their primary view of their physical selves from observations of others. These observations can take place in the media or through personal experience. Through a blend of expected and actual exposure, females are socialized to objectify their own physical characteristics from a third person perception, which is identified as self-objectification. Women and girls develop an expected physical appearance for themselves, based on observations of others; and are aware that others are likely to observe as well. The sexual objectification and self objectification of women is believed to influence social gender roles and inequalities between the sexes.

Self-objectification can increase in elicit situations which heightens the awareness of an individual’s physical appearance. Here, the presence of a third person observer is enhanced. Therefore, when individuals know others are looking at them, or will be looking at them, they are more likely to care about their physical appearance. Examples of enhanced presence of an observer include the presence of an audience, camera, or other known observer.

[It is said that a] girls' understanding of the importance of appearance in society may contribute to feelings of fear, shame, and disgust that some experience during the transition from girlhood to womanhood because they sense that they are becoming more visible to society as sexual objects; and that young women are especially susceptible to objectification, as they are often taught that power, respect, and wealth can be derived from one's outward appearance.

Recently, sexual-objectification has been reported as a national epidemic. A society filled with people experiencing sexual objectification and self-objectification is considered to have low political efficacy. The minimal self-worth of citizens leads them to doubt themselves in having the ability to understand and influence political affairs. As people lose their political efficacy, they stop having motivation to participate in society, and the result could be a society void of any enthusiasm, intellect, or advancement, or only input from one ruling power. Low political efficacy, or self-worth, also gives rise to sexual violence and its acceptance by society. Dehumanization through objectification has historically been a first step in justifying violence against a specific people. Today, 1 in 6 women are rape survivors, however 27% of women whose sexual assault cases matched the legal definition of rape actually considered themselves rape victims. Statistics like these acceptance of sexual violence by both men and women due to objectification and low self-worth.

Feminists such as Ariel Levy contend that exploitation by Western women of their sexuality by, for example, wearing revealing clothing and engaging in lewd behavior, are forms of female self-objectification. While some women see such behaviour as a form of empowerment, critics contend that it has led to greater emphasis on a physical criterion or sexualization for women's perceived self worth, which Levy calls "raunch culture". Levy followed the camera crew from the Girls Gone Wild video series, and argues that contemporary America's sexualized culture not only objectifies women, it encourages women to objectify themselves. In today's culture, Levy writes, the idea of a woman participating in a wet T-shirt contest or being comfortable watching explicit pornography has become a symbol of feminist strength; she says that she was surprised at how many people, both men and women, working for programs such as Girls Gone Wild told her that this new "raunchy" culture marked not the downfall of feminism but its triumph, because it proved that U.S. women have become strong enough to express their sexuality publicly.

[On a personal note] If you have been the subject of objectification, you are probably familiar with the emotions of fear and anger. Anger comes from having your dignity and your rights violated by another person who has considered their own needs to be more important than yours. Fear comes from knowing that they may hold a certain amount of authority or influence. A secondary but perhaps more significant effect of being objectified is a loss of self-worth. Many of us derive a significant portion of our self-worth from the validation that comes from other people. This affects all victims of objectification but it is especially true of children.


[Note from me: Racism is Objectification. I you cannot understand how sexualizing woman may hurt a woman self concept then, understanding it through the context of racism may help.]

This entire thing is a copy/paste text ...
[b]Sources: [/b]
http://outofthefog.net/CommonBehaviors/Objectification.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_objectification

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I need to edit this. How do I do that?

There should be an edit button beside the title of your blog.

[quote="ladyswan"]There should be an edit button beside the title of your blog.[/quote]

I am new so ... but I swear there is no edit button. I am going to decide it doesn't need to be perfect. It's not going to receive a grade from a teacher TY

No edit button that I see. Oh well, It's not receiving a grade

Very interesting article. I look forward to hearing more about your personal experiences and how you think things tie in for you. I'm sorry to hear that your family was racist and that their views so heavily influenced the way you see yourself.

Check out the reply I gave you on the member's introduction thread also...

lol, I am so very new to this type of forum that I keep doing interesting things ^^^ like doing a double comment XD. I read the intro, thanks. The verdict is "I'm fine and understandably jaded" ... I am neurotic at the moment, actually but, I think I will be fine once my "Attachment Crisis" settles. ??? I am becoming more hopeful. The last 7 years have been a nightmare that came to a head this time last year.