‘Objectify’ Doesn’t Mean “Attracted To”
It’s OK to find someone sexy; it’s not OK to view them as a thing
It’s come to my attention that many men don’t seem to understand what the term objectify means. They often seem to be under the impression that this is a synonym for be attracted to or find sexy, but this is not what it means — not at all.
Objectify literally means to view someone (and treat them) like they are an object (and not a person). It’s the difference between loving your girlfriend in that hot little dress (while also loving her heart and her mind) and treating someone like a piece of meat, there for the sole purpose of making you salivate or to satiate your desires.
According to the Cambridge Dictionary, objectify means: to treat a person like a tool or toy, as if they had no feelings, opinions, or rights of their own.
Unfortunately, in American (and many other) cultures, guys are often messaged to view women and girls in this way — as if they were commodities — on earth for their pleasure and enjoyment and not fellow human beings. Media and marketing certainly contribute to this but in patriarchies, boys are taught not only that men and women are almost a different species from each other, but that males are people — the normative citizens — and girls and women are some sort of…
