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A man does not have to call himself a feminist to treat women better than other people, and he does not need to worry about the issues that feminists make a big deal over either. For instance, one of those issues that feminists love to get all worked up about is the objectification of women, which is nothing more than the natural attraction instinct in all men. If men had not developed this instinct of being attracted to women based on their bodies, these feminists would not be alive today to complain about it.

I've searched on dictionary and find that "objectification" is "the act of treating people as if they are objects, without rights or feelings of their own", but I still don't understand the expression ""the objectification of women". Does it mean "what women find attractive in men"? (sorry because this topic can offend some people)

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  • This is a very complicated topic, but in simple terms, replace "people" with "women" in the dictionary definition. That should be a simple definition to use. Does that make sense? It does not mean "what women find attractive in men".
    – Em.
    Commented Nov 1, 2016 at 6:43
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    um, "the act of treating women as if they are objects, without rights or feelings of their own"
    – Alan Carmack
    Commented Nov 1, 2016 at 6:45
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    I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because the user did find out the meaning of the phrase, and yet feigns ignorance.
    – Mari-Lou A
    Commented Nov 1, 2016 at 18:24
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    @Mari-LouA I don't know if martin is "feigning" ignorance. It might just be he's confused about who is objectifying whom, or even what it means to "treat someone as an object". The concept itself might not translate well into his native language.
    – Andrew
    Commented Nov 1, 2016 at 19:08
  • @Andrew I'm not so sure, this question kinda reminds me of this one mentioned in meta not so long ago the question linked has since been deleted. Users with 10K rep can view it.
    – Mari-Lou A
    Commented Nov 1, 2016 at 19:21

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"The objectification of women" refers to the ways in which women are treated as non-human and sub-human by men. This is done by treating them as objects to be viewed by or used by men. The author of the passage says that the objectification of women is "nothing more than the natural attraction instinct in all men" by which he means that men instinctively view women as sex objects when men are attracted to women. The author misunderstands the term though, because he misses the idea that it is possible for a man to be attracted to a woman as a person who he would like to be with sexually, without treating her as nonhuman and using her exclusively for the purpose of his sexual gratification.

This is a rather political answer, but it gives a good view of why the term "objectification of women" was created, and what it means to feminists today.

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  • What about some other examples of how "objectify" can be used outside of the feminist context? That might help to clarify the objective (pun intended) meaning of the term.
    – Andrew
    Commented Nov 1, 2016 at 19:20

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