Objectification
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Objectification is the process by which people assign meaning to things, people, places, activities, (or, in the case of self-objectification, themselves), and thus become part of cultural constructions which inform and guide behavior. This term also refers to behavior in which one person treats another person as an object and not as a fellow human being with feelings and consciousness of his or her own, in other words as, as without agency. In this sense, it is a synonym of reification. In the relations of sex and family objectification generally referred as suppression on women by men.
The term has been used by feminists in reference to the mass media purported portrayal of women as sex objects.