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Objectification Quotes

Browse 103 quotes about Objectification.

Objectification Quotes

“Moreover, some of the images covered by the definition go far beyond what can reasonably be considered pornographic. For example, "women's body parts . . . are exhibited such that women are reduced to those parts." This description would include everything from blue jean commercials which zoom in on women's asses to cream ads which show perfectly manicured hands applying the lotion-the sort of advertisements that have appeared in Ms. magazine. Although it is commonplace to criticize such ads for using sex to sell products, it is a real stretch to call them pornographic.”

FeminismPornographyPornObjectificationSexual Objectification
Book:XXX: A Woman's Right to Pornography
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“The brilliance of objectification as a strategy of dominance is that it gets the woman to take the initiative in her own degradation (having less freedom is degrading). The woman herself takes one kind of responsibility absolutely and thus commits herself to her own continuing inferiority: she polices her own body; she internalizes the demands of the dominant class and, in order to be fucked, she constructs her life around meeting those demands. It is the best system of colonialization on earth: she takes on the burden, the responsibility, of her own submission, her own objectification.”

FeminismObjectificationBeauty Standards
Book:Intercourse
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“In men, there is the familiar distinction between the Madonna on a pedestal and the lowlife whore, in the sense that they elevate the love object to unknown—and, above all, unattainable—heights. These are the super-conventional husbands who respect their wives. They often respect them so much that they become psychologically impotent. The shadow of the for-bidden mother covers the beloved in this cloak of respect, so that any sexual approach becomes impossible. However, this impotence wholly melts away, together with the respect, when such a man goes to a whore, either in his imagination or in reality. The pendulum swings the other way, because in this case the woman, in the figure of the whore, is humiliated just as much as the wife-mother is extolled. The dimension of lust appears here, inevitably accompanied by feelings of guilt. It is in this context that we come across the typical male fantasy, well known to every prostitute, of 'saving' a woman. A large number of her clients want to 'save' her from her ruin. They want to restore to her the status of being an object of love. In other words, they want her to become a wife-mother, which brings them back to respect, and completes the circle. Interestingly, in either case, whether he saves her or humiliates her, the power lies with the man. This in itself is a rewrite of the original mother-child scenario. His position has shifted from passive to active.”

SexRelationshipsPsychologyPedestalObjectificationProstituteMale Fantasy
Author:Paul Verheage
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“This, since junior school, had been virtually my only experience of women—as fantasy figures. Reading about women in fantasy novels had set me an even more unrealistic point of view. The Lord of the Rings doesn't help, with its sexless visions of elf maidens who may as well be speaking paintings, and neither does other fantasy literature, where women seem to exist solely to be rescued or slept with. The men they want are sorcerer-kings, doomed warriors or deadly assassins. I think the idea that women might fancy good-looking, well-adjusted men who are nice to them is too much for the average fantasy-head to bear.”

FantasyRape CultureObjectificationTolkienDungeons And Dragons2007Women In Literature
Book:The Elfish Gene: Dungeons, Dragons And Growing Up Strange
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“But the silent stranger could hardly have understood what was passing: she was a German who had not long been in Russia and knew not a word of Russian, and she seemed to be as stupid as she was handsome. She was a novelty and it had become a fashion to invite her to certain parties, sumptuously attired, with her hair dressed as though for a show, and to seat her in the drawing-room as a charming decoration, just as people sometimes borrow from their friends for a special occasion a picture, a statue, a vase, or a fire-screen.”

ForeignersBad TasteObjectificationObjectification Of WomenBourgeois Society1869
Book:The Idiot
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“Ella watched as he dismounted that bike, pretty sure those jeans had been painted on. Dear Lord that was a delicious hind view. "Stop it, you’re not supposed to objectify new people." She knew it was a man because that black t-shirt showcased tanned skin and work earned muscles. He had turned around, his profile to her, and she watched that helmet come off, sunlight bouncing off the visor briefly. "I’m gonna objectify the shit out of that." Ella would freely admit she was a jackhole.”

Contemporary RomanceRomance Book QuotesWestern RomanceFunny Book QuotesObjectification
Book:Ford's Edge: An Opposites Attract Ranch Romance
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“What you have now then is the marketing of racialized identities as tools for consumption. And certain racialized bodies and images are associated with hipness, coolness, edginess. So all kinds of youth all over the world are appropriating that style as a way of, sort of, countering authority, stating their rebelliousness, and wanting to be seen as significant.”

IdentityAppropriationObjectification
Book:Home Grown: engaged cultural criticism
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“Somewhere, I heard the phrase, ‘When money talks, no one checks the grammar.’ That’s what all this was about—money, money, and more money. For money, girls sacrificed their own lives; for money, they risked sexually transmitted diseases; for money, they were willing to step beyond their convictions. For money, the agency treated us like trash thrown on the street; for money, they were willing to risk our health, safety, and everything else, and for money, they had a few select girls they treated decently. It was never about people, morals, or decency.”

GreedExplorationSurvival InstinctSex WorkObjectificationPower DynamicsMoral DecayHuman Dignity QuotesSystematic Abuse
Book:ELIS: Irish call girl
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“The teaching of the sexual tantras all come down to one point. Although desire, of whatever shape or form, seeks completion, there is another kind of union than the one we imagine. In this union, achieved when the egocentric model of dualistic thinking is no longer dominant, we are not united with it, nor am I united with you, but we all just are. The movement from object to subject, as described in both Eastern meditation and modern psychotherapy, is training for this union, but its perception usually comes as a surprise, even when this shift is well under way. It is a kind of grace. The emphasis on sexual relations in the tantric teachings make it clear that the ecstatic surprise of orgasm is the best approximation of this grace.”

DesireRelationshipsGraceMeditationBuddhismTantraObjectificationDualistic Thinking
Book:Open to Desire: Embracing a Lust for Life - Insights from Buddhism and Psychotherapy
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“I think my husband loved me as a vessel. [...] He never took the time to discover my body, he never explored it for what it could offer aside from the obvious, he never found in me, in my essence, a purpose other than to carry children, and when I admitted I couldn’t do this for him he turned away from me. He had no more use for my limbs or my skin, my muscles or tongue or fingertips. He couldn’t even see me anymore.”

PainRelationshipsMarriageIdentityWomanhoodIntrospectiveGender RolesObjectificationEmotional NeglectLoss Of Self
Book:Wild Dark Shore
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“Objectification is a critical reason why an abuser tends to get worse over time. As his conscience adapts to one level of cruelty—or violence—he builds to the next. By depersonalizing his partner, the abuser protects himself from the natural human emotions of guilt and empathy, so that he can sleep at night with a clear conscience. He distances himself so far from her humanity that her feelings no longer count, or simply cease to exist. These walls tend to grow over time, so that after a few years in a relationship my clients can reach a point where they feel no more guilt over degrading or threatening their partners than you or I would feel after angrily kicking a stone in the driveway.”

AbuseObjectificationAbusive RelationshipsAbused WomenAbusive MenAbusive Partners
Book:Why Does He Do That? Inside the Minds of Angry and Controlling Men
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“Women incorporate the values of the male sexual objectifiers within themselves. Catharine MacKinnon calls this being "thingified" in the head (MacKinnon, 1989). They learn to treat their own bodies as objects separate from themselves. Bartky explains how this works: the wolf whistle sexually objectifies a woman from without with the result that, ``"The body which only a moment before I inhabited with such ease now floods my consciousness. I have been made into an object'' (Bartky, 1990, p. 27). She explains that it is not sufficient for a man simply to look at the woman secretly, he must make her aware of his looking with the whistle. She must, "be made to know that I am a 'nice piece of ass': I must be made to see myself as they see me'' (p. 27). The effect of such male policing behaviour is that, "Subject to the evaluating eye of the male connoisseur, women learn to evaluate themselves first and best'" (Bartky, 1990, p. 28). Women thus become alienated from their own bodies.”

BeautyObjectificationStreet HarassmentObjectification Of Women
Book:Beauty and Misogyny: Harmful Cultural Practices in the West
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“who is more barbaric? The alleged cannibalistic savages, who at least waited until their victims were dead before they cooked and ate them? Or the European slave traders who thrived on live meat, that is, the exploitation of these human 'animals'?”

ColonialismCannibalismObjectificationDehumanizationWhite Man S Burden
Book:Humans and Other Animals: Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Human-Animal Interactions
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“I refuse to have my vagina photographed because I have no interest in being desired on the basis of its appearance. It has taken me decades to appreciate its power and beauty, and not merely because it birthed a child. Responsive to tenderness and the source of a luminous ecstasy, my vagina has enabled me to transcend an otherwise limited sense of self. I feel no need to make it conform to another’s aesthetic or have it applauded by strangers.”

WomenPhotographyWomanhoodFemininityPornographyPornObjectificationReductionismVaginaSexual Organs
Author:Antonella Gambotto-Burke
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“Women are also property in our bible; adultery is a property crime in the Old Testament, not a sex crime.”

ReligionWomenMarriageHistoryBiblePropertyInequalityInfidelityAdulteryOld TestamentObjectificationPersonhoodObjectification Of Women
Book:When You Ride Alone You Ride with Bin Laden: What the Government Should be Telling Us to Help Fight the War on Terrorism
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“Communism... is the genuine resolution of the antagonism between man and nature and between man and man; it is the true resolution of the conflict between existence and essence, objectification and self-affirmation, freedom and necessity, individual and species. It is the riddle of history solved and knows itself as the solution.”

KnowsMenSelfIndividualExistenceConflictSolutionsEssenceSpeciesGenuineCommunismResolutionAffirmationRiddleAntagonismObjectificationMan And NatureSelf Affirmation
Book:Marx: Selected Writings
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“Objectification is a critical reason why an abuser tends to get worse over time. As his conscience adapts to one level of cruelty-he builds to the next. By depersonalizing his partner, the abuser protects himself from the natural human emotions of guilt and empathy, so that he can sleep at night with a clear conscience. He distances himself so far from her humanity that her feelings no longer count, or simply cease to exist.”

HumansReasonFeelingsNightHumanityNextNaturalSleepLevelsEmotionClearProtectEmpathyConscienceDistanceGuiltCriticalPartnersCeaseCrueltyReason WhyHuman EmotionsAbusersObjectificationClear Conscience
Author:Lundy Bancroft
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“Modern schools and universities push students into habits of depersonalized learning, alienation from nature and sexuality, obedience to hierarchy, fear of authority, self-objectification, and chilling competitiveness. These character traits are the essence of the twisted personality-type of modern industrialism. They are precisely the character traits needed to maintain a social system that is utterly out of touch with nature, sexuality and real human needs.”

NeedsHumansRealSelfCharacterSchoolSocialModernStudentsTypePersonalityNeededHabitAuthorityEssenceUniversitySexualityObedienceTraitsChillHierarchyTwistedAlienationHuman NeedsCompetitivenessSocial SystemsObjectificationReal HumanPersonality TypesCharacter Trait
Book:Witchcraft and the Gay counterculture: a radical view of Western civilization and some of the people it has tried to destroy
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“Don't forget that costumes, like dreams, are symbolic communication. Dreams teach us that a language for everything exists - for every object, every color worn, every clothing detail. Hence, costumes provide an aesthetic objectification that helps to tell the character's story.”

CharacterHelpingStoriesDreamLanguageForgetTeachObjectsColorCommunicationDetailsClothingsAestheticWornCostumesSymbolicObjectification
Book:Federico Fellini: Interviews
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“What it does remind us is that 'God' is not to be separated from the quest for the Kingdom of God and is not and cannot be the object of any detached 'scientific' contemplation. Heidegger's critique of onto-theology is also driving a wedge between speaking of God and the aims of science - not so as to get rid of God but rather to free God from a false objectification.”

DoeObjectsAimDrivingTheologyKingdomsContemplationQuestsKingdom Of GodCritiqueDetachedObjectificationWedgesHeidegger
Author:George Pattison
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“The objectification of females is not a good thing! Not every rapper does this, but when the lyrics focus solely on the strip club, 'poppin' bottles' and how many girls they can 'tap,' it distorts what kids are learning. I think if there was more of a female presence in hip hop we could break up the monotony. It's all about balance.”

IfsThinkingDoeKidsGirlBreakFocusBalanceFemaleGood ThingsHip HopClubsHipsHopsBottlesRapperMonotonyObjectification
Author:Queen Latifah
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“Meditation is the dissolution of thoughts in Eternal awareness or Pure consciousness without objectification, knowing without thinking, merging finitude in infinity.”

ThinkingMindConsciousnessKnowingMeditationAwarenessPureEternalConsciousYogaInfinityFiniteMeditatingDissolutionMeditation PracticeYoga PracticeConscious AwarenessObjectificationMergingMeditation MindMeditation MindfulnessInspiring YogaMeditation LifeFinitudeDaily MeditationAwareness Of LifeBody AwarenessDeep MeditationInspirational Meditation
Author:Voltaire
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“Evil is nothing but a word, an objectification where no objectification is necessary. Cast aside this notion of some external agency as the source of inconceivable inhumanity - the sad truth is our possession of an innate proclivity towards indifference, towards deliberate denial of mercy, towards disengaging all that is moral within us. But if that is too dire , let's call it evil. And paint it with fire and venom.”

IfsEvilMoralFireSourceTruth IsMercyPaintNotionCastsPossessionDenialIndifferenceAgencyDeliberateInnateInhumanityVenomObjectificationSad Truth
Author:Steven Erikson
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“The Conversation about women’s bodies exists largely outside of us, while it is also directed at and marketed to us, and used to define and control us. The Conversation about women happens everywhere, publicly and privately. We are described and detailed, our faces and bodies analyzed and picked apart, our worth ascertained and ascribed based on the reduction of personhood to simple physical objectification. Our voices, our personhood, our potential, and our accomplishments are regularly minimized and muted.”

BodyHappensFacesUsedVoiceSimpleConversationAccomplishmentReductionWomen's BodiesObjectificationPersonhood
Author:Ashley Judd
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