The origin of the term ‘woman object’ can be traced back to the German philosopher Immanuel Kant, who wrote in his Lectures on Ethics (early 1760s to mid-1790s) that “sexual love is the object of the lover’s appetite”, indicating that “all motives for moral relations cease to function”. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy) In Kant’s view, “as soon as this appetite has been quenched, the person is put aside as a lemon which has been sucked dry”. The person then “becomes a thing and can be treated and used as can be used by everyone”.
as “a common theme of contemporary feminist theory” (Evangelia Papadaki, ‘The Sexual Object: From Kant to Contemporary Feminism’, Stringer nature), sexual objectification was central to the work of American lawyers and activists Catherine Mackinnon and Andrea Dworkin, whose 1983 anti-obscenity civil rights ordinance (Wikipedia) defined pornography as “a form of sexual discrimination and a violation of women’s civil rights”.
According to feminist theory, the link between sexual objectification and the objectification of women is based on power dynamics. Simply put, men occupy most of the positions of power and influence around the world, even in the 21st century. So, it is women who object. With this in mind, one would have thought that feminists would agree that ‘resisting objectification is essential for feminism because it is nothing less than reclaiming humanity’ (Dworkin, quoted in ‘Rohtha Narracity in Feminist Debates: Is It Being Objectified?’ swaddle) is not the case. Apparently, “some” feminists say that some forms of objectification “can be benign or even positive” – and that “many” women “experience a desire for empowerment”.
Whatever the case, in the absence of verified statistics that prove beyond a reasonable doubt that most women enjoy being objectified, my gut feeling is that they don’t. And I’m not a feminist – just a woman who has carved out a niche for herself in a male-dominated industry, while facing the stigma of unwanted attention from many of them. And a mother of three to boot.
Anyway, how many women have even heard of feminism? seriously? According to Christina Scharf (Some people can’t believe as much as some people want to believeThe BBC) – and her article only explores attitudes towards feminism in the US, UK and several European countries. What about the rest of the world?
As a woman, it is extraordinarily difficult to be taken seriously at a professional level in a male-dominated environment in which one is subjected to this ‘male gaze’. Very well minded. It’s scary to know that some men enjoy vapid thoughts while listening to someone’s input during a boardroom meeting.
After casually joining an online AI text-to-image community ‘art’ platform, she created a humorous box-ticking image for a client’s social media account and offered a creative outlet, bombarded with algorithm-generated images of over-the-top, unapologetically female figures of disturbing and individuality. To share this platform with the men who fly them and the people who dream of them is behaving. Complaining about it should be reprimanded by management. Against this background, then the temporary suspension came as a relief.
But I can’t bring myself to resume using the platform when the suspension ends (my subscription only expires in February 2026) – or leave the unpleasant experience behind me. AI text-to-image community ‘art’ platform must stop objectification and over-sexualization of women Together, they have become a formidable disease.