- the act or an instance of treating a person as an object or thing: The objectification of women in the media teaches girls that all they have to offer is their body and face, and they should expend all their effort on physical appearance.
- the act or practice of regarding the natural world, or any part of it, solely as an inanimate object of study or exploitation with no intrinsic relationship to human beings: This scientific approach—the objectification of nature, an inability to look beyond its physical aspects—is what Thoreau was rebelling against during his sojourn at Walden Pond.
- the act or practice of presenting an idea, feeling, or other abstraction as a concrete object that can be seen, touched, etc.: This approach to the material culture of clothing understands clothes in terms of their objectification of cultural values.
