ABSTRACT
As the last chapter demonstrated, the concept of objectification is closely connected with an implicit vilification and marginalization of the body, as well as a failure to recognize the intersubjectivity that marks the embodied human being. The challenge emanating from this critique is to develop a conceptual tool capable of illuminating the ethical wrongs and harms inherent in the various phenomena usually categorized under objectification while simultaneously recognizing the importance of the body and the other to the subjective self. In this chapter, I offer as an alternative to the concept of “objectification” the concept of “derivatization” to be understood within a context of recognition of sexual difference. As I present this alternative, and work through some examples that illustrate it, I will return insistently to two insights regarding the existing theories of objectification: 1) that they cannot account for the pleasure that can derive from being treated as a body, and thus make ethically problematic that which in fact appropriately enhances a flourishing sense of self; and 2) that their focus on what they consider to be ethically problematic conflations of the categories of “person” and “object” causes them to misdiagnose the ethical harms of phenomena that contribute to gender inequality.
