Objectification as negotiation: reexamining the agency of targets

Why and under what conditions do individuals participate in their own physical objectification? Literature across disciplines acknowledges such conditions exist but has limited capacity to specify when and how a person might participate in her own objectification. This article argues that a target of objectification, under certain conditions, can accept objectification in pursuit of another goal. This conception is counterintuitive given that existing approaches sometimes treat the targets of objectification as lacking agency. However, by obscuring this agency such accounts further the same objectification they highlight as problematic. This article offers a positive model of objectified targets’ agency. This model, called “Negotiated Objectification,” serves as an analytical tool that scholars can leverage in feminist academic debates over objectification. The utility of the model is illustrated using three examples: FEMEN’s topless protests; the politics of the Muslim headscarf; and women’s body writing in support of the Israel Defense Forces. The article concludes by considering the implications of women’s agency in each case for debates over the role of agents under objectification.