The Objectification of Women and Nature

Abstract

Dehumanization as a terror management defense is especially prone to impact attitudes and behaviors toward women. A compelling body of evidence demonstrates that reminders of feminine reproductive functions, including menstruation, lactation, and pregnancy, are typically associated with nature. Reminders of the creaturely aspects of women and thoughts about nature tend to trigger anxieties about death and dying. As a result, the animalistic or mechanistic objectification of women serves a terror management function. Animalistic objectification reduces the woman to an object that is less than human, whereas mechanistic objectification idealizes the feminine body as a means to suppress creaturely aspects of feminine reproduction that are experienced as threatening. Objectification can take on various forms, which are explored systematically.