Lizzy Holt (UCL) - 2021-22 Students
lizzy.holt@hotmail.com

Sex, Objectification, and Structural Injustice

The term ‘objectification’ is often used to criticise some objectionable part of our world, as evident in certain strands of feminist theory and political discourse. My research asks: what kind of criticism does the term ‘objectification’ make? Taking inspiration from social and feminist theory, I argue that we should understand objectification as a social-structural process, against the dominant philosophical idea that ‘objectification’ refers to individual acts of treating persons like mere objects. I then consider how taking the force of structural injustice within our sex lives seriously raises urgent questions surrounding the aptness of persistent consent-centricity within our moral theorising surrounding sex, the relationship between individual sexual agency and structural injustice, and the regulation of intimacy.