Objectification vs. Empowerment: Is There a Difference?

It’s difficult to differentiate between the words “objectification” and “empowerment,” besides that one of the words is supposedly “bad” and the other is “good.” What one person sees as objectification can look like empowerment to another. Social commentators say that some women objectify themselves for empowerment and therefore make the two interchangeable. The question, therefore, is the definitions of these two words. Are they different, or do their meanings overlap?

In these cases, the power is not in the woman herself but in society, which is why this would be considered a form of objectification and not empowerment.

Although there are small differences between the two words, the differences are still very distinguishable. Keep in mind that the Merriam Webster dictionary defines objectification as “to treat as an object” and defines empowerment as “to promote the self-actualization [the process of fully developing and using one's abilities] or influence.” The thing that distinguishes between these two words is who has the power. If the person being being looked at, or sexualized, has the power, then that is a form of empowerment. However, if the person looking is in power, then that is a form of sexual objectification.

For instance, if a woman puts on “sexy” clothing and goes out in public and/or takes a selfie, then she is in power because she is the one who chose to put on the “sexy” clothing in the first place. She was completely willing in this situation. Therefore, this is a form of empowerment, not objectification.

This situation gets more complicated once we throw in factors such as beauty standards and respectability politics; these two factors can compel the woman to wear “sexy” clothing because she thinks she won’t be considered beautiful if she doesn’t wear said clothing or if a woman doesn’t wear said clothing because she doesn’t want to be objectified. In these cases, the power is not in the woman herself but in society, which is why this would be considered a form of objectification and not empowerment.

The backlash which resulted from a picture of Emma Watson in Vanity Fair serves as an example of a situation in which the line between objectification and empowerment blurred.

In the picture, she was wearing a small, loosely knitted cape that exposed the swell of her breasts. Social media users and even some media outlets criticised her, calling her a hypocrite and “not a real feminist.” Pret-a-Reporter even published a story on this, with the headline, “Is actress and feminist Emma Watson a hypocrite for going topless in Vanity Fair?” Emma Watson, who said she was “quietly stunned” by the backlash, said in response, “Feminism is not a stick with which to beat other women. It’s about freedom. It’s about liberation. It’s about equality. I really don’t know what my tits have to do with it.”

So was this objectification or empowerment? Using the aforementioned reasoning, we should ask ourselves who had power in the situation; did Emma Watson have power regarding how she was dressed, or did the photographer have the power? If we think about it, Watson was the one contracted for the photoshoot, and she had every right throughout the photoshoot to say she was uncomfortable with something. Even from her response to the backlash, it’s clear that she was proud of her photoshoot and was fine with her breasts showing. Therefore, it’s clear that it was Watson who had the power in this situation and that this was a moment of empowerment, not objectification.

Now that we can see the clear difference between these two words, before you judge a situation and immediately say it was objectification or empowerment, ask yourself this: who has the power?