I suspect that the ick reaction being labeled “objectification” actually has more to do with the sense that the speaker is addressing a closed group that doesn’t include you.
It would seem more accurate to say there are two seperate phenomenon. Using male-gender only pronouns or male-centered examples and hypotheticals doesn’t seem to objectify so much as it seems to exclude.
Objectifying, as you allude to, is more related to Kant’s good old categorical imperative of treating people as ends and not means. Statements that women (or sex with women) are goods to be obtained, like a nice car, seems to be the issue. That is, treating women without any respect for their utility (or humanity) seems to be the problem called “objectifying,” and it seems different from “excluding.”
It would seem more accurate to say there are two seperate phenomenon. Using male-gender only pronouns or male-centered examples and hypotheticals doesn’t seem to objectify so much as it seems to exclude.
Objectifying, as you allude to, is more related to Kant’s good old categorical imperative of treating people as ends and not means. Statements that women (or sex with women) are goods to be obtained, like a nice car, seems to be the issue. That is, treating women without any respect for their utility (or humanity) seems to be the problem called “objectifying,” and it seems different from “excluding.”