Love Beauty & Objectification

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

This class will take an interdisciplinary approach to addressing interconnected issues in feminist philosophy on the topics of love, beauty, and (sexual) objectification. Likely topics include (i) the nature of sexual objectification and its relationship to the phenomenon of dehumanization, (ii) objectifying and non-objectifying modes of "loving" others, with special attention to the role of empathy in this distinction, (iii) the idea that beauty norms function as global ethical ideals, (iv) the idea that norms of feminine bodily comportment are shaped both by the prevalence of sexual objectification and the threat of sexual assault, and (v) some of the consequences of various ways in which these different issues (especially iii and iv) are intertwined.