30 Examples of Reification

The reification it is the action of conceiving a person stripped of his subjectivity and of his particular characteristics to perceive him as an object or as a thing.

The concept of reification is used in different social Sciences and it is a central category in Marxism and feminism to describe the relationship between subjects and the functioning of society.

In Marxism, reification is the commodification of social relations within capitalism and produces that work, understood as an employment relationship, is perceived as alien and as an object (or thing) that can be sold, that is, exchanged for money.

In addition, as a consequence of the above, reification determines consciousness, that is, the relationship that subjects have with the world, since, being alienated, people perceive reality differently. fragmentary.

In feminism, objectification is understood as that representation of women in which only their physical qualities or their reproductive function without reference to their feelings or their attributes intellectuals.

This type of representation causes women to be perceived as objects and deprived of their subjectivity and is a form of symbolic violence that produces gender inequality.

• See also: Alienation

examples of objectification

Examples of reification in Marxism

1. A factory worker is conceived as an element of the production process without taking into account the traits that he possesses as a human being.
2. A worker who sells his labor power in exchange for wages.
3. An assembly line operator, since he is only aware of a part of the production process and not all of it.

Examples of reification in feminism

1. The advertisements that seek to highlight certain parts of the body of women.
2. TV shows that are mainly spoken by men and women take care of secondary tasks.
3. A beauty contest in which women are judged on their physical characteristics.

Reification as a figure of speech

Objectification is a rhetorical or literary figure in which a person is described or referred to as an object. For example: He dances as if he were a curtain in the wind.

Objectification usually has a pejorative use, because, in most cases, the objective is to denigrate the designated person. However, in other cases, this figure of speech can be used to highlight the positive characteristics of the subjects.

Examples of reification as a figure of speech

1. he was like a vaseIt was in the room as part of the set.
2. After the rain, he seemed a wet cloth.
3. He's of wood to play basketball.
4. She won't say anything, it's like a grave.
5. All the sailors were pieces essential for the proper functioning of the boat.
6. He is like a stone in a shoe.
7. His relatives were the stars that illuminated his life.
8. He was a box of surprises.
9. All employees are gears essential for this company to function as well as a machine.
10. The man was so terrifying a scarecrow.
11. From his words, one could guess that he was as cold as a glacier.
12. Marcos is a calculator, he can solve complex accounts very accurately.
13. Juan was very tall, he seemed a skyscraper if he compared it to his friends.
14. Peter is done of good wood.
15. The pedagogical theories of the 20th and 21st centuries stopped conceiving students as blank whiteboards.
16. The dog was exhausted and now he is sleeping like a trunk.
17. The king realized that his subject was a diamond in the rough.
18. The mountain guide oriented himself as well as a compass.
19. At the end of the novel, the reader realizes that the protagonist is a rotten apple.
20. Patricia was an encyclopedia, she knew almost everything they asked her.

Interactive test to practice

Follow with:

• Differences between socialism and capitalism
• Human Sciences
• Comparison
• Etopeia
• Personification

References

• Gonzlez Ramos, A. m. and Torrado Martin-Palomino, E. (2019). Objectification and commodification of women: technologies as an instrument of violence. Sociology and technoscience,9(1), 1-8. Available in: doi.org
• Gutierrez Santana, L. (2019). Depersonification (reification) in anthroponyms of university students. Interpreters, 19, 125-151.
• Secia, O. (2009). Reification as the matrix of ideology in Lukács and his reformulation in Adorno's thought. V Conference of Young Researchers. Gino Germani Research Institute, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires.