Juliana Bidadanure "Theorizing Trashification: In the Shadow of Objectification."

Trashification

Many contemporary political philosophers have been influenced by relational egalitarianism, which urges us to create communities where members can relate as equals, unmediated by rank and status. However, further progress is needed to develop the relational ideal beyond the somewhat opaque language of relations of equality. One way to advance this is by focusing on understanding our failure modes. We treat others as inferiors when we engage in infantilization, animalization, demonization, or objectification, for instance. In my presentation, I will theorize one inferiorizing mode of relating, which I call “trashification”—a form of objectification in which individuals are perceived as trash and treated accordingly. Since trash has negative value and must be discarded or hidden, trashification represents a particularly extreme form of objectification and should be singled out as such. By drawing on contemporary examples and using existing theories of objectification as a foundation, I develop an account of the uniqueness of trashification and illuminate its specific wrongness.