Objectification and Lust as Gender-based Violence Against Women

A White Paper Presented by Center for Peace, LLC

Coach Joi,  MAAC, BSMF, DVS, CAS, APSATS CPC, BCC, FLC, CRBP, CSMF 

Center for Peace, (CFP, LLC), 2026 

In this week’s post, Center for Peace presents a White Paper on Objectification and Lust as Gender-based Violence Against Women (CFP, 2026). This paper addresses the highly charged topic of male objectification of women from our positional stand, as well as the accumulation of field experience as a subject matter expert. This paper includes both social beliefs as well as science backing the social and human danger of this behavior. It is, at the very least, a plea for social reform for all men. 

“The objectification of women is a form of gender-based violence contributing to the psychological, emotional, financial, spiritual, social and often the very lives of women and children” (Coach Joi, 2026).

The Brain and Sexual Hyper-focused Thinking

The human brain is a prediction and reality construction network. This means that as human beings, we construct or build our brains uniquely and individually, through a process of our lived experience and meaning assigned to that experience.  

When one’s predictions and internal dialogue is saturated with sexual objectification, the brain develops a type of constructed existence based on highly charged patterns of thinking and visual stimuli. In addition to this built pattern of thinking and behaving, this hyperfocus puts a strain on the resources and systems of the body that the brain works to manage and keep in balance. 

Furthermore, as human emotion and meaning are not hardwired, or inherent in experience, they are constructed by the individual based on their assessment, understanding and meaning. One’s personal emotions are not an out of control, reactive experience. We construct emotion along the same network as thought. Thus, we have more control over these processes, regardless of other stated or implied ideologies, models or purported theory. 

Human beings can, and often do misinterpret sensations, particularly those that are highly arousing. Without a corrective conscience, and a regard for human dignity, the high-stakes states, built through the frequent accumulation of objectification and other sexually-driven stimuli, can lead to a multiplicity of human error of thought and behavior, as well as harm to others. 

“Cognitive Rape©” (Coach Joi, CFP 2018) – A More Accurate Description of the Behavior

A Plea to All Men!

To think any other way about the objectification/lust (“Cognitive Rape©”) by a man of a woman, minimizes the impact on her human value and the capacity and value of men.

Regardless of how men are raised, intentionally or unintentionally by spoken and unspoken messaging, it is an act of violence when men take virtue, safety and freedom from women without her consent by objectifying them. 

It is NOT innocent.

Lust is very different from the simple attraction humans have for one another. Attraction stems from a value-based appreciation for others. It does not take, use or consume for personal stimulation and gratification. 

When men deviate from care of and for women, believing they are ‘just wired differently,’  they have bought into the lies perpetuated by the sex industrial complex

This principle applies to your wife. 

It is not admiration, love or any other twistification of truth men attempt to convince themselves of when they use their wife for their own personal gratification – without her knowledge and consent.

Regardless of how men are taught, either from a young age, or by other men, there is no approved means whereby men look at a woman with the type of disrespect and dirty-mindedness that is embedded in objectification that produces and regard for his life partner. This is far from innocent and harmless. In fact, it is to live beneath the value and privilege of manhood. It is to assault a woman.

Full stop. 

Objectifying women is not some brotherhood or manly connection building experience despite the inappropriate way men may suggest when discussing this egregious behavior. 

Humor about something so serious and violating towards women does not make any man a good man. 

This inappropriate behavior is generated by one’s deeply held “male-permission-giving beliefs©” (CFP) that lead to  exploitation and violence towards women. It is not a loss of control, bad habit or practice that is difficult for men to control. Those types of narratives are the basis of these permission-giving, self-deceiving lies that generate this type of human violation.

To think that men consider this a right shows how careless they are about the consumption of someone else’s body – without the owner’s consent.

Furthermore, men who believe they are creating a bonding connection with other men who engage in, or find humor in the objectification of women – for other men’s approval are misguided at best and perverted thieves at the worst. This language is strong so that those of you who have not taken the personal responsibility to consider more seriously this habit and the out of line beliefs that promote this behavior – will more appropriately and accurately consider the impact to women. No behavior that is solely for one’s amusement or personal pleasure should ever take place at the cost of human dignity and pro-social attributes.

*Yes, we are including children due to the unfortunate fact that many men objectify young girls and boys as well as women. 

Listen carefully to this message, you are not good men when you violate women. You are emasculating yourselves via an affront to the dignity of women. You rob women of safety with these perceived rights men believe they possess. 

In addition to what has been stated thus far, there are many men who view this practice as a component of their male identity.  “If your identity is founded in permission giving beliefs of cognitive rape – you should question what you attach your identity to – and make more appropriate adjustments to your identity formation” (Coach Joi). 

Failure to confront objectification as sexual and gender-based violence is to imply – as a whole – that men have rights above women’s rights. These scripts need to be confronted. No truth is embedded in a permission-giving narrative of this sort. It is a lie. It is supported by men, who put their interests above the respect and dignity of others. 

No matter what you believe about this practice – it is abuse!  

It is not normal, neutral or harmless. 

There is a sacred bond that is established between men and women when the two join in a co-building, life-giving relationship. This bond is not built on lust and objectification. It is cultivated by the deeply wired, spiritual connection of dignity and regard for one another. 

Love is not consumption and objectification. It is not indulgence in your sexual mental story-telling. 

When you defend this abhorrent behavior you make a bold statement to the world that you are a human with low-character.

There is no right, birth-right, male right, or belief that you deserve more – so you can leverage, extort, assault or rape – as a right. Despite the long-held patently false lie that it is ‘just in your head and harmless.’

There is no male paycheck for what men contribute to the world from which men can assume a higher, more advantageous metric than women’s contributions. That notion is archaic and misogynistic in nature. To assume this position because of your sex is what has led to the loss of countless lives and the destruction of families across the world. 

There isn’t a single truthful narrative that affords men the right to ‘just look.’  That type of looking is violent to women and children. What men contribute to the world does not grant you free access to women –  visual or otherwise.

Objectification is not a harmless practice. The habitual, base violation changes your cognitive framing of women – and your relation and value to and with one another. It alters the energy of men, and the way that energy is exchanged to or with others.

Seeking visual gratification creates a constant flow of sexual energy traffic in your mind. It is akin to rumination. This self-constructed hyper focus is damaging to your mind. It becomes a practice that may be difficult to reign in due to the constant feeding of these false scripts.

Hyperfocus with sexual energy builds tension that can lead to anger and aggression. It shows up in relationships, in human interactions, in the devaluing and disrespect of women, in the lack of love for your wife, and even to your daughters and mother. It builds an endless loop of resentment towards women – something no woman can (or should be expected) fix or ease for you. 

It’s critical to understand that two opposing beliefs will create tension and pressure in the mind that comes out sideways. You can believe you love your wife, but objectifying women, while out in public with her, is not unnoticed by your mental constructions – nor is it going unnoticed by your wife and the women whose virtue you steal like a deranged thief of human rights. 

Building and giving credit to a belief that something is harmless, that men have a right to do this, is one of the greatest self-deceptive practices of the male mind.

Women feel the dishonesty that you will fiercely defend as non-existent.

This discussion is not just an ethical or moral debate. These are facts, regardless of your acceptance or resistance to them. Human souls matter. Sex and intimacy are powerful gifts we share as humans. We will not survive as a people with the minimization of sex as recreation and body exchanges. The carnal desires  that drive deviant humans is not intimacy – it is marketing and media.

Connection is in the building of a trusted and valued partnership, not in physical or visual lust.

When you learn to control the scripts in your mind, you will find that you are a more safe male human, more able to build a safe world for the women with which you co-habit this planet. 

You can stop this – all men can stop it. 

It will take all men stopping to make this world safe for women – and children. Our whole social structure as a people depends on this change

Authoritative Summary

Objectification—the reduction of a person to their body, body parts, or sexual function—operates not merely as a cultural norm but as a structural form of gendered violence. When men objectify women, they participate in a social process that diminishes women’s humanity, agency, and subjectivity. This white paper positions male-perpetrated objectification of women as a social, psychological, and neurological problem with consequences that extend far beyond individual attitudes, shaping institutions, relationships, and public life.

From advertising and entertainment to pornography and algorithm-driven social media feeds, industries normalize the depiction of women as consumables. Major film and media production ecosystems and social platforms distribute visual narratives in which female characters are fragmented, sexualized, and evaluated primarily for attractiveness. These portrayals both reflect and reinforce a broader cultural script: women exist to be seen, judged, desired, used, and then discarded – all for male amusement.

Objectification as Violence

Objectification functions as a precursor and facilitator to all gender-based violence. When women are perceived as objects rather than full persons, human regard decreases and moral concern is destroyed within that perpetrating individual. Social psychology research demonstrates that perceiving others in objectified ways reduces attribution of mental states and emotional depth—mechanisms that can lower inhibitions against harassment, coercion, and assault. In this sense, objectification is not only symbolic harm; it alters the cognitive framing through which women are treated.

Men’s participation in objectifying behaviors—through commentary, consumption patterns, workplace discrimination, and digital harassment— sustains the very systems men turn to for permission to normalize gender-based aggression. Catcalling, non-consensual image sharing, sexualized workplace evaluation, and coercive relational dynamics are not isolated incidents but manifestations of the same underlying reduction of women to instruments of male gratification or status.

Psychological Consequences

For women, repeated exposure to objectification contributes to self-objectification, body surveillance, anxiety, eating disorders, depression, and diminished cognitive performance under evaluative pressure. Internalizing the male gaze reshapes identity formation and self-worth.

For men, habitual objectification can also produce psychological distortions. It reinforces entitlement scripts, narrows relational capacity, and conditions sexual arousal to depersonalized cues. Over time, this can impair intimacy in live human relationships, perpetuating cycles of dissatisfaction and dominance-based interaction.

Neurological Mechanisms

Neuroscience findings suggest that when the brain is consistently in states of high-arousal or “hyper-focused” on a singular constructed belief, it puts strain on the body’s resources. If this continues long enough, as in the continual objectificational ‘watching’ of women in person or via digital viewing, this strain on the metabolic stability of the mind, coupled with the predictive expression of the experience creates patterns of activation in neural networks linked to social cognition and mental state attribution. When repeated, such patterns may strengthen associative pathways that pair women’s bodies with consumption and reward rather than reciprocity and respect.

Additionally, cultural reinforcement—through “likes,” shares, and peer validation — engages these neural pathways, further reinforcing the communication actions between the brain and body, normalizing behaviors that detach sexual interest from respect and consent.

Institutional and Technological Drivers

Digital platforms amplify objectification through algorithms that privilege visual engagement and sexualized content. Influencer economies and targeted advertising monetize female appearance, embedding objectification into market logic. Entertainment industries, fashion sectors, and online pornography ecosystems further industrialize the commodification of women’s bodies.

Without structural accountability, these systems transform private attitudes into scalable cultural norms.

Implications for Policy and Practice

Addressing male-perpetrated objectification as a form of gender-based violence requires coordinated interventions:

• Expanding research that links objectification to aggression and harm-causing behavior patterns.
• Integrating consent education and critical media literacy into early schooling.
• Encouraging media producers to diversify portrayals of women beyond sexualized tropes.
• Promoting platform design reforms that reduce algorithmic amplification of degrading content.
• Supporting therapeutic frameworks that help men develop relational regard and dismantle entitlement-based scripts.

Conclusion

Male objectification of women is not a trivial byproduct of attraction or aesthetics; it is a systemic process that reshapes perception, weakens human regard, and sustains environments in which gender-based violence becomes more likely. Confronting this issue demands reframing objectification as a structural harm embedded in culture, commerce, and cognition.

Only by recognizing the connection to violence, and to the degradation of both women and men, will we – as a human society – move toward models of sexuality and social interaction grounded in mutual recognition, dignity, and equality.

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The objectification of women is a form of gender-based violence contributing to the psychological, emotional, financial, spiritual, social and often the very lives of women and children.  Coach Joi  Center for Peace (CFP); 2026; https://cenfp.org