Otherization, Objectification, Demonization and The Making of Oppression
Oppression rarely begins with overt acts of violence, discrimination, or the systematic denial of people’s rights. These are often the visible manifestations of a much deeper process, one that takes shape gradually through the ways we perceive, categorize, and relate to other human beings. It is worth emphasizing that oppression is not simply an isolated act or an unfortunate social condition. It is often the end stage of a process involving at least three interconnected stages: otherization, objectification, and demonization. Understanding these stages is essential if we are to recognize how oppression emerges, becomes normalized, and eventually finds moral and ideological justification.
The first stage is otherization. By this, I mean the process of categorizing certain individuals or groups as fundamentally different from those we identify with. It involves creating a distinction between us and them, while refusing to recognize the deeper connections and shared humanity that bind us together. Such divisions are often constructed around superficial or arbitrary differences, including skin colour, language, ethnicity, religion, culture, or geographical and political boundaries. Although differences between people and societies are real, the problem arises when these differences are exaggerated, instrumentalized, and used to establish an artificial separation between human beings.
Otherization is particularly dangerous because it gradually weakens our capacity for empathy and identification with those we have classified as different. Once we begin to see others primarily through the lens of their group identity, rather than as fellow human beings with experiences and needs similar to our own, it becomes easier to disregard their interests. We begin to lose sight of the fact that their joys, fears, vulnerabilities, aspirations, and fundamental needs are not essentially different from ours. In this sense, otherization represents the psychological and social groundwork upon which oppression is built.
The second stage is objectification. Once people have been designated as others, they become increasingly vulnerable to being treated as objects or instruments for serving the interests of those who regard themselves as the in-group. Their independent humanity gradually disappears from consideration. Their feelings, aspirations, needs, and experiences cease to command the same moral attention that we would ordinarily extend to ourselves or to those with whom we identify.
Objectification, therefore, involves more than simply using people for personal or collective advantage. It entails a fundamental disregard for their humanity and their status as individuals whose needs and interests matter in their own right. What we consider legitimate needs when it concerns us may suddenly become unimportant when it concerns them. Their suffering becomes easier to ignore, their aspirations easier to dismiss, and their well-being less deserving of consideration.
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We can see this dynamic in the exploitation of workers. Under certain economic arrangements, workers are treated primarily as instruments of production, valued according to their usefulness and productivity. Little consideration may be given to whether they have adequate housing, sufficient time for their families, opportunities for rest, or the emotional fulfilment that comes from love, affection, companionship, and meaningful human relationships. Their value becomes tied to what they can produce rather than who they are as human beings. Their needs matter only to the extent that satisfying those needs contributes to their usefulness.
A similar dynamic operates under patriarchy, where some men treat women merely as instruments for their own sexual satisfaction, without regard for their feelings, desires, autonomy, or broader well-being. In both cases, the humanity of the other is subordinated to the interests and gratification of the person or group exercising power.
The third stage is demonization. At this point, those who have been otherized and objectified are further portrayed as inferior, dangerous, threatening, undesirable, bad, or even evil. They are no longer simply people whose needs can be disregarded; they become people whose needs are considered undeserving of recognition. Indeed, their mistreatment may be presented as necessary, justified, or even morally responsible.
Demonization is particularly significant because it provides the ideological justification for oppression. It transforms indifference into hostility and exploitation into something that can be defended as legitimate. Once a group has been successfully portrayed as a threat, denying its members their rights or subjecting them to suffering can be rationalized as an act of self-defence, social protection, or the preservation of some supposedly superior interest. In this way, actions that would otherwise be recognized as deeply unjust become socially acceptable.
These three stages are interconnected, although they do not always unfold in a strictly linear fashion. Otherization creates the distance that makes objectification possible; objectification normalizes the disregard for people’s needs; and demonization provides the justification for denying those needs altogether. Together, they create the conditions in which oppression can flourish and sustain itself.
What makes this framework particularly important is that it shifts our attention from the visible manifestations of oppression to the processes that precede and enable them. We often recognize oppression only when it becomes extreme: when people are exploited, excluded, humiliated, deprived of their rights, or subjected to violence. Yet, by the time such practices become widespread or institutionally entrenched, much of the psychological and ideological groundwork has already been laid.
The implication is that resisting oppression must begin much earlier. We must challenge the tendency to divide humanity into supposedly separate categories of people whose interests, needs, and dignity matter differently. We must resist every attempt to reduce human beings to instruments for satisfying the interests of others. And we must be especially vigilant against narratives that portray certain groups as inherently dangerous or undeserving of compassion.
Ultimately, the struggle against oppression is also a struggle to preserve our capacity to recognize one another’s humanity. It requires us to see beyond artificial divisions, acknowledge our interconnectedness, and affirm that the needs, feelings, and dignity of others matter just as much as our own. By the time oppression becomes visible in its most extreme forms, the process that makes it possible may already be deeply established. To confront oppression effectively, therefore, we must challenge it at its roots: in otherization, before it develops into objectification and demonization.
