Sexual objectification cannot be performed with any attention to its ethical meaning.
Sexually addicted women rarely walk into a therapist’s office and self-identify as having an issue with sex. Instead, they tend to describe their problems as stemming from some other disorder (like depression), or, more generally, as some form of relationship trouble. This is likely caused at least in part by the fact that women, in comparison to men, face a greater degree of internal and external shaming related to their sexual behaviors. A man who compulsively masturbates and hooks up with anonymous sex partners will usually rather easily self-identify as a sex or porn addict if and when his sexual acting out causes negative life consequences. A woman seeking clinical help, on the other hand, even though she may masturbate and have anonymous sex just as often and just as compulsively as her male counterpart, is far less likely to self-identify as a sex or porn addict.
Task for Today
Think about the ways in which sexual shame tends to affect both women and men, and how your own sexual shame plays into your addiction.