A term originally associated with 19th century German philosophy, especially that of Hegel, in which the positive action of a person (the Subject/actor) transformed that which was acted upon (the Object/thing acted upon). 20th century radicals subsequently referred to cultures or peoples who were exploited, sexualized or romanticized in by Westerners as being "Objectified" in and by Western culture, rather than understood has having their own identities and agency.
Tunisian novelist Albert Menni's "The Colonizer and the Colonized" is one of the best books about how the European conquest of North Africa objectified Arabs and their culture.
