Objectify

Objectify is a verb meaning to treat someone or something as an object, removing or denying its personhood or subjectivity. In sociology and feminist theory, objectification refers to the process by which a person is reduced to an object for use or pleasure by others. It is considered a form of dehumanization and is discussed in the contexts of gender, sexuality, media representation, and power relations. Discussions distinguish objectification (perceiving or presenting someone as an object) from objectifying behavior (acting in ways that treat someone as an object). The concept is central to debates about consent, autonomy, and the impact of media and cultural norms on wellbeing.

Objectify (capital O) is also the name of a Java API for Google's Datastore, the NoSQL database used with Google App Engine and Google Cloud Platform. The Objectify library provides an object-mapping interface that lets developers map Java classes to datastore entities, manage keys and ids, and perform queries more conveniently than the lower-level Datastore API. It emphasizes simplicity, type safety, and performance optimizations such as caching, and supports common operations like save, load, and delete within a cohesive service layer.

As a term, objectify covers ethical, social, and cultural dimensions; as a software term, Objectify is a tool for developers working with Google Datastore. See also dehumanization; objectification in media; Google Cloud Datastore; App Engine; object-relational mapping.