sorry if I’m being kind of persistent about this topic — but to be more specific how do you know if their intent is to make you feel less human/feel more vulnerable ?
For example , my mom sort of acts like I’m her doll. She doesn’t out right say it but she feels the constant need to dress me up, baby me, or take care of me as a little girl would do to a Barbie
Or a person bringing me down because of more ‘taboo’ disorders (I’m unsure if this is intentional or not)
Gonna try and speedrun this because tumblr deleted my long response
Very short answer: they usually use specific wordings and words. Could also be infantizing.
Most situations it’s harder to tell. However with dehumanizing someone, they say what they do in a very specific way. Usually intentions don’t matter, it’s how it affects you.
For example, comparing someone to a bull versus saying they’re strong like a bull. They use extra words to make it a good thing. Strength is good. Being easy to anger and make act out? Not a good thing.
With the specific doll stuff you mentioned, it could also be infantizing. I’m not sure how much infantizing and dehumanization can be linked together. But feom how it’s described, it seems like she thinks you can’t dress or take care of yourself, which IS a form of infantizing. If she was also verbally comparing you to a doll, saying you’re fragile and almost made of porcelain, that is a form of dehumanizing.
I hope this made sense. Had a longer explanation but it deleted.
