Women's Objectification through Emotional Manipulation in Diary of an Oxygen Thief: A Feminist Literary Study
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.33603/perspective.v14i2.12942Keywords:
Emotional Manipulation, Emotional Objectification, Feminist Literary Criticism, Patriarchy, Misogyny, Narrative ReliabilityAbstract
In this study, emotional objectification of women is studied through emotional manipulation in Diary of an Oxygen Thief by Anonymous (2016) through a feminist literary approach that combines Nussbaum's (1995) theory of objectification with feminist narratology. The study highlights the presentation of women's emotional objectification through emotional manipulation and how the point of view of the male narrator shows the process of objectification of women's emotions. Emotional objectification is defined here as treating a woman’s emotions as an instrument for the narrator’s purposes while denying her own emotional subjectivity. This study adopts the qualitative literary research design. The data used in the study are the chosen excerpts from the literary work, which include narration, dialogue, thoughts, actions, and descriptions of emotional manipulation, objectification of women, and point of view of the narrator. As revealed by these findings, it can be observed that the narrative perspective of the narrator towards women allows him to engage in emotional manipulation. In his account, the narrator presents women as weak, treats them as a category, and interprets their emotions according to his own expectation; because he is the only source of information about them, claims about the women’s feelings are treated as inferences from his narration. Emotional manipulation occurs when a woman’s vulnerability is identified, affection or attention is offered by the narrator, it is later withdrawn so as to create emotional pain for her, and the reaction from her part is interpreted as a proof of the manipulation by the narrator. Emotional manipulation acts as an instrument of emotional objectification of women's emotions whereby they become mere tools in the hands of men.
References
Al Ghammaz, S. A. D., Al Khatib, W., & AbuRas, F. (2022). Emotional Abuse in Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour.” Al- Zaytoonah University of Jordan Journal for Human and Social Studies, 3(3), 213–223. https://doi.org/10.15849/ZJJHSS.221130.12
Ali, P. A., McGarry, J., & Maqsood, A. (2022). Spousal Role Expectations and Marital Conflict: Perspectives of Men and Women. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 37(9–10), NP7082–NP7108. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260520966667
Anonymous. (2016). Diary of an Oxygen Thief. Gallery Books. (Original works published 2006)
Arletta, M., & Haryanti, R. P. (2026). Gender Performativity and Manipulation in Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl. Language Literacy: Journal of Linguistics, Literature, and Language Teaching, 10(1), 445–456. https://doi.org/10.30743/ll.v10i1.13515
Austin, E. J., Farrelly, D., Black, C., & Moore, H. (2007). Emotional intelligence, Machiavellianism and emotional manipulation: Does EI have a dark side? Personality and Individual Differences, 43(1), 179–189. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2006.11.019
Bain, E. (2023). The Art of Persuasion: A Rhetorical Analysis of Amy Dunne’s Narration in Gone Girl. Digital Literature Review, 10(1), 28–35. https://doi.org/10.33043/DLR.10.1.28-35
Bartky, S. L. (1990). Femininity and Domination: Studies in the Phenomenology of Oppression. Routledge.
Batool, N., Zaidi, S., & Bahadur, S. (2017). Women Objectification: A Post-Feminist Study of Neuromancer. Pakistan Journal of Women’s Studies: Alam-e-Niswan, 24(2), 107–117.
Beauvoir, S. de. (1956). The Second Sex (H. M. Parshley, Trans.). Jonathan Cape. (Original work published 1949)
Bekler, E. (2022). A Foucauldian and Feminist Reading of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. Gaziantep University Journal of Social Sciences, 21(2), 728–738. https://doi.org/10.21547/jss.988733
Booth, W. C. (1983). The Rhetoric of Fiction (2nd ed.). University of Chicago Press.
Brown, H. (2018). Fictional power and control and the reality of abusive behaviour. Journal of Gender Studies, 27(4), 401–410. https://doi.org/10.1080/09589236.2016.1223611
Calvi, J. L., Rankin, A. M., Clauss, N., & Byrd-Craven, J. (2020). The Nuanced Psychology of The Handmaid’s Tale: Commentary on Power, Feminism, and the Patriarchy From Four Feminist Evolutionary Psychologists. Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences, 14(1), 63–78. https://doi.org/10.1037/ebs0000170
Chiumburu, C., & Mutasa, D. E. (2025). Manipulation, Socio-psychological Impact of False Promises of Marriage to Shona Women in Selected Shona Novels. Journal of Language and Literature, 25(2), 314–326. https://doi.org/10.24071/joll.v25i2.11665
Cohn, D. (1978). Transparent Minds: Narrative Modes for Presenting Consciousness in Fiction. Princeton University Press.
Connell, R. W., & Messerschmidt, J. W. (2005). Hegemonic Masculinity: Rethinking the Concept. Gender & Society, 19(6), 829–859. https://doi.org/10.1177/0891243205278639
Dokkedahl, S. B., Kirubakaran, R., Bech-Hansen, D., Kristensen, T. R., & Elklit, A. (2022). The psychological subtype of intimate partner violence and its effect on mental health: a systematic review with meta-analyses. Systematic Reviews, 11(1), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13643-022-02025-z
Fatima, M., Zafar, H., & Shafiq, Q. (2024). Women’s Objectification in Hanif’s Our Lady of Alice Bhatti and Thiango’s The Devil on the Cross: A Feminist Study. Journal of Higher Education and Development Studies (JHEDS), 4(1), 52–60. https://doi.org/10.59219/jheds.04.01.45
Fredrickson, B. L., & Roberts, T.-A. (1997). Objectification Theory: Toward Understanding Women’s Lived Experiences and Mental Health Risks. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 21(2), 173–206. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-6402.1997.tb00108.x
Gervais, S. J., Bernard, P., Klein, O., & Allen, J. (2013). Toward a Unified Theory of Objectification and Dehumanization. In Objectification and (De)Humanization. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6959-9_1
Grieve. (2012). Q-and-A with Anonymous, Author of “Diary of an Oxygen Thief” - and East Village Resident. Retrieved from https://evgrieve.com/2012/11/q-and-with-anonymous-author-of-diary-of.html
Grieve, R., & Panebianco, L. (2013). Assessing the role of aggression, empathy, and self‐serving cognitive distortions in trait emotional manipulation. Australian Journal of Psychology, 65(2), 79–88. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1742-9536.2012.00059.x
Klein, W., Li, S., & Wood, S. (2023). A qualitative analysis of gaslighting in romantic relationships. Personal Relationships, 30(4), 1316–1340. https://doi.org/10.1111/pere.12510
Kteily, N. S., & Landry, A. P. (2022). Dehumanization: trends, insights, and challenges. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 26(3), 222–240. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2021.12.003
Langton, R. (2009). Sexual Solipsism: Philosophical Essays on Pornography and Objectification. Oxford University Press.
Lanser, S. S. (1992). Fictions of Authority: Women Writers and Narrative Voice. Cornell University Press.
Lohmann, S., Cowlishaw, S., Ney, L., O’Donnell, M., & Felmingham, K. (2024). The Trauma and Mental Health Impacts of Coercive Control: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, 25(1), 630–647. https://doi.org/10.1177/15248380231162972
Manne, K. (2017). Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny. Oxford University Press.
Mohajan, H. K. (2022). An Overview on the Feminism and Its Categories. Research and Advances in Education, 1(3), 11–26. https://doi.org/10.56397/rae.2022.09.02
Nussbaum, M. C. (1995). Objectification. Philosophy and Public Affairs, 24(4), 249–291.
Osborne, P. (2017). “I’m the Bitch That Makes You a Man”: Conditional Love as Female Vengeance in Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl. Gender Forum, (63), 4.
Ovshieva, N. L. (2022). On the use of manipulative techniques in Еnglish literary discourse. Vestnik of Samara University. History, Pedagogics, Philology, 28(2), 124–134. https://doi.org/10.18287/2542-0445-2022-28-2-124-134
Papadaki, E. (2024). Feminist Perspectives on Objectification. Retrieved October 13, 2026, from The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy website: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/feminism-objectification/
Phelan, J. (2005). Living to Tell About It: A Rhetoric and Ethics of Character Narration. Cornell University Press.
Pillado, K. A. (2023). Patriarchy and Women’s Struggle in Selected Boom and Post-Boom Novels. Journal of Language and Literature, 23(2), 234–244. https://doi.org/10.24071/joll.v23i2.3925
Sabtiana, R. (2025). Emotional Manipulation in the Name of Love: A Feminist and Hyperrealist Analysis of “Treat You Better.” International Journal Of Humanities Education and Social Sciences (IJHESS), 4(6), 2787–2797.
Simon & Schuster. (n.d.). Diary of an Oxygen Thief. Retrieved from Gallery Books website: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Diary-of-an-Oxygen-Thief/Anonymous/The-Oxygen-Thief-Diaries/9781501157851
Stark, E. (2007). Coercive Control: How Men Entrap Women in Personal Life. Oxford University Press.
Sweet, P. L. (2019). The Sociology of Gaslighting. American Sociological Review, 84(5), 851–875. https://doi.org/10.1177/0003122419874843
Tyson, L. (2006). Critical Theory Today: A User-Friendly Guide (2nd ed.). New York: Routledge.
Ward, L. M., Daniels, E. A., Zurbriggen, E. L., & Rosenscruggs, D. (2023). The sources and consequences of sexual objectification. Nature Reviews Psychology, 2(8), 496–513. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44159-023-00192-x
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
Citation Check
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Fadhea Naila Imelda Firisqi
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution - Share Alike 4.0 Internasional License (CC-BY-SA) that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the works' authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journals published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Upon receiving the proofs, the Author/Editor agrees to promptly check the proofs carefully, correct any errors, and authorize the publication of the corrected proofs.
- Authors should submit the signed copyright transfer agreement form (CTA Form) along with the checked (and corrected proofs).
