Columbia Human Rights Tribunal against Vancouver Rape Relief & Women's Shelter. Nixon, a trans woman, had been interested in volunteering as a counsellor with the shelter. When the shelter learned that she was transsexual, they told Nixon that she would not be allowed to volunteer with the organization. Nixon argued that this constituted illegal discrimination under Section 41 of the British Columbia Human Rights Code. Vancouver Rape Relief countered that individuals are shaped by the socialization and experiences of their formative years, and that Nixon had been socialized as a male growing up, and that, therefore, Nixon would not be able to provide sufficiently effective counselling to the female born women that the shelter served. Nixon took her case to the Supreme Court of Canada, which refused to hear the case. Objectification In social philosophy, objectification is the act of treating a person as an object or thing. Objectification plays a central role in feminist theory, especially sexual objectification. Feminist writer and gender equality activist Joy Goh-Mah argues that by being objectified, a person is denied agency. According to the philosopher Martha Nussbaum, a person might be objectified if one or more of the following properties are applied to them: Instrumentality: treating the object as a tool for another's purposes: "The objectifier treats the object as a tool of his or her purposes." Denial of autonomy: treating the object as lacking in autonomy or self-determination: "The objectifier treats the object as lacking in autonomy and self-determination." Inertness: treating the object as lacking in agency or activity: "The objectifier treats the object as lacking in agency, and perhaps also in activity." Fungibility: treating the object as interchangeable with other objects: "The objectifier treats the object as interchangeable (a) with other objects of the same type, and/or (b) with objects of other types." Violability: treating the object as lacking in boundary integrity and violable: "The objectifier treats the object as lacking in boundary integrity, as something that it is permissible to break up, smash, break into." Ownership: treating the object as if it can be owned, bought, or sold: "The objectifier treats the object as something that is owned by another, can be bought or sold, etc." Denial of subjectivity: treating the object as if there is no need for concern for its experiences or feelings: "The objectifier treats the object as something whose experience and feelings (if any) need not be