5/20/2023 0 Comments Foucault disciplineTo illustrate this further I have appropriated a couple of Foucault’s subheadings, both in the spirit of homage: to acknowledge the validity of his framework, and satire: to expose how the female body exemplifies his arguments about discipline yet how conspicuous it is by its absence. In this essay I focus my analysis on Foucault’s Discipline and Punish – a prime example, in my opinion, of his failure to recognise the significance of gender in the play of power despite the obvious pertinence of his material. Rather it can be adopted and adapted his glaring omissions can be fruitfully exposed, explored and remedied. Although this exposes serious flaws in Foucault’s work, I don’t believe it negates his entire theoretical framework. Remarkably, there is no exploration or even acknowledgement of the extent to which gender determines the techniques and degrees of discipline exerted on the body. Yet despite his preoccupation with power and its effects on the body, Foucault’s own analysis was curiously gender-neutral. The work of Michel Foucault has been extremely influential amongst feminist scholars and for good reason his meditations on discipline, power, sexuality and subjectivity are particularly pertinent to feminist analysis.
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