Women's Studies 1020E Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Breast Augmentation, Liposuction, Skin Whitening
4 Oct 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Foucault: French Theorist on Power and Knowledge
-Power and knowledge operate through institutions for social control
-Example: Sex ed in schools, the knowledge we have about sex (its dangerous) is used to control behaviour
(so do not have sex)
-Fear and shame based discourse
-Women are made to feel bad when they have sex, eductaion is using its power to chose what information
they share
Discipline and Control of Women’s Bodies
-What are the sources of power that work to discipline women?
Discourses of fear
Historically: patriarchal authority, the church (p.41)
The state
-Contemporarily: Women are disciplined by the state
Panopticon (Jeremy Bantham)
-Circular structure: A tower in the center, cells in the outer ring with inmates (27)
-All inmates are constantly visible to one supervisor in the tower and the supervisor is not visible to the
inmates
-Results in self-surveillance and a docile body, obeys and complies with the rules of the jail and the state
-Fear that they are always being watched, they follow the rules at all time even though they are not being
watched all the time
-Women bodies are watched in the same way as the panopticon, women then have docile bodies, they
police themselves
Docile Bodies and the Productions of Femininity
-There are ‘disciplinary practises that produce a body which in gesture and appearance is recognizable
feminine” Bartky 27
‘normative femininity is coming more and more to be centered on woman’s body… its sexuality, more
precisely, its presumed heterosexuality and it’s appearance” Bartky 41
-Size, movement and appearance
Feminine Bodies are Small
-Tyranny of slenderness (35)
-Dieting disciplines the body’s hungers (28)
-Women are ‘terrified’ of getting fat
-But women will also get criticized for being too skinny
Movement: Feminine Bodies Take up little Space
-‘Woman’s space is not a field in which her bodily intentionality can be freely realized but an enclosure in
which she feels herself positioned and by which she is confined’ (Wex in Bartky 29)
-Body posture on trains and subways
-Women’s body language is a ‘language of subordination’ (35)
Feminine Bodies Take up little space vs. Manspreading
Feminine Bodies Take Up Little Space
Smile
-Accompanied by an entitled by others to request a small from a woman when it is not automatically
offered
-Self movements and (male-) guided movements
-Lady-folk who date men: try opening a door for him on a date
Feminine Bodies Look Good
-“Good Skincare habits” require a lot of (often expensive and sometimes painful) products
-Skin/haircare discipline requires a specialized knowledge
-“Making up” to express individuality: but why are the end results so similar?
-Make up is something women do for themselves not men
Millennials and Cosmetic Surgery
-Dr. Michael Weinberg of Toronto Plastic Surgery Clinic says the number of patients he sees
under 30 has doubled in the past 10 years. He says millennial Canadians are getting plastic
surgery younger than previous generations.
-“The most common procedure among teens and young adults is nose reshaping which starts at
$7,500 at one Toronto clinic. Breast reduction in men is the second most common procedure.
It costs anywhere from $2,500 to $6,000, but is often covered by health plans. Breast
augmentation, which starts at $7,000, is the third most common procedure. Also popular are ear
surgeries and liposuction.”
Intersectionality: Global Contexts
-How is ‘sameness’ achieved though electives surgeries/products in other parts of the world?
-Half the world sells skin whitening cream and the other half sells self tanning.
Internalization and Docile Bodies
-‘no one is marched off for electrolysis at gun point” Bartky 37
-‘This self-surveillance is a form of obedience to patriarchy’ Bartky 42
Feminine Work and Value
-“In spite of overwhelming pressure to ‘make the most of what she has’ women and ridiculed and
dismissed for their interest in such ‘trivial’ things as clothes and make up” Bartky 35
-But: what do women gain by participating?
Benefits and Sanctions
-Sanctions are not formal: you will not go to jail for not doing your make up
-“She faces a very severe sanction indeed in a world dominated by men: the refusal of male patronage. For
the heterosexual woman, this may mean the loss of badly needed intimacy; for both heterosexual women
and lesbians, it may well mean the refusal of decent livelihood” Bartky 38
Mustafa: My Body is My Own Business
-Written in 1993, but could have been written last week
-We read stereotypes into the cultural object of the hijab, head scarf
Islamic terrorism, oppressed womanhood, others?
-Mustafa chooses to wear her hijab, and finds it liberating
Liberating from what?
W5L$Disciplinary$Bodies
Friday,(December( 15,(2017
12:04(AM
Document Summary
Power and knowledge operate through institutions for social control. Example: sex ed in schools, the knowledge we have about sex (its dangerous) is used to control behaviour (so do not have sex) Women are made to feel bad when they have sex, eductaion is using its power to chose what information they share. Circular structure: a tower in the center, cells in the outer ring with inmates (27) All inmates are constantly visible to one supervisor in the tower and the supervisor is not visible to the inmates. Results in self-surveillance and a docile body, obeys and complies with the rules of the jail and the state. Fear that they are always being watched, they follow the rules at all time even though they are not being watched all the time. Women bodies are watched in the same way as the panopticon, women then have docile bodies, they police themselves.
