Foucaults Disciplinary Theory

350 Words2 Pages
According to Sandra Barkly women engage in disciplinary practices to produce docile bodies. These practices produce a body of a certain size, shape, adornment and bodily movement. For example women engage in certain disciplines, such as exercise and diet in order to be skinny or slender. Secondly, women engage in other disciplines, such as having cosmetic surgery on their stomachs, breast and other areas in order to achieve a shapely figure, which is in most instances, a big bust, a small waist and a muscular butt. Thirdly regarding bodily movement there are certain gestures and postures that women are suppose to adhere to, for example it is required or assumed that whenever a women sits down she must sit with her legs together or crossed which is one thigh over the other this implies that women take up less space while men sit with their legs open or with one ankle crossed over the other. Moreover women bodies are seen as adornments and are displayed as ornaments, for example women buy and use make-up, creams, moisturizers and some even have cosmetic surgery on their faces and bodies to achieve the look of smooth, soft, unblemished, and wrinkle free skin. Also women are required to have a head full of hair but their bodies must be free from hair, this requires women to shave their underarms, pubic area, legs, and other places on their body that have hair. According to Barkly these are just some of the ways that Foucault’s disciplinary theory constructs the female body. Barkly notes, that this male- dominated disciplinary practices are not only seen on the outside but are also internalized from the inside as well. According to Foucault’s theory these disciplines are everywhere men and women internalize these disciplines by policing each other and themselves. The reasons why women don’t resist is because women are rewarded for taking care of their bodies and
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