On page 98, Bratsky notes that women have disciplined themselves in relation to their appearances. I thought it was rather interesting to think about how this notion of Foucault's discipline in relation to women ties fairly neatly into Beauvoir's conception of the second sex. Although it is not a perfect fit, Beauvoir's 'situations' seem to also coincide with Foucault's notion of discipline. I have this all mapped out in my head, but I was wondering if anyone could perhaps help me bring it along a little bit... potential paper idea? I think so as well.
I think you're spot on. Beauvoir talked about what societies expectations were in terms of the two sexes and that's what Foucault is talking about just in terms of everyone for everything. He believes that society sets expectations and examples through punishment and precedent. I think Bratsky and Beauvoir might agree that some of the negative reaction from men and conservative women to women who don't conform to traditional standards for womanly behavior are almost a kind of punishment, and are certainly a way of conditioning women who might be on the fence as to what role they should be doing and how they should be acting.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Chris and you! This is something I instantly thought of as well. It would be a great topic for your paper. I really think it is interesting once we open our mind to Foucaults ideas of punishment to see them prevalent in many areas of our society today. There are many conditioning techniques that can be found
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