Foucault and Feminism: Resisting a Sexed Dichotomy

… : Explorations of some tensions between Foucault and …

Chapter 8 Feminism, Foucault and the politics of the body1 Susan Bordo A PERSONAL PROLOGUE Sitting down to consider the unusually strong attraction that Foucauldian thought has held for contemporary feminism, it occurred to me that I might learn something from consulting ...

Foucault Studies, 2009

This article aims to define gender as a social discourse correspondent to two forms of power, the bio-and the disciplinary one, following Foucault's critique on the normalization of the individuals' behaviors and mentalities under the auspices of these constructs of authority and surveillance. Applying Foucault's genealogical method of explaining power, in a specter of social, political and cultural acceptances, I will propose the hypothesis according to which gender represents the expression of the so-called "docile bodies", meaning educated, controlled and surveilled individuals that adopt masculine or feminine discourses, attitudes and stereotypes considered normal and, implicitly, accepted by modern societies. Gender will be addressed in the current research as a paradigm of power. The main outcome of this paper consists in the possibility of developing, from these arguments, the analysis of different forms of subjectivity depending on gender's main cha...

In her 1985 essay attacking Foucault’s discourse on power, Toril Moi begins: “What could be more seductive for feminists than a discourse which, like that of Michel Foucault in La volonté de savoir, focuses on the complex interaction of power and sexuality? …it has after all been feminism which persistently has presented sex and sexuality as a question of power” (95). Indeed, Foucault’s work on disciplinary power in modern Western society has intrigued feminist scholars, who focus on the question of power relations between sexes. And yet, as many feminists have noted, Foucault fails to include gender in his analyses of the discourses of power, he fails to recognize that one sex is subjugated in relation to the other, and he fails to realize his own investment in a discourse that privileges a male point of view even as he analyzes the deployment of sexuality. Finally, much of his work seems to provide little room for agency or resistance, since the subject is constituted through discourses of power. I examine the question of whether a theory which forecloses agency of a subject that is sexed, subjugated, and continuously formed within discourses of power can be deployed in a feminist theory of resistance, beyond examinations of subjectivity and ontological study. I believe that Foucault’s theory of power, while sometimes problematic, is relevant for an analysis of gender oppression and also for a theory of resistance that moves beyond the language of sovereign rights.

Feminist Studies, 1994

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Foucault Studies

Michel Foucault died nearly thirty years ago, in 1984. He enjoyed widespread intellectual celebrity in France, and, towards the end of his life, in the United States, but his influence on the emerging field of feminist studies was minimal until well after his death. This is noteworthy only because of his overt queerness and engagement with radical politics during his life; Foucault quickly became the most influential twentieth century commentator on the politics of sexuality, yet his grasp of feminist politics seems tenuous, and his overt pronouncements, as well as the tacit implications of his writing, have long been labelled sexist. On the other hand, there is by now an enormous literature that takes up the implications of his work for feminism, without worrying too much about whether Foucault would have approved. The field has matured, in other words, and still has potential: the relatively long delay between Foucault's death and the publication of his lectures (and various ephemeral essays, speeches, and interviews) as well as the even longer interval in getting all this work translated into English means that the reception of his ideas in 2013 still feels ongoing, open to debate, and unresolved.

Foucault Studies, 2013

Michel Foucault died nearly thirty years ago, in 1984. He enjoyed widespread intellectual celebrity in France, and, towards the end of his life, in the United States, but his influence on the emerging field of feminist studies was minimal until well after his death. This is noteworthy only because of his overt queerness and engagement with radical politics during his life; Foucault quickly became the most influential twentieth century commentator on the politics of sexuality, yet his grasp of feminist politics seems tenuous, and his overt pronouncements, as well as the tacit implications of his writing, have long been labelled sexist. On the other hand, there is by now an enormous literature that takes up the implications of his work for feminism, without worrying too much about whether Foucault would have approved. The field has matured, in other words, and still has potential: the relatively long delay between Foucault's death and the publication of his lectures (and various ephemeral essays, speeches, and interviews) as well as the even longer interval in getting all this work translated into English means that the reception of his ideas in 2013 still feels ongoing, open to debate, and unresolved.

Foucault Studies, 2009

This paper gives a feminist analysis of Foucauldian philosophy, by trying to confront the theories of Foucault, Butler, and Irigaray with one another.

PRAGYAN A Peer Reviewed Multidisciplinary Journal, 2021

Sexuality is a normal and healthy part of human lives, normally and naturally, human is a sexual being and sexuality is viewed as a person's capacity for sexual interests and feelings. Similarly, sexuality is shaped and regulated by various determining factors such as social, political, cultural, legal, biological, psychological, spiritual, historical and so on which varies across societies and cultures. Sexuality is a broader idea which has various theoretical explanations and unbending social arrangements and comprises much more than sexual intercourse. On top of it, there is no single narrative which is globally accepted, various debates and discourses are more vigorous in the context of power, sexuality and feminism. Many theoreticians, researchers and practitioners have looked upon instances of homosexual, intersexual or non-hetero births as problems for the binary model that they have identified of power and sexuality. We consider power and sexuality to be distinct hitherto closely attached categories and yet it is a dynamics of power and mechanism of social control. Foucault has emphasized the role of discourses of ideas in constructing and regulating human sexuality and prevailing patriarchal order. Basically, this paper explores some conceptual and theoretical dialogues concerning sexuality, power and feminist narrative. In this context, the aim of this paper is to discuss the relationship between feminist standpoints of gender and sexuality and Foucault's ideas of sexuality and power.