Prof.

Acharya
UCOR 2500

With the final discussions on feminism, we focus more directly on questions regarding the nature
of power and subjectivity rather than liberty or freedom.

Sandra Lee Bartky (1935-2016) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandra_Bartky assesses Michel

Foucault’s (1926-1994) https://www.iep.utm.edu/foucault/ rich interpretation of how power is
manifest in modern societies compared to pre-modern societies, and uses Foucault’s theory to
show how contemporary female subjectivity is produced. Her reading criticizes liberal and
Marxist feminisms, while also problematizing existentialist assumptions of “freedom” as a sort of
baseline, neutral concept independent of socio-political-cultural regimes of power.

Check out some images of Jeremy Bentham’s “Panopticon” prison model, which Foucault
interprets as a metaphor for the kind of disciplining that occurs in modern societies:
https://www.google.com/search?
q=panopticon&sxsrf=ALeKk01H8sVhm36nnHlcoMVLFJnjRcr8iQ:1590517287066&source=lnms&tbm=i
sch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj18p3PktLpAhVDHzQIHZUjDRkQ_AUoAXoECBMQAw&biw=1440&bih=7
18
Also, check out some photographs by the German photographer Marianne Wex, whose work
Bartky discusses: https://www.google.com/search?
q=marianne+wex+photgraphs&sxsrf=ALeKk00W2WDMU16ekXF0c0PVDwSCgAq9wQ:1590517480884
&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi33NOrk9LpAhWLJzQIHQ84BikQ_AUoAXoECAwQ
Aw&biw=1440&bih=718

Discussion questions on Bartky’s Foucault, Femininity and the Modernization of Patriarchal

Power

1. Discuss Bartky’s three-pronged analysis of contemporary disciplinary practices that

produce a feminine body. What are some of the channels through which these
disciplines are imposed, and what kinds of difficulties do women undergo in being
subjected to these practices? (Sections II, III and IV).

2. How does Bartky argue that these disciplinary practices are not neutral, but rather
construct a “practiced and subjected body,” on which is inscribed an inferior status?
How are women generally set up for failure? Before whose gaze and judgment do
women perpetually stand? (Section V).

3. Explain Bartky’s view about who the disciplinarian is. How does she argue that the
“disciplinary power that inscribes femininity in a female body is everywhere and it is
nowhere”? What are the some of the peculiar deceptive effects of such an anonymous
and faceless power? (Section VI).

4. Explain what Bartky means with her claim that the oppression of women involves the
structuring of their very subjectivities. How do the disciplinary practices shape
women’s very identities and sexualities? How does this analysis explain why many
women might be deeply resistant towards dismantling the disciplinary systems?
(Section VII).
5. Explain Foucault’s analysis of the various differences between the exercise of power
in modern societies and pre-modern societies. What does it means to say that the
modern operation of power constitute the “subjectivity of the subject,” and how does
it produce self-policing subjects? (Sections I & VIII). How does Bartky apply
Foucault’s views to critique liberal and Marxist feminisms? (Section VII & VIII).

6. Finally, what is Bartky’s view about a possible resistance to discipline? Explain and
assess this view.