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Foucault, Femininity, and the Modernization of Patriarchal Power
Published January 1, 1998
About the author
Sandra Lee Bartky
13 books42 followersSandra Lee Bartky was a professor emeritus of philosophy and gender studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her main research included feminism and phenomenology. Her notable contributions to the field of feminist philosophy include the article, "The Phenomenology of Feminist Consciousness".
Bartky held s a BA, MA and PhD from the University of Illinois at Urbana, and studied at University of Bonn and the University of Munich, both of which are in Germany, and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). In 1997, Bartky received an honorary degree, Doctor of Humanities, from New England College.
(from Wikipedia)
Bartky held s a BA, MA and PhD from the University of Illinois at Urbana, and studied at University of Bonn and the University of Munich, both of which are in Germany, and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). In 1997, Bartky received an honorary degree, Doctor of Humanities, from New England College.
(from Wikipedia)
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
February 7, 2021
oh margaret atwood we are really in it now
September 27, 2021
“We women cannot begin the re-vision of our own bodies until we learn to read the cultural messages we inscribe upon them daily and until we come to see that even when the mastery of the disciplines of femininity produces a triumphant result, we are still only women.”
November 10, 2019
Fascinating.
October 9, 2022
(For all my girlies: you can find this essay for FREE online- it's only 20 pages and worth the read!!)
I wanted to share some of my favorite excerpts:
"In contemporary patriarchal culture, a panoptical male connoisseur resides within the consciousness of most women: they stand perpetually before his gaze and under his judgment. Woman lives her body as seen by another, by an anonymous patriarchal Other."
"Femininity as spectacle is something in which virtually every woman is required to participate."
"Styles of the female figure vary over time and across cultures: they reflect cultural obsessions and preoccupations in ways that are still poorly understood. Today, massiveness, power, or abundance in a woman's body is met with distaste. The current body of fashion is taut, small-breasted, narrow-hipped, and of a slimness bordering on emaciation; it is a silhouette that seems more appropriate to an adolescent boy or a newly pubescent girl than to an adult woman. Since ordinary women have normally quite different dimensions, they must of course diet."
"Under the current 'tyranny of slenderness' woman are forbidden to become large or massive; they must take up as little space as possible. The very contours a woman's body takes on as she matures- the fuller breasts and rounded hips- have become distasteful. The body by which a woman feels herself judged and which by rigorous discipline she must try to assume is the body of early adolescence, slight and unformed, a body lacking flesh or substance, a body in whose very contours the image of immaturity has been inscribed. The requirement that a woman maintain smooth and hairless skin carries further the theme of inexperience, for an infantilized face must accompany her infantilized body, a face that never ages or furrows its brow in thought. The face of the ideally feminine woman must never display the marks of character, wisdom, and experience that we so admire in men."
"...It is not always easy in the case of women to distinguish what is done for the sake of physical fitness from what is done in obedience to the requirements of femininity."
"To succeed in the provision of a beautiful or sexy body gains a woman attention and some admiration but little real respect and rarely any social power. A woman's effort to master feminine body discipline will lack importance just because she does it: her activity partakes of the general depreciation of everything female."
I wanted to share some of my favorite excerpts:
"In contemporary patriarchal culture, a panoptical male connoisseur resides within the consciousness of most women: they stand perpetually before his gaze and under his judgment. Woman lives her body as seen by another, by an anonymous patriarchal Other."
"Femininity as spectacle is something in which virtually every woman is required to participate."
"Styles of the female figure vary over time and across cultures: they reflect cultural obsessions and preoccupations in ways that are still poorly understood. Today, massiveness, power, or abundance in a woman's body is met with distaste. The current body of fashion is taut, small-breasted, narrow-hipped, and of a slimness bordering on emaciation; it is a silhouette that seems more appropriate to an adolescent boy or a newly pubescent girl than to an adult woman. Since ordinary women have normally quite different dimensions, they must of course diet."
"Under the current 'tyranny of slenderness' woman are forbidden to become large or massive; they must take up as little space as possible. The very contours a woman's body takes on as she matures- the fuller breasts and rounded hips- have become distasteful. The body by which a woman feels herself judged and which by rigorous discipline she must try to assume is the body of early adolescence, slight and unformed, a body lacking flesh or substance, a body in whose very contours the image of immaturity has been inscribed. The requirement that a woman maintain smooth and hairless skin carries further the theme of inexperience, for an infantilized face must accompany her infantilized body, a face that never ages or furrows its brow in thought. The face of the ideally feminine woman must never display the marks of character, wisdom, and experience that we so admire in men."
"...It is not always easy in the case of women to distinguish what is done for the sake of physical fitness from what is done in obedience to the requirements of femininity."
"To succeed in the provision of a beautiful or sexy body gains a woman attention and some admiration but little real respect and rarely any social power. A woman's effort to master feminine body discipline will lack importance just because she does it: her activity partakes of the general depreciation of everything female."
November 21, 2022
Bartky criticizes Foucault to be Gender Blind about the docile body idea, but doesn't see her own blindness about nonwestern countries and cultures which leads to a horrible assumption and generalization about women's situation with docile body
November 22, 2023
I don’t love this paper. Like I disagree with its organization and the following commentary at many points. But I love this paper. I actually could not tell you why. I love love love Foucault, yes. But I also just love Bartky’s prose. Like, she just has writing drip.
December 10, 2021
“We women cannot begin the re-vision of our own bodies until we learn to read the cultural messages we inscribe upon them daily and until we come to see that even when the mastery of the disciplines of femininity produces a triumphant result, we are still only women.” SHUT UP! AHH.
January 25, 2024
'Since the standards of female bodily acceptability are impossible to fully realise, requiring as they do a virtual transcendence of nature, a woman may live much of her life with a pervasive feeling of bodily deficiency.'
This is one of those texts which I would really love young women to read, and understand.
I have a feeling lots of older women come to terms with their bodies (perhaps after childbirth and/or menopause), but I myself- and I'm sure many others- could have done with some of these wisdoms when I was still a teenager.
Sandra Lee Bartky is often referenced in other feminist books I read, making me think I should have paid more attention when I first encountered this text.
This is one of those texts which I would really love young women to read, and understand.
I have a feeling lots of older women come to terms with their bodies (perhaps after childbirth and/or menopause), but I myself- and I'm sure many others- could have done with some of these wisdoms when I was still a teenager.
Sandra Lee Bartky is often referenced in other feminist books I read, making me think I should have paid more attention when I first encountered this text.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews