| Self-Transformations: Foucault, Ethics, and Normalized Bodies Contributor(s): Heyes, Cressida J. (Author) |
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ISBN: 0195310543 ISBN-13: 9780195310542 Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA OUR PRICE: $53.20 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: August 2007 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Social Science | Popular Culture - Social Science | Feminism & Feminist Theory - Language Arts & Disciplines | Linguistics - General |
| Dewey: 306.4 |
| LCCN: 2006052492 |
| Physical Information: 0.6" H x 6.1" W x 9.1" (0.61 lbs) 176 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Heyes' monograph in feminist philosophy is on the connection between the idea of normalization--which per Foucault is a mode or force of control that homogenizes a population--and the gendered body. Drawing on Foucault and Wittgenstein, she argues that the predominant picture of the self--a picture that presupposes an inner core of the self that is expressed, accurately or not, by the outer body--obscures the connection between contemporary discourses and practices of self-transformation and the forces of normalization. In other words, pictures of the self can hold us captive when they are being read from the outer self--the body--rather than the inner self, and we can express our inner self by working on our outer body to conform. Articulating this idea with a mix of the theoretical and the practical, she looks at case studies involving transgender people, weight-loss dieting, and cosmetic surgery. Her concluding chapters look at the difficult issue of how to distinguish non-normalizing practices of the self from normalizing ones, and makes suggestions about how feminists might conceive of subjects as embodied and enmeshed in power relations yet also capable of self-transformation. The subject of normalization and its relationship to sex/gender is a major one in feminist theory; Heyes' book is unique in her masterful use of Foucault; its clarity, and its sophisticated mix of the theoretical and the anecdotal. It will appeal to feminist philosophers and theorists. |
