I don’t want to be perfect. I want to seem perfect.
The Supervising of Women
6:00 a.m. : Wake up. Explore Instagram for the most recent fashion trends.
6:30 a.m. : Get out of bed. Shower. Shave arms, legs, and armpits. Remove mustache and chin hair. Clean up my eyebrows.
7:00 a.m. : Apply makeup. Brush hair. Pick out an outfit.
Sometimes I wonder how I would act, dress, and think if I had not unconsciously learned the social construct that builds our society and tells us how to live. Would I have gotten out of bed an hour early in order to conform? Would I have long hair? I’m afraid this is one of many unanswerable question of the universe. I will never ever know who I really am, what I truly like and dislike. All I will ever know is who society has shaped me to be, and what I have been told I should like and dislike.
Foucault explains how our body is being controlled, no longer by slavery or public punishment but by controlling our every movement. He says that one way our bodies are being controlled is that we are under supervision which is constructed by codification.
“ Lastly, there is the modality: it implies an uninterrupted, constant coercion, supervising the processes of the activity rather than its result and it is exercised according to a codification that partitions as closely as possible time, space, movement.”
He explains how we grow up being told how to act, dress, think, live etc.. Both our bodies and thoughts are controlled. In relation to time, we know very well what we should be doing at a given time of our life. For example a women can not be either too young or too old in order for her to reproduce. She has to do it at a certain age(time) in order for it to be acceptable. In relation to space and movement women know what their role in society is and where they should be doing their obligations. For example, a couple of weeks ago I had a conversation with my cousin who is graduating this years. I asked her what her plan is for after graduation and she responded “nothing”. My response was “what?! you aren’t going to college, or work or something?!” sadly she thought I was joking. When she realized I was being serious she responded with “for what?! I am going to grow up to clean kid’s ass anyways.” She has grown to believe that her duty as a women is to be born, help out her mom at home, look pretty and smile a lot in order to find a good man, marry, have kids, and die.
This is an example of what Foucault is talking about. Our life has been determined by society since before the day we where born. We are being supervised on that we are living up to the duties that come with our gender.
Linking this back to my morning routine, why is it that I do the things I do in the morning. For example, why do I wear makeup. I hate it. It takes so much time, its expensive, and it makes my day so much more difficult and uncomfortable, however I continue to do it. Most point to the idea that we want to appear more beautiful. However why, for who?
Foucault states that we are constantly under supervision. Additionally the belief that someone might be watching us forces women to constantly worry on how they are presenting their gender in case someone is inspecting them. The fact that my cousin thinks that her only option in life is to be a mom and how I wear makeup in order to get approval of society proves what he is saying. We are being supervised and are trying to please the overseer.
Whose supervision are we under? Last year I took my first Gender and Sexuality class which was an introduction to the subject. The professor dedicated one slide to eye contact were she mentioned that when making eye contact with strangers women are more likely to look away (typically down towards the floor) then men. So I put this to the test and when walking I attempted to make eye contact with as many people as possible. I made more eye contact with males than females however when I did manage to encounter a female they looked away very fast. In comparison, when I encountered a male they simply kept starring. One actually made facial expressions urging me to look away instead of him breaking the contact.
Most people believe that women avoid making eye contact with males in order to not seem inviting. However, I believe that we look down because the watching eyes remind us that we are being supervised. The stare makes us self aware of who we are and the things we should be doing in order to play our role correctly. Therefore, being watched makes us uncomfortable and panic. We don’t want anyone to notice that we are not successful at playing our role as a women.
