The Docile Body Image
We have all seen these charts of images that have us comparing our bodies to inanimate objects and shapes. Heck, I am guilty of calling myself a square faced pear.
However, these molds which have been restricted down to four to six options that you can choose from have trained and disciplined individuals to control almost every aspect of their lives from what they eat, to what they wear and how they apply their make up.
You wonder, what does this do to a person’s psyche? I like many others have spent hours a day researching these molds and how I can best achieve the illusion of the “perfect shape”. For instance, women in America would have the hour glass figure and the flawless oval shaped faced. I mean you can do no wrong with an oval shaped face.
In Michael Focault’s Docile Bodies, he speaks of these disciplinary methods that have been used in “correctional facilities” and in the military. These situations seem like the perfect breeding ground for the “micro managed body” however these prodding tactics are everywhere and we have adhered to their standards and spent our income on these standards as well.
“Out of this formless clay an inapt body, the machine required can be constructed” -Michael Focault
Why have we let ourselves become a formless clay that can formed by the every will of the current trend? In short, it dissociates power from the body; on the one hand, it turns it into an ‘aptitude’, a ‘capacity’, which it seeks to increase. On the other hand, it reverses the course of the energy, the power that might result from it, and turns it into a relation of strict subjection (Michael Focault, Docile Bodies).
When becoming a docile body it becomes exhaustive, we lose our true power to control aspects of our lives and our world that we can change and instead focus our income and knowledge to control our looks . We must use our power to regain our individuality and gain control and of our self worth. We must not let the current FAD diminish our resistance, we must not relinquish our right to our body, mind and soul.
