The Ubiquity of Power: When Foucault Meets Feminism Felix Reich I would like my books to be a kind of tool-box which others can rummage through to find a tool which they can use however they wish in their own area...I don't write for an audience, I write for users, not readers. – Michel Foucault, 1974 Starting from the eighteenth century, modern Western societies took on board the fundamental biological fact that human beings are a species. This is roughly what I have called bio-power. – Michel Foucault, 1978 Although women make up more than half of the world’s population, many societies underwent major political movements in order to unveil and discuss the structural oppression under which this majority has and is suffering. Feminism has provided a platform to analyze oppressive structures and come up with a social diagnosis that may lead to vicissitude. Besides many other accomplishments, feminism`s idea that “the private is political” stands as an exceptional mantra within this movement. In order to understand ongoing forms of oppression, we must analyze power relations within society. In this paper, I will apply the methodological approach of Michel Foucault’s discourse analysis to the existential realities presented by various recent studies. The significance of a feminist analysis on these studies becomes manifest with the insight of omnipresent power relations that work derogatory for women. The variety of subjects which contribute to feminist analysis suggests the ubiquitous nature of discourse and the usefulness of Foucault’s “tool-box.” In the first part of this paper, I will outline Foucault’s interpretation of power, especially the notion of the docile body. Using this concept, I will show how international fashion standards work as disciplinary measures to transform bodies into objects of power. Combined with the notion of the male gaze, and applied to a recent study conducted by the European Commission on gender and sexual abuse, this analysis will suggest that misogynist slants are by no means restricted to rural, traditional cultures. The omnipresence of misogyny provides ample research relevance to foster a more open-minded and gender-neutral discourse. Following this theoretical introduction, I will present recent studies to show the topicality
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