Fashioning the Body: Versions of the Citizen, the Self, and the Subject

When Devin and I went to observe the soup, the only bodies therein were other students from our class who had gone there to observe the smoking tent. A sore disappointment. We observed that each building had a large overhang on one side, which led to some stairs. On each landing there were two large rectangular indentations on the face of the building. On each rectangular indentation there was a round protrusion.

Above each of the over hangs there was a round red protrusion enclosed in a metal cage.

On the face of each building there was a different shape with red light coming from behind it.

the walls were white and bare. the small space hyperorganized. two chairs were squeezed against the wall seeming to be placed more out of obligation to courtesy rather than functionality. the seats were empty and the line of people careened down the hallway shifting awkwardly under the signs stating "DO NOT BLOCK DOORWAY" and "DO NOT BLOCK HALLWAY".

it was the same kind of institutional space you've seen continually for years. bland. mechanic. pragmatic. the high desk, stacks of paper, routine dialogue played out over and over again for maximum efficiency. question. process. file out.

I've been wrestling around with the word technology in context with Foucault's work lately.  I'm a big fan of the word itself, mainly because it confuses and scares me when I think about it - those little ear pieces for cell phones, computers, even glasses. . .It makes me think we're becoming cyborgs. Yikes! 

“We must not forget that the psychological, psychiatric, medical category of homosexuality was constituted from the moment it was characterized-Westphal’s famous article of 1870 on “contrary sexual sensations” can stand as its date of birth- less by a type of sexual relations than by a certain quality of sexual sensibility, a certain way of inverting the masculine and feminine in oneself…the homosexual was now a species,” (43).

 

Why does American culture in many ways still analyze homosexuals with the antiquated Westphal theory?  Perhaps one reason is because many Americans find cliché feminine gay men and masculine lesbian women to be novelties, useful in humor and entertainment. Examples including Family Guy, Will and Grace, and Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, often appeal to Americans with stereo-typical “gay” antics. I admit that I have found these shows funny, and that many of these shows help to shape my opinions of homosexual people as a teenager.

  

“It is possible that the West has not been capable of inventing any new pleasures, and it has doubtless not discovered any original vices. But it has defined new rules for the game of powers and pleasures,” (48).

 

Isn’t the act of a confessing a pleasure which the West invented? Confession is a form of release for the one confessing and is often a vicarious pleasure for the one who is listening. Occidental people get much joy out of confessional gossip. For example, a confessor often hears in reply to one's sexual confession statements and qustions such as, “You slept with her/him! What was it like? How do you feel about this now?”  The listener often digs deeper into the subject of the confession in order to satisfy one’s curiosity. In this way, the process of confessing and the process of listening to a confession are forms of pleasure in Western societies. That is why I disagree with Foucault when he states that the West may not have invented new forms of pleasure.

In Foucault's book, he brings out the history of sexuality into an open arena of different perspective.  For centuries, sexuality was automatically defined as one thing and then put into this sort of box that became the public standard.  Anything defined outside of the 'box' was deemed inappropriate and sinful.  And people committing these acts were thought to be outcasts or diseased.  In the story about the farm hand from Lapcourt, the town sent him away for life to be scientifically studied, and try to speculate why he was acting out in this manner.  Did he really have to have the lab rat treatment for what he did?  It just tells me that the authorities involved were the ones who were ignorant even though they had this 'know-it-all' thinking.  Would their studies be even accurate because of their bias?  I think that Foucault does a good job of laying the facts out on the table, and then in turn leaves it to the reader to formulate their own ideas on sexuality.

I thought I would use my first corpus entry to expand on a couple of thoughts I had in clinic but didn’t have the chance to express.

During clinic, I talked a bit about this quote on page 61: “The confession is a ritual of discourse in which the speaking subject is also the subject of the statement; it is also a ritual that unfolds within a power relationship, for one does not confess without the presence (or virtual presence) of a partner who is not simply the interlocutor but the authority who requires the confession, prescribes and appreciates it, and intervenes in order to judge, punish, forgive, console, and reconcile…” I was talking about the interesting structure of the sentence which made the person requiring the confession almost passive in the process. I think I worked it out in my mind a bit better after we had already moved on.

I think this really links Foucault’s ideas to the concept of the triad of power. However, this is a complicated triad, because one person fills two of the roles. What helped me envision this was Freud’s idea of the joke that Elizabeth talked about yesterday, where one person tells the joke, another person is the subject of the joke, and a third person laughs at the joke. In the confession, the confessor, “the speaking subject [who] is also the subject of the statement,” is both the one who tells the joke and the one who is the subject of the joke. The person being confessed to is the one who laughs. This is another example of Foucault moving beyond the top-to-bottom structure of power. It’s not one person another to confess, but one person, who has internalized the normalizing discourse of the confession, forcing themselves to confess while the other person observes and records. The mention of the latter person possibly having a “virtual presence” drives home this idea. The person who requires the confession may not even be present, may not even be a specific person.

What struck me the most about tuesday's gym was identity.  I love the statement that Julia gave saying "Identity is a double-edged sword- you may claim these catagories, but they also claim you."  Man, that is one powerful line!  It's so true that we go through life choosing our own identities, but in turn they sort of dictate who we are.  We get cast into this mold whether we want to or not.  Is there a way of making our own mold, or is the mold picked out for us when we make our life choices?  

A Page on Foucault's notion of "power/knowledge":

http://www.colostate.edu/Depts/Speech/rccs/theory54.htm

My companions and I encounter a sign that hangs from a ceiling, which reads “the computer lab”. Alas, we have reached the landing site of our assignment. The lab opens into a wide space filled with boxes that create a circular arena for seating. We situate ourselves in a corner of the room and sit on stiff immobile cushions, which lack the excitement of the movable seats with legs that are paired with the boxes. The environment seems calming, but there is a building tension, and nervousness emanating from some of the beings. Many of the beings move their hands rapidly across a rectangle board with buttons without looking down…then they walk to a tall rectangular machine to recover paper, in doing so they begin to speed up from a walk to a much more uncomfortable and heart-racing pace. However, there are a few beings that make unbelievable loud sounds from their bellies that come up the throats and through the mouth. It is both appealing and obnoxious in such a quiet space. Behind the main area there are other rooms filled with boxes as well, and I wonder what type of beings go in there and how they react differently compared to this particular room? Suddenly my pondering is disturbed by a male-being loudly conversing with an odd speaker box object placed against the side of his head and I am glad it is time to leave. 

The Evergreen bookstore seemed to be the standard college emporium. A place that one finds reading material for their program/class and other educational materials i.e. pens/pencils/markers, binders, notebooks, art supplies, planners, etc. All of which you can find in various forms. So may pens which one is bound to fit your needs appropriately! Through out the pen/pencil section there were test booklets that you could decide which pen/pencil was right. Scribbled on the pads of paper were "pen" "pencil" "name" "this pencil isn't that great", and so on.

Like any other student store there was an abundance of "The Evergreen State College", "Greener", and "Geoduck" gear, instruments (shot glasses, mugs, traveler mugs, sweatshirts, shorts, socks, t-shirts, underwear, hats, gloves). Actually, if one came to school without their clothes they would be set because the bookstore is also a store of apparel.

What I really want to discuss are wall pops! "Totally sweet wall art!" First off, these were the first thing I saw in the bookstore, front and center on an entire display right as you walk in! I was excited to see some totally sweet wall art but was quickly disappointed to find that this sweet and innovative wall art was merely a large solid dot sticker or a stripe. What amazed me were the prices. You could one stripe, or you could spring for the 5 dot package (all the same color) for $11.99. For a colorful room you would have to at least buy three (my personal choice would be Purple Perk, Stylin' Green, and Shh!) for $36.00.

I work at a bookstore off campus and I see the same trends of cross-merchandising, so this is apparently culturally accepted/understood. I am not against or for wall pops! But I am curious what the volume of sales are.