Appendix Two
The Panopticon
Foucault
(1979) argues that the body is disciplined through practices that regulate its
existence. These regulatory practices produce passive people willing to obey the
power of society[38]. Individuals internalize the control mechanisms thus internally
repressing their behaviors. People are governed and controlled by themselves
rather than a repressive source of power.
Proposed
originally by Jeremy Bentham in the early 19th-century, the panopticon was a
prison design that represented an architectural system of social discipline[39].
Individuals would be kept isolated in rings of individual cells, all of
which would be observable from a central observation tower. The tower was
“pierced with wide windows that open onto the inner side of the ring”[38], but
were covered such that the prisoners could not see their observers, and had to
assume they were under observation at all times. Under such circumstances the
prisoner would have to discipline themselves to follow the institution's rules
at all times.
Foucault
used this analogy of the panopticon to illustrate a power arrangement where
“one is totally seen, without ever seeing”[38]. Thus each prisoner is
disciplined by his or her awareness of the guard and the guard’s power, but
not by the guard’s actual presence.
Woman’s
attitudes towards her body shape and her exercise practices are representative
of this self-discipline created in the panopticon. The media and the fitness
industry link exercise practices to weight-loss and enhanced physical
appearance, thus acting as an effective form of disciplinary power over Woman.
They invisibly persuade Woman to control her body and appearance in the service
of the society. Woman thus moulds her body to the ideal.
This
practice of self-control is further achieved when Woman feels good about herself
as her body approaches this ideal. Her
self-esteem is enhanced with the results of her “better body” and she is so
occupied in obtaining this look that she has little time to wonder why she is
doing it.