ABSTRACT
Bartky appropriates Michel Foucault’s account of the deployment of power in disciplinary practices in order to understand the contemporary Western feminine body. She begins by cataloging various ways in which women are induced to systematically discipline their bodies through, for example, diet, exercise, restricted movement, smiling, make-up, and skin-care. The feminine body, though elaborately cared for, is nonetheless a mark of inferiority. Women feel deficient and ashamed as a result of trying and failing to measure up to unattainable ideals of feminine beauty. The prescribed feminine look makes women appear vulnerable and childlike. Feminine comportment requires ingratiating behavior and constricted posture. Despite their compliance with these demanding regimes, women are held in contempt for their vanity and preoccupation with such trivial matters.
