Power and Subject Making

Power and Subject Making

            The placing of the human subject at the central part of the universe has been one factor that has been taken for granted in the modern world. According to Foucault, the human subject cannot exist autonomously but constitutes relationships that are power-oriented and are enactable through discourse[1]. Power exhibited by the human subjects is brought out through diverse institutions in modernity that encompasses social institutions and bureaucracies. The modern day power is known as disciplinary power because it is based on different disciplines as propounded by Foucault. In the modern world society, power is based on the premise that it should produce self-regulating citizens, which diverges from liberalism in that, liberalism or sovereignty discourages any form of self-regulation and encourages the regulation that comes from a certain body of leadership or sovereignty. Because the modern power is based on disciplines and not sovereignty, it can be used in the production of social constructions of gender, race, class and sexuality in the society.

The premise of power exhibited by Foucault is such that power should be minimally visible. The citizens are willing to obey laws thus participating in different social customs as well as adhering to the governing social values. Foucault (1977) asserts, “…this means that the human subjects in the modern world are not forced to obey the law but they abide to it willingly”[2]. Power is not only vested on the hands of a few people but is also vested on the public who contain the authority to steer the country in a certain direction. In liberalism, on the other hand, power is not vested on the public but is vested on a few people who are in charge of forging the way forward in line with their selfish ambition thus disregarding the good of the public. Foucault believes that power relations are dependent on the expert knowledge rather than experience. Liberalism on the other hand relies on business or entrepreneurial management where power is concerned thus bringing forth, different forms of inequality in power relations.

Exercising of power is also experienced through the utilization of the body, which should be articulated with different functions to enhance the synchrony between power and the body. This means that the “power propounded by Foucault is not forced but people are encouraged to gain knowledge, even using practical research”[3]. On the other hand, liberalism force is power on human subjects and it encourages applied research instead of encouraging the application of practical research. Foucault depicts that modern power ensures that the body of human subjects is managed through public health, demography, social hygiene, education and census taking, which create knowledge about the body. This means that due to the effects of the power on the body, the body is thus forced to emit certain signs that are in line with different social norms found in the society. Thus, Foucault’s notion of power can be utilized in the formation of identity of subject making.

Subject making depends on the social constructs of race, gender, class and sexuality[4]. This means that power, which is exercised on the body of a human being, encourages him in the participation of societal ideologies that are based on cooperation and conformity such that the person feels that he has fitted perfectly into the society in question. The type of power propounded by Foucault is not only based on the political power but it is also based on such authorities as the media and art, which influence the subject making in line with the different social constructions. Photographs in history were only meant exclusively for the gaze of the male subjects such that the female subjects could be present in the photographs but they could not be allowed to gaze at them. This contributed to the subject making that asserts that the male subjects are predominant over the female subjects. This is the same notion that has been used in the definition of culture because people gaze at different cultures leading to the premise that one race is better than the other, especially the fact that the white race has more power over the African American race.

Foucault believed that the power people exercise over their bodies in terms of desires, taboo feelings and emotions that aid in controlling them for a certain purpose that may not be specified. According to Sturken and Cartwright (2009), this means that the “…repressive power exercised might not produce negative results as asserted but might produce positive results at the end of the day”[5]. This is because according to him, the sexual repression experienced in the Victorian period paved the way for the 19^th and 20^th century discourse on sexuality that propounded different ways of producing and regulating different forms of expressing sexuality, which could be utilized in subject making that, is based on sexuality. Discipline is one of the factors used by people in power to exert a certain identity into the subjects on whom it is being exerted. Social classes own different media such as newspapers and televisions. They use these media to exert power on the society as they are in charge of the material propagated by the media. Through this way, identity formation is articulated in that some people will be able to identify with this class while others will identify with another class.

Social constructions lead to the production of different types of subjects. The issues of gender, race, sexuality and class have culminated into different ideologies, which have led to the divisions being experienced in the modern world. The subjects produced by these issues can be both positive and negative, depending on the type of ideologies imparted into them. Race has been used negatively to produce different social classes of people[6]. The dominance of the white race has led to the production of subjects who believe that they are better than those from other races thus creating social divide in America. The oppression experienced by the African Americans on the hands of the dominant race has led to the production of subjects that do not have hope but who engage in negative activities as crimes to assert their existence. Transcoding can be utilized in changing the negative notion created in the minds of these subjects.

Sexuality is one of the social constructions, which has been under a lot of scrutiny in the modern world. Before the 19^th and 20^th century, most people were forced to suppress their emotions towards issues of sexuality. Come 19^th and 20^th century, people were encouraged to find different forms of expressing sexuality[7]. Different subjects have been produced depending on their different sexual orientations, as the society in the modern world does not repress any matter that deals with sexuality. The embracing of sexuality issues has led to the increase of societal moral decay because different subjects are produced based on their sexual orientation without any form of opposition from the society.

Gender is one of the social constructions that have led to the branding of one gender as being dominant over the other. Art in history was meant for the gaze of men and not women. Females could be used in the production of the art but it was meant for the enhancement of enjoyment on the part of the male subject. In the modern world, feminists are actively involving themselves in the enhancement of equality between men and women[8]. The division of gender has resulted into the production of subjects who have the belief that one gender is predominant over the other. This is the reason why other subjects have been produced for the sole purpose of eliminating the gender divide being experienced extensively in the world. In the modern world, due to the decline in the reliance on gender issues, subjects that are free from gender divide are being produced everyday.

Social class encompasses the division of people into three classes, which include the lower class, the middle class and the high class that is made up of the rich who feel that they have power over the other classes as to them money can buy anything[9]. The social classes in most times are in charge of the media houses, which they use in the incorporation of the social class ideas to the public. The citizens after listening to the media form different ideologies, which lead to the formation of different subjects based on the social class that they choose to be engaged in. The poor people because of the financial inadequacies will definitely form the lower class subjects, those with average amounts of the wealth will belong to the medium class while those with wealth will be attracted to the high class due to the benefits they will acquire from belonging to this social class.

Subjects can be configured through discipline to ensure that they obey the authority under which they are. In the army, discipline is not only utilized as a means of the prevention of desertion, failure to obey rules of looting but it is also used to ensure that the subjects exist in the army effectively. They do not exist in form of an assembled crowd but a unit that increases its effectiveness through this discipline in terms of individual skills and vigor. In this way, the subjects will be configured to obey automatically the rules of the military without being forced but willingly instilling personal discipline into them in all aspects of life[10].

In the case of factories to ensure that the subjects obey the factory rules, different surveillance systems are used. This form of discipline is known as panopticism as it involves lenient forms of discipline. Discipline is instilled into the factory workers to ensure the adherence to the regulations and the authority in charge[11]. This aids in preventing such evils as losses and thefts while at the same time increasing worker productivity through the increase of speed, aptitudes, output and eventually profits. On the other hand, it influences their moral behavior because it leads to the changing of some of the cultural beliefs that have been plaguing their behavior especially in the immoral society of the modern world.

The discipline exerted in most schools has been utilized in the changing of the bad societal factors learnt by the students before they join schools or in the process of being in school. This aids in their gaining knowledge about factory production, how they should behave in society, how they can impart the knowledge they acquired from schools to their peers who are not in schools, how they can be responsible in their lives instead on engaging in crime and begging activities. In the same way, the discipline exerted by different families enables the subjects to be configured in such a way that they will always be in obedience of the rules and regulations adopted by that family at all times[12]. It helps the subjects to understand that they should defend the family at all times, as it will always be there for them at all times.

In prison, the subjects are configured in such a way that they are in constant fear of the wardens. If the wardens are not present, the subjects will still not break the rules because they have the belief that the authority is not far from them and when they are caught in any mistake, they will be subjected to unbearable punishment. This has ensured the maintenance of discipline in the prison. Those who break rules are disciplined in front of the other subjects to ensure that no one else tries to commit the same mistakes.

James (19998) argues, “power is one of the factors that have really affected the world since historical times. It has been depicted in different forms by different scholars”[13]. The most significant contribution to the literature about power comes from Foucault who believes that power is not only viewed from the side of a central authority but it should be viewed from the side of the public who are included in the insemination of the same power. He propounds that power should be based on equality not on the reliance of a central authority that would bring inequality in the society. Different subjects can be produced from power, based on the social constructions in place in the society. The social constructions of gender, race, class and sexuality have led to the formation of different subjects depending on the ideologies that they impart on these subjects. Discipline is one of the factors that have ensured that different subjects are configured in such a way that they will always exhibit respect to the different authority exerting the discipline on them. The different perceptions created by discipline in the minds of the subjects have contributed in part to the improvement of the modern social environment. In conclusion, because the modern power is based on disciplines and not sovereignty, it can be used in the production of social constructions of gender, race, class and sexuality in the society.

 

Bibliography:

Davis, Angela Yvonne. Abolition Democracy: Beyond Empire, Prisons, and Torture. New York:     Seven Stories Press, 2005.

Foucault, Michael. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of Prison. New York: Vintage Books, 1995.

Foucault, Michael. Power/ Knowledge. New York: Pantheon books, 1977.

James, Joy. The Angela Y. Davis. Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishers, 1998.

Shapiro, Michael J. Deforming American Political Thought: Ethnicity, Facticity, and Genre.          Kentucky: Lexington Univ. Press of Kentucky, 2006.

Sturken, Marita. & Cartwright, Lisa. Practices of Looking: An Introduction to Visual Culture. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.

Sturken, Marita. & Cartwright, Lisa.     Introduction to Practices of Looking. London: Routledge, 2006