{"product_id":"self-transformations-foucault-ethics-and-normalized-bodies-9780195310542","title":"Self-Transformations: Foucault, Ethics, and Normalized Bodies","description":"\u003cp\u003e • Author(s): Cressida J. Heyes\u003cbr\u003e • Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA\u003cbr\u003e • Publisher Imprint: Oxford University Press, USA\u003cbr\u003e • BISAC: Popular Culture\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHeyes' monograph in feminist philosophy is on the connection between the idea of \"normalization\"--which per Foucault is a mode or force of control that homogenizes a population--and the gendered body. Drawing on Foucault and Wittgenstein, she argues that the predominant picture of the self--a picture that presupposes an \"inner\" core of the self that is expressed, accurately or not, by the outer body--obscures the connection between contemporary discourses and practices of self-transformation and the forces of normalization. In other words, pictures of the self can hold us captive when they are being read from the outer self--the body--rather than the inner self, and we can express our inner self by working on our outer body to conform. Articulating this idea with a mix of the theoretical and the practical, she looks at case studies involving transgender people, weight-loss dieting, and cosmetic surgery. Her concluding chapters look at the difficult issue of how to distinguish non-normalizing practices of the self from normalizing ones, and makes suggestions about how feminists might conceive of subjects as embodied and enmeshed in power relations yet also capable of self-transformation. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e The subject of normalization and its relationship to sex\/gender is a major one in feminist theory; Heyes' book is unique in her masterful use of Foucault; its clarity, and its sophisticated mix of the theoretical and the anecdotal. It will appeal to feminist philosophers and theorists.","brand":"Oxford University Press, USA","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":46889649733783,"sku":"9780195310542","price":6731.0,"currency_code":"INR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0666\/3471\/1191\/files\/9780195310542.webp?v=1770265862","url":"https:\/\/atlanticbooks.com\/products\/self-transformations-foucault-ethics-and-normalized-bodies-9780195310542","provider":"Atlantic Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}