The Prisoner of Gender: Foucault and the Disciplining of the Female Body‪.‬

Abstract The work of Michel Foucault has been extremely influential amongst feminist scholars and for good reason; his meditations on discipline, power, sexuality and subjectivity are particularly pertinent to feminist analysis. Yet despite his preoccupation with power and its effects on the body, Foucault's own analysis was curiously gender-neutral. Remarkably, there is no exploration or even acknowledgement of the extent to which gender determines the techniques and degrees of discipline exerted on the body. Although this exposes serious flaws in Foucault's work, I don't believe it negates his entire theoretical framework. Rather it can be adopted and adapted; his glaring omissions can be fruitfully exposed, explored and remedied.