GE CLST M72A Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Judith Butler, Biopower, Simon Levay
2 Oct 2016
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Document Summary
Why was the international olympic committee concerned: cold war tensions w/ russia made them paranoid that men would sneak into women"s events to win them, olympic founder believed that women weren"t biologically meant to compete at all. Sex is too complex for a normal test - the body"s sex comes in different shades. Labelling someone a man or a woman is a social decision: social expression versus physical expression. 17th and 18th centuries: great change in conceptions of sex and sexuality. Growing capitalism necessitated control of population in adjustment to economic processes. (foucault:) this bio-power took two forms: individual body: optimization and standardization of the body"s function. Ideas on race and gender intersect: biopolitics of population: development of survey and statistical methods to manage birth and death rates, health, longevity. Discipline encouraged physicians to try to control gender of the body based on capacities, gestures, movements, location, and behaviors.
