Analysis Of The Concept Of Docile Bodies By Michel Foucault

The concept of docile bodies is introduced by Michel Foucault as individuals who can be subjected, used, transformed and improved. Disciplinary power plays an important role in this as it shapes society in the form of education, military, hospitals, etc. Through these institutions, which combine discourses of knowledge, power and control, the individual can be subjected, and thus becomes a ‘docile body’. Consequently, the career of a ballerina can also be regarded as a product of its specific discourse, namely to achieve the ‘ideal ballerina body’. This example can show the techniques that are specific to Foucault’s definition of docile bodies. As one analyses the underlying techniques of Foucault’s docile body, it becomes apparent that the changes that materialised during the eighteenth century altered the techniques that define docility. The docile body was as ever subjected to dominant discourses which exercised obligations and regulations upon individual bodies. Noteworthy, is the significant change in the scale of control in the sense that the body was now being observed as an individual, rather than a united social body. A more detailed approach of looking at society proved to give price to greater motives of what drives it. Secondly, the economy, or the efficiency, of the body became more important. Lastly, the manner in which docile bodies were regarded focused on the processes of continuous activity which made constant subjection possible. These strategies increased the effectiveness whilst simultaneously decreasing the coercion among people against these increased power mechanisms.

Ultimately, these ‘disciplines’ as Foucault calls them, allow for a new political anatomy, one that is not only able to observe but also control individuals under consent. The training of ballerinas, or rather the becoming of one, can be analysed in a Foucauldian manner. Children who dream of becoming a ballerina are quickly signed up for classical ballet classes and put under a strict regime where every move is being observed. As they grow older, and their bodies change, they train harder to become stronger and more elegant, only to comply with the perceived ‘ideal ballerina body’. The dance institution and its teachers gained the power to manipulate the dancers’ bodies to perfect their dance techniques but also their overall appearance. Rather than critiquing the whole dance class, teachers analyse the dancers on their individual performance because one deviating dancer can damage the constructed machinery.

Much like Foucault describes soldiers, ballerinas are specifically trained to look like a coherent, productive and malleable force. It is in this striving for a perfect mechanism, that the dance teachers, or in Foucault’s case the military and politics, employ techniques of discipline. The ballerinas have become docile bodies as they are constantly under continuous surveillance and pressured to improve and be subjected to their teachers’ demands. Thus, the ballerinas are not only subject to the critic eye of their superiors but they are also ‘moulded’ accordingly. In conclusion, Foucault defines the concept of a docile body as a historically constructed mechanism of power that is exercised on the individual who is subjective to be used, transformed and improved. This is done under continuous regulation and surveillance much like ballerinas are compliant to their teacher’s corrections. At the same time, the element of consent and awareness plays a role, which only enhances the effectiveness of guiding individuals into the preferred position.