Marriage, Motherhood, and Police: Securing Sexuality Through a Practical Education

• In Event: Foucault and Education SIG Business Meeting: Contemporary Theory

Abstract

So far, little thought has been given to studying the connections between Domestic Science, physiognomics, and sexuality in the nineteenth-century Pacific. In an attempt to take that first step, this paper provides two contributions. First, it highlights how Foucault’s conception of the role of the body in the nexus of knowledge-power relations proves fruitful for feminist purposes whose objects of investigation are sexual (and racial) difference, specifically female bodies and subjectivities. Second, it seeks to illustrate the analytical and ethical purchase that can be gained by bringing Foucault’s writing and feminist theorizing, in particular poststructural feminism, into a conceptual space of critical complementarity.

Author

• Hannah M. Tavares, University of Hawaii - Manoa