{"product_id":"9780190295042","title":"Self-Transformations: Foucault, Ethics, and Normalized Bodies","description":"Heyes' 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.    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","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47106598600944,"sku":"9780190295042","price":39.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780190295042_p0.jpg?v=1769910377","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780190295042","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}