Diversification as a New Disciplinary Power: Gender and Sexual Subjectivity in Postmodernity

Abstract

Nowadays, the power of gender and sexuality works not only to reinforce and reconstruct the essentialized norms but also, in direct opposition, to deconstruct these norms. The new disciplinary power and its discourse encourages people to have diverse and fluid self/body images. This article aims to discuss the new characteristics of gender and sexual self‐image, body, discourse, and social images in postmodern society through a comparison with Foucault's arguments. This article also briefly mentions how these phenomena have spread through society and questions whether recent social movements really go beyond the style of the former one, which is based on sharing the same identity.

Gender: A Postmodern Idea Developed in Association with the Modern Concept of Sex in Considering the Implications for Evolving Sexuality

“…As a result, people are expected to decidedly define their sexual identity, both for themselves and for society [43]. Foucault [44] has been noted [45] (p. 70) as the theorist who recognized the historical break between the modern notion of sex as an attribute, activity, and a dimension of human life, as well as the more recent postmodern understanding of sex as an identity. The concept of gender roles was first introduced in 1955 with the term gender identity appearing in the early 1960s [46].…”