The docile body – Reflecting the school

Abstract

The paper deals with corporeality in the school environment from a historical perspective. The body has tended to appear and disappear in the discourse and scientific disciplines and has permeated education. This permeation can be viewed traditionally within Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenological theory of the “lived body” but also in school discipline. Discipline is typically used to organise the school and is unquestionably associated with the body and corporeality. In this article, we therefore rely on Foucault’s theories. Docile bodies are typically found in schools and classrooms and are shaped by the institution so that they are easy to manage and control. In part, we demonstrate this using handwriting in schools as an example.

The Possibilities of Leaky Bodies. A Feminist Materialist Ethnography of Menstruating Youth

“…Furthermore, the thought of insertion in the urinal orifice, which in contrast to the vaginal orifice is not designed for entrance of any kind, makes this a situation where body-tamponrelations emerge as extreme and grotesque (Bakhtin et al, 1968;Russo, 1986).…”

“…In Thomas' interviews, the women also laugh about menstruation as they reminisce about humiliation and shame connected to their early experiences of menstruation. Laughing can be a disbarment of shame or it can be a reaction to the grotesque (Bakhtin et al, 1968), but for the sake of this research it is interesting to inquire into what the participants' laughter does in relation to their possibilities as young menstruants. As Thomas writes: "The revolutionary potential of laughter is enhanced by its enticing nature; it invites others to join in."…”

“…In the intimate space of the interview room, laughter appears to dismantle the tampon, at least for a while. The tampon's material specificities make it possible to affect bodies with joy and through this it can emerge in the public as a display of the grotesque (Bakhtin et al, 1968).…”