Self-Transformations

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.