Panoptican

Michael Foucault advances a fundamental understanding of power. Foucault sees power as a productive and not repressive, and says it produces new things every day. Foucault believes that power circulated in network ( Brock, 89). Michael Foucault’s ideals are much like a social network of power. Foucault’s ideas in relation to Facebook create an unequal balance of power. All these elements can be represented perfectly through the Facebook world which is uses as a site to communicate interactive discourses.

                Foucault’s ideas of power can relate to today’s society influencing human behavioural practices by using the internet as a level of power structure. Using the internet is an essential part of our culture, where we now rely on it to find out important events, news and a way of communication all around the world. The internet in many ways is used for interactive discourse, which can both be a public or private event. Most interactive discourses are used over popular social networking sites such as Facebook, My Space and Twitter, where you can interact with friends and family you know close to your network or anywhere else across the world.

Facebook, Twitter and MySpace are all perfect examples of ways in which Foucault viewed power. Creating profiles and updating statuses with personal details to allow people to have a view of our lives. Also many people add people they don’t know to Facebook and pretend they know them based on their online persona. This represents one of Foucaults main ideas because he says that power circulates in networks. Facebook uses these profiles to receive their own personal power over what people are allowed to have access to on their profiles and who they decide to become friends with.

Discourse related to human behaviour which then becomes everyday though. Facebook is a great example of Foucault’s theory of the panoptican self surveillance ideal because we control and create profiles of what we want our peers to see. Foucault ideas of surveillance as a panoptican can relate to present day online social networks which display our own personal identities. This model of the panoptican was used many years ago for prisons as a tower placed in the center of the prison so the guards could watch inmates at all times. The real success to thus design was that the inmates couldn’t see the tower making them act like the guards were there at all times behaving accordingly. Being a member of Facebook you can never be sure who is watching you. In the beginning Facebook was designed to be able to contact people in our social network to keep in touch. Facebook is now what i feels a way the government and the owner of Facebook can have full access of surveillance on many people’s lives around the world.

Facebook exemplifies Foucaults theory that he sees power as productive and not repressive, and says it produces new things every day. Facebook is a form of production because, you are able to create profiles and become friends with new people which also allows the government and owner to have full access to your lives making it beneficial to them. Moreover, Foucault believes that power is not something you possess.

                One of the central points with the panoptican according to Foucault is that it is asymmetrical. In the case of Facebook and many other social networks the owner and person at the top of the company should have the tools and database to be able to view and have all access to the people in the Facebook world. This is much like the panoptican surveillance because there is always someone watching but you just don’t know who it is that is watching you. In many cases the government has full access to Facebook is a way to always have a tight watch over people so you constantly can monitor what is going on in their lives much like the jail. As a member of Facebook you also have the option to friend or unfriend people you wish, for the most part controlling who you let monitor your life.

Michael Foucault’s ideals are greatly represented through the Facebook world where you are a product of self-surveillance as you tweak your profile just the way you want the world to perceive you. Foucault’s central understanding of power he sees power as productive and not repressive, and says it produces new things every day. Furthermore, Foucault believed that power circulates in networks (Brock,89). Michael Foucault’s ideals are much like a social network of power. All of these elements can be repressed perfectly through the Facebook world which is used as a site to communicate interactive discourse. 

Performing Gender

http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2009/09/12/semenyas-makeover-gender-as-performance/

People in our society are continually labelling and judging people based on their physically appearance and persona. Whether you are male or female, black or white we are continually basing our judgement of one’s social identity by the way we perform and present ourselves physically.  The way we observe and perform are largely apart of how we see and perceive ourselves and others in society. Many people in our society perform various genders whether it is there anatomical makeup or the gender that they acquire to be ( Brock, 61). Gender is determined mainly at the first glance of a person when you then decide is this person male or female? Have you ever sat there and thought I wonder if that’s a boy or a girl? I will guarantee you that many people have been in that awkward position before. We ask ourselves these questions everyday based on the observations made of the gender they are performing.

Gender performativity, as explained in the text “Power and Everyday Practices,” explains gender to be socially constructed. This being said one would assume then that gender is performative. Gender is labelled by the way you present yourself physically and the way you act whether it is masculine or feminine. Gender as a performative gives great examples that masculinity and femininity are not constant therefore we can make the assumption that gender isn’t biologically based (Brock, 72)

Gender is performed in many different ways. Transgendered, transsexual, cross dressing or drag are a couple examples of how gender is performed. Transgendered is a great example of this because the girl you are seeing on the street by the way you recognize them may in fact be mistaken and be biologically a girl. The most socially built aspect of gender performativity is most apparent in drag performances. Drag performances offer an understanding of gender binaries on the way we perform our gender. Drag is one of many where you actually are given the chance to get up on stage and strut the gender you would like to be. It’s an experience where you can finally be connected with your inner masculinity or femininity.

Cross dressers, are another great example of how gender performativity. Something as simple as using the bathroom of their own biological sex can put people at risk for judgement based on how society perceives their gender. This can cause tensions and many aspects because people may think there is a man in the washroom with me, but may actually be using the bathroom of their own biological sex. This raised problems for transgendered people because they have to deal with the stresses of being scrutinized for simply going to the bathroom.

Performing ones gender is also reflected by the way we act and present our selves. Children at a very young age are taught particular mannerisms of the way they are suppose to act according to their gender or sex. Girls for example are taught at a young age to sit with their legs crossed while wear a short skirt also boys normally sit with a wider stance with their legs opened. All of these examples help illustrate and depict what gender you are performing. Everything you do in your life is a performance of your gender even as simple walking down the street if a woman is slouching and walking with a really manly strut one might assume that girls manly. Many people don’t realize just how much gender is performed in everyday life.

Gender perfomativity is a large part of my everyday life.  I am constantly performing gender norms based on my biological sex by using cultural norms. When I wake up in the morning the first thing I do is shower, then put on my makeup for the day. I was raised in a family where allot of attention was put on femininity because my mom is a cosmetician and a hairdresser. The media helps introduce teens early on that you are suppose to wear form fitted clothing and to always look put together. When categorizing a gender as female you have to produce a feminine persona, that being very delicate, well put together and most of the time caring and nice.

Performing gender is apparent in everyday life and by adopting certain gender norms we perform or gender accordingly. Beauty norms and aesthetics also help with our physical persona of maleness or femaleness. Gender is a part of every society and is based on the way we present ourselves physically not our biological makeup or sex.

Power and The Centre

People in our society today have taken for granted the social norm of social organization as a whole. Society in a nut shell has many different class, race, gender, and sexual differences which influence and reflect the privileges and opportunities we have as people. The authors of the text book “ Power and Everyday Practices,” refers to any taken for granted or normative features of social organization, distinguished by the ability to confer privilege upon those who occupy it, as called the “Centre.”

The centre, the author refers to as a very predominant aspect in our society today. In many ways we take for granted things we have and do and don’t realize we are doing  it.  We are all a victim of this assumption, and there are many people in the world who don’t have the privilege or resources that we may have.  One key example of a taken for granted normative feature in our society would be the resource of food. In many parts of the world food is taken for granted. I personally have been brought up in middle to upper class family where I have always had the privilege and accessibility to food. But, in many third world countries people are dying each year from starvation. We don’t put it in to perspective that there are people around us who are less advantaged and the simple things such as food they don’t have the resources for. Moreover, we don’t consider this when we throw away perfectly good food after dinner. This then leads to my opinion on the centre and just how much it affects our everyday life.

My view of the centre is that we don’t realize just how much we take for granted until we compare ourselves to people who are less privileged or of a lower economic status. The author refers to these people as on the margins looking in. In this case these people are less privileged and are looking in on those who are privileged. In many ways the centre has impacted my life. To me I believe at one point in each person’s lives they will be a different part of the centre and see the world through different lenses throughout the life span. My own personal experiences I have been a witness of both of these margins revolving around the centre.

The centre in many ways has impacted my life and many people in my life. The centre is a big part of our society and is present in everyday life even when we don’t realize it. Growing up in a middle class family gave me the privilege to participate in allot of activities most children don’t get to experience. I took part in dance classes for 16 years of my life commuting an hour everyday and paying a good chunk of change to partake in the best school in Atlantic Canada. As a young child at many times I took for granted the opportunity my parents gave me and would often make excuses to miss classes or just not attend. In many working class families’ children would only dream of this opportunity but in most cases don’t have the stability and financial support they need from their families allowing them to have this privilege. This is one major thing in my life that has been taken for granted. This is an example of how the centre has impacted my life from the perspective of being the insider of the centre.

Furthermore, I have also been a part of the outside looking in margin of the centre. I am an African Canadian. Although, I do not appear as a visible minority I was raised in an African Canadian family. African Canadian students receive many opportunities in life because they are one group that is disadvantaged. This brought forth my participation in African Canadian group at my school and also allowed me to receive many bursaries because of my ethnic background. My relationship with the other students was not a positive experience. They believed that I didn’t deserve the right to be there because I wasn’t a visible minority. I was both a witness of the outsider and the insider on this particular occasion. Where I am of African decent I was lucky to receive the benefits, but because I wasn’t a visible minority I was criticized and yelled at because they did not believe I deserved the money. Many times I felt taken advantaged of because they would make me feel like I didn’t deserve to be there.  Leading me to almost draw myself completely from my own ethnicity, because they convinced me I wasn’t a real African Canadian and wasn’t worthy of the benefits. Being and outsider let me have a look at what it is like outside of the normative social structure and just what it is like not having the privilege to partake in a given activity.

Moreover, the centre is an important and very predominant aspect in our society and has effect d both positively in negatively in many people’s lives.  Everyone has a different view and different position in the centre, which impacts peoples’ lives in different ways depending on the privileges and opportunities they have whether it is based on class, race, gender and sexual differences.

Hegemony

http://www.english.emory.edu/Bahri/hegemony.html

We all live in a society where there is some form of power structure. In many societies we are governed by the government or some shape of hierarchy. Whether it is corporations, companies or the wealthy are generally those who hold greater power than people of a lower socio economic status. Hegemony is another form Antonio Gramsci coined as cultural figure of power or leadership.

Hegemony is an intellectual and moral leadership that takes into account the interests and tendencies of the groups which hegemony is exercised through compromises that may benefit or ultimately threaten the role of the dominant group (Brock, 357.) Hegemony in the twentieth century is now referred to as cultural hegemony because it is more sociological and is now caused by the manipulation of a particular social class dominating another in society.

Hegemony can be exemplified as a power system. Every day practices display that we hold governments in authority and they have power over our societies in power. Examples of this would be rising and removing hats when the national anthem is playing or the law to pay ones taxes. Many everyday practices are great examples of how we hold corporations and the government in power. A main example of this would be shopping at chain clothing stores. During our class presentation by the journalist he uses examples about how power effects the media and the people, corporations, and large companies, this is present because the larger the resources the more leadership and power they will have over the proletariat. Media and power are closely related because the dominate class is shown to be the social norm and what many people in society strive to become one day. Furthermore, the media helps this theory to become evident when many hegemonic discourses are displayed over the internet, television shows, and in the newspapers. The journalist used Middle Eastern people as an example of cultural hegemonic discourse that is displayed in the media and how it affects the way we look at things based on what the government or people of authority assume about that particular person or culture. Automatically you assume negative thoughts about this culture because of the 911 booming in 2000. Moreover I will discuss the ways in which Hegemony is displayed in Canadian society.

Native Canadians all over the country are a great example of cultural hegemony. Natives are governed by the authority of the government and receive many benefits such as no taxes and living on reserves as a benefit because we took over there land many years ago. This in ways Benefits them but also puts us at risk, because by putting them on reserves away from us, takes away from socially by never feeling entirely socially accepted but also harms us by making us pay higher taxes for them to live.

Gramsci in many ways believed the media has always had a large role in teaching people to do things everyday that support power structures. Hegemony is one way in which this theory becomes truth. We all live in a society where there is some form of power structure. In many societies we are governed by the government or some shape of hierarchy. Whether it is corporations, companies or the wealthy are generally those who hold greater power than people of a lower socio economic status. Hegemony is another form Antonio Gramsci coined as cultural figure of power or leadership.

Hegemony is an intellectual and moral leadership that takes into account the interests and tendencies of the groups which hegemony is exercised through compromises that may benefit or ultimately threaten the role of the dominant group (Brock, 357.) Hegemony in the twentieth century is now referred to as cultural hegemony because it is more sociological and is now caused by the manipulation of a particular social class dominating another in society.

Hegemony can be exemplified as a power system. Every day practices display that we hold governments in authority and they have power over our societies in power. Examples of this would be rising and removing hats when the national anthem is playing or the law to pay ones taxes. Many everyday practices are great examples of how we hold corporations and the government in power. A main example of this would be shopping at chain clothing stores. During our class presentation by the journalist he uses examples about how power effects the media and the people, corporations, and large companies, this is present because the larger the resources the more leadership and power they will have over the proletariat. Media and power are closely related because the dominate class is shown to be the social norm and what many people in society strive to become one day. Furthermore, the media helps this theory to become evident when many hegemonic discourses are displayed over the internet, television shows, and in the newspapers. The journalist used Middle Eastern people as an example of cultural hegemonic discourse that is displayed in the media and how it affects the way we look at things based on what the government or people of authority assume about that particular person or culture. Automatically you assume negative thoughts about this culture because of the 911 booming in 2000. Moreover I will discuss the ways in which Hegemony is displayed in Canadian society.

Native Canadians all over the country are a great example of cultural hegemony. Natives are governed by the authority of the government and receive many benefits such as no taxes and living on reserves as a benefit because we took over there land many years ago. This in ways Benefits them but also puts us at risk, because by putting them on reserves away from us, takes away from socially by never feeling entirely socially accepted but also harms us by making us pay higher taxes for them to live.

Gramsci in many ways believed the media has always had a large role in teaching people to do things everyday that support power structures. Hegemony is one way in which this theory becomes truth.