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~ Albert Einstein
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Michel Foucault’s influence is now so pervasive that a philosophy intended to challenge established ways of thinking has itself become an established way of thinking.
Don’t know much about Foucault but recognise the name? This week the French philosopher Michel Foucault would have turned 100. And although he died at the age of 57 in 1984, he is very much present and accounted for in every university in the West. Just ask my criminology students at Melbourne University, who often groan when his name is mentioned. He is that ubiquitous. Why?
Do you remember that old chestnut from the McCarthy era, that “there’s a red under every bed”? To impress your friends, try this line: “there is power under every tower”. Get it? Let me explain.
Michel Foucault challenged us to think about who decides what is normal. AP Photo/Alexis Duclos
Foucault is most famous for his use of the image of a panopticon, a prison system devised by Jeremy Bentham in the late 18th century. In a panopticon, prison cells surround a central guard tower with shuttered windows, so prisoners never knew whether they were being watched, although they were always visible.
Foucault draws a striking contrast between the panopticon and an earlier account of someone being tortured, drawn and quartered in a public square. His point being that while public torture was messy and could arouse sympathy for its victims, modern institutions exercise power discreetly through constant surveillance.
Like the prisoners in the panopticon, we “freely” govern our own behaviour because we don’t want to be noticed by the authorities. This self-regulation feeds into a broader system of “governmentality”, in which the state shapes the social norms most people adhere to, reducing the need to exercise power through physical force.
Foucault’s challenge to established ways of thinking also extended to sexuality
From Foucault’s perspective, the mainstream media, the government, and all the major institutions – schools, hospitals, asylums – are all in cahoots with each other, establishing and reinforcing the existing structures of power. They do this by presenting “normal” behaviour in such a way that it aligns with the existing order. From this perspective, teaching is a means of discipline and the sick and mentally ill are victims of “biopower” – their bodies are managed, regulated and confined by the state.
Does this all sound a bit paranoid? Did he have anything positive to say?
This semester I am guiding third-year students through a criminology capstone subject, their final hurdle towards completing a major. It is an anxiety-producing process, as most of them have never done this before.
Foucault comes to the rescue.
He gives them a practical tool: Foucauldian “discourse analysis”, which helps them to deconstruct the language through which institutions exercise power. For instance, students learn to identify punitive colonial language – “law and order”, “community safety”, “cracking down on crime” – used in government policies concerning Indigenous incarceration in the Northern Territory. They also learn to see the way the media use softer language to portray corporations responsible for environmental destruction – “environmental incident”, “regulatory breach” – in contrast to the way they describe the drunk homeless person causing havoc in the street – “antisocial behaviour”, “public menace”.
Foucault’s challenge to established ways of thinking also extended to sexuality. His own sexual promiscuity was considered deviant by many, but he challenged us to think about who decides what is normal. His ideas on sexuality helped lay the foundations for queer studies and influenced identity politics, both of which focus on ways to free people from the ever-present structures of power that tell you how to act and what to think.
Still don’t believe Foucault is influential?
What’s Lizzie Borden got to do with it?
Let’s take one of the most popular Netflix series at the moment, Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story. This true-crime series is based on the real-life murder suspect who was acquitted of the charge of murdering her parents with an axe in 1893. The series has received extensive criticism for ignoring historical reality and representing Borden as neurodiverse, gender fluid and a victim of abusive parents. Unfortunately, it seems she wasn’t any of these things.
Then why might the makers of this series be pushing this particular narrative? Not surprisingly, the answer is Foucault.
By presenting the Lizzie Borden story through the lens of power dynamics and identity politics – the patriarchy, abusive parents, neuro-normality – the producers can be sure that it will resonate with viewers today. It also allows us to revel in the excessive and gleeful violence she visits upon her parents because through this framework it is totally justifiable and should even be celebrated. And yet doesn’t this seem a bit ironic?
If Foucault helps us to see deliberately hidden power dynamics, the creators of The Lizzie Borden Story have got things back to front. They have invented circumstances and relationships in order to impose a contemporary interpretation on a historical crime story. This is a form of reverse engineering. Foucault’s influence is now so pervasive that a philosophy intended to challenge established ways of thinking has itself become an established way of thinking.
Not bad for a deviant French philosopher.
