Biopolitics and the repressive hypothesis of the body: the case of swimming training in Finland
By: Elina Vaahtera
Abstract
Iris Marion Young, a feminist theoretician, argued that patriarchal society inhibits women to cultivate capable bodies. In contrast, Foucauldian arguments have stressed that to view a certain historical situation as a consequence of repression, overlooks how the idea of repression is already a product of power. This article explores this nexus between Foucault and Young, and investigates how bio/thanatopolitical projects saturate the notion of the repressed body. The article investigates how the inability to swim has been connected with inhibition in Finland in the twentieth and early twenty-first century. It argues that the repressive hypothesis of the body generates the identification with able-bodiedness in the ways in which eventually favour athletic or otherwise capable bodies. Moreover, the assumption that incapability is an inhibited way of being makes able-bodiedness appear to be primary and original. Thus, the exploration of the repressive hypothesis helps us to understand the intricate mechanisms of ableism.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/15017419.2015.1063538 | Journal eISSN: 1745-3011
Language: English
Page range: 142 - 153
Submitted on: Mar 5, 2014
Accepted on: Feb 15, 2015
Published on: Jul 2, 2016
Published by: Stockholm University Press
In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services
© 2016 Elina Vaahtera, published by Stockholm University Press
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.