Empowering Femininity > Patriarchal Power

Sandra Lee Bartky opens her argument of the modernization of patriarchal power by stating, "early feminist scholars often emphasized how social organizations and institutions such as churches, police, schools, and medicine controlled women's behavior by rewarding girls and women who conformed to social expectations and punishing those who did not" (Bartky 76). But because of new laws, changes in social expectations and the fact that patriarchal power can no longer be taught by social institutions, the actions of patriarchal power in the 21st century United States are now internalized by both men and women.

Bartky mentions the idea of the Panopticon and how it was used as a watchtower for prison guards to watch over prisoners without them even knowing when the guards were there. She applies this idea to patriarchal power. Michel Foucault, a mentioned resource in Bartky's piece argues, "the rise of parliamentary institutions and of new conceptions of political liberty was accompanied by the emergence of a new and unprecedented discipline directed against the body" (Bartky 77). Women self-surviel more than men and the first thing we self-surviel is body size. Bartky suggests that in most cultures, it is socially expected for the female body to be smaller than the male body because women are suppose to take up less space than men. I halfway agree with Bartky; I do agree that society expects women to look smaller and to be less muscular than men, but I do not agree that it is for the purpose of pleasing patriarchal power in which women are subjected to become petite in order to take up less space. A strong emphasis on the differences between the size and shape of men and women is portrayed in the media. For example:

http://www.shutterstock.com/s/fitness+couple/search.html

This image shows a very large and extremely muscular man and his facial expression is incredibly powerful and somewhat threatening. He is only touching the woman with his one arm which is around her back. His fingers are spread out which shows a sign of firmness and power. The woman in the picture is in a leopard print bikini with her hair down and she has a significant amount of makeup on. Her position only reveals half of her body with emphasis on her leg and butt. Her position shows attachment to the man, especially on the man's muscles. In my opinion, this image is a good representation of patriarchal power because we are only revealed the woman's muscular leg while we can see the majority of the man's muscular body, which is strange since this picture is labeled as "Fitness Couple," implying both people are "fit".

Julia Serano tells us in her book, Whipping Girl, that the abolishment of patriarchal power will happen through empowering femininity rather than the feminist movement aiming to abolish the societal binary. Serano wants us to empower the feminist movement from the core by challenging the idea that femininity is lesser than masculinity. We can empower femininity through promotion, action steps, and by asking for basic human rights.