Detention and Discipline in Level 16: Reinforcing Normative
Femininity
Rukaiya
Sarkar
Senior Research Fellow
Department of English
Cooch Behar Panchanan Barma University
Cooch Behar, West Bengal, India
Abstract:
Modern disciplinary technique focuses on the
rehabilitation of the inmates as per the norms of the ruling authority. And the
process of rehabilitation is conducted mainly through monitoring and
controlling of the incarcerated bodies. The main intention behind this research
paper is to show that how these modern disciplinary techniques reinforce
normative femininity in the process of rehabilitation. In the context of the science fiction film Level 16, this
paper will try to explore that how gender roles get specified within the
incarcerated body through the enforcement of ‘Biopower’ in a disciplinary
institute which seems like a prison. This paper will also focus on that how
gender can itself be a form of imprisonment in a medically advanced world of
science fiction. I will be considering the central ideas of Michel Foucault
regarding the modern prison from his book Discipline and Punish and I will also take into consideration
Foucault’s notion of bio-politics to study that how biopower is used as a
dominant tool to normalise the socially constructed gender roles. I will be
considering Sarah Pemberton’s “Enforcing Gender: The Constitution of Sex and
Gender in Prison” to look at the gendered nature of disciplinary techniques.
Keywords: Biopower, Discipline, Discourse,
Femininity, Science-fiction, Surveillance
In general, normative femininity
can be understood as a standard or the attributes which a woman must have to be
a socially acceptable female. It includes everything like the standard
biological features, the presupposed social and cultural roles etc. In order to
understand that how normative femininity is operating in society, it is important
to look at how this standard of being a female is constructed. The sex/gender
distinction has always been at the centre of feminist criticism where sex is
determined by the biological features and Gender is perceived as a social
construction. This distinction of the biological categories of sex (male and
female) from the socially constructed gender roles (man and woman) supports the
assertion that gender roles are not naturally followed from the biology of a
human. So, normative femininity comes under the broader category of being a
woman. And to normalize this socially
constructed concept of gender as natural to the sexed body there are lots of
discourses and social institutions are operating underneath the everyday
politics of life. Foucault says discourses
are the way through which power operates in a society and according to him
gender itself is a discourse which is not natural to a human body rather it is
culturally constructed.
Now the question is how the discourse of penal system makes the discourse
of normative femininity works in the society. Although, feminism believes that
the biology of a human is natural, but Foucault debunks this notion by saying
that human biology is also trained, shaped and formed as per the norms of the
ruling authority. He argues in The History of Sexuality that sex and
sexuality are produced through prevailing discourses and there are no
pre-existing categories of male and female. According to him, a broader
strategy of power which he terms as ‘bio-politics’ determines our thoughts of
body. Foucault has never talked about how discipline reinforces the gender
roles but he has talked about how bio-power works through disciplinary
techniques to form a reformed individual who conforms to the pre-existing norms
of the society. So, Foucault’s concept of bio-power and the notion of
discipline can be conjointly used to study how the discourse of modern penal
system reinforces normative femininity.
Within the modern penal system
which mainly focuses on reforming the body of the convict unlike the classical
penal system which focuses on torturing the body of the prisoner, biopower
becomes a dominant form of control. Biopower operates through regulating the
forces of the incarcerated body as per the dominant authority. This domain of
power makes the individual internalize the prevailing discourses by controlling
and shaping his/her body. In the process of doing so, it makes the specific
roles of being feminine or being un-feminine natural to the incarcerated body.
The disciplinary power of modern penal system expects the prisoner to behave
according to their gender roles in the process of rehabilitation which clearly
indicates that how disciplinary institutions like prison plays a major role in
formulating and normalizing the gendered identities of men and women.
The reinforcement of gender roles
or more specifically the pre-existing roles of being appealingly feminine
becomes evident in the science fiction film Level16 to a great extent.
One of the major characteristics of a science fiction film is that it deals
with a world which is somehow different from the world of the spectators and
this particular characteristic makes it able to provide new perspectives to
look at the most common issues of society. In the same way, by shifting the
setting to a strange disciplinary institute this film makes the spectators
thinks about the threatening consequences of enforcing bio-power in a medically
advanced world of science fiction.
Directed by Danishka Esterhazy
this science fiction film presents a boarding school where a group of girls are
staying to embrace their femininity. Throughout the film the spectators will
not be able to find any link between this institute and the familiar concept of
school. The setting of the school in a windowless building makes it more like a
prison than a school. The omnipresence of CCTV cameras and electronic
monitoring devices everywhere in the school indicates the presence of panoptic
surveillance to a great extent. The doors with high security lock can only be
opened through the cards the authorities have. The whole structure of the
institute cannot be linked to the traditional concept of school. And the way
girls are treated here is very much analogical to the way the prisoners are
treated in a prison. Their activities throughout the whole day are determined
by the authorities and they cannot even move without the consent of the
authorities. The traces of the disciplinary techniques of modern penal system
are can be found in this film from the very beginning but in an implicit way.
It is the tendency of science fiction to present a familiar concept in an
unfamiliar way to create a distance between the world of presentation and the
world of the spectators so the spectators can perceive and analyse the familiar
issues presented within the world of science fiction as an outsider. In this
film the defamiliarization of prison through the involvement of an educational
institute makes the spectators think about those aspects of modern disciplinary
techniques which are rarely taken into consideration in the field of criticism.
The school has 16 levels which the girls need to complete to be adopted
by some aristocratic families and though it is considered as a boarding school
but education is not provided here. Throughout all the levels they will be
learning the qualities of being feminine which will make them suitable for
being adopted. The disciplinary techniques presented within this particular
film clearly shows that how the access to education is not considered as a
necessary condition to be feminine. Obedience, patience and cleanliness are
regarded as the feminine virtues which the school is trying to impart to the
girls while anger and curiosity are said to be avoided because these are not
ideal for a woman to have. The girls are being told that they cannot go outside
because the air outside is poisonous and the school is protecting them. But as
the narrative develops it is revealed that the authorities do not allow the
girls to go outside to protect their skin from sunburn. To keep the faces of
the girls fair and beautiful as the society expects them to be is one of the
main motives of this institution.
The girls are conforming to the rules and protocols of the institute as
they are always under constant surveillance of the disciplinary force which
lead to the formation of their docility. In the process of disciplining them
the ruling authority intervenes in the formation of their subjectivity through
the implication of power which in Foucault’s word is called ‘subjection’
(qtd.in Kelly 87). In the process of subjection, subjectivity is not formed as
a relation of an individual to his/her own self, but he/she is made into
subjects through the intervention of power. And discourses are the ways through
which we get to know ourselves and our relationship to the world to gradually
shape our subjectivity as Foucault discussed in The Archaeology of Knowledge
and the Discourse on Language. So, according to Foucault the formation of
subjectivity is always discursive. In the same way, the knowledge of the girls
about themselves in this disciplinary institute are determined by the
prevailing discourses of the disciplinary institute, and their subjectivity
becomes mere effect of the function of discursive power. They are being taught
that how an ideal girl should behave as per the expectation of the society.
Their skin must have to be fair, so the school is protecting them from the
sunrays by placing them in a windowless building. The school also emphasizes on
the quality of being clean to be a perfect woman as it has been said that: “A
clean girl is always humble and patience. A clean girl embodies sweetness. A
clean girl is always fit and temperate…” (00:03:22-00:03:28). They are being
taught that girls are not allowed to make eye-contacts while speaking to
someone, they must fix their eyes on the ground which makes them obedient. So,
it becomes very obvious that the school is trying to promote false ideologies
regarding the qualities of being feminine. Through the use of modern
disciplinary techniques in the context of a science fictional institute this
particular film is trying to show that how discipline can reinforce the
discursive femininity.
While studying the discursive formation of their femininity, one has to
look at the way through which the discourses of the institute are getting
internalized among the girls. It has been mentioned earlier that biopower as a
form of control becomes prevalent within the discourse of modern penal system.
In The History of Sexuality Foucault has talked about biopower which
works through monitoring and shaping the individual by controlling the forces
of the body. It does not rely on death threats like the sovereign power which
Foucault has talked about in his book Discipline and Punish, rather its
major focus is on the living body or more specifically on forming the living
body as per the ruling ideology. Science fiction films attempt to show that how
biopower can be a threat to human being in a medically advanced world. The
employment of biopower to shape the girls as per the demands of the authority
is evident to a great extent in this particular film. From the very beginning
of the film, the spectators have several glimpses of the presence of biopower
such as the activities of the girls throughout the whole day are determined and
monitored by the authority. The authority decides what to do, what to eat, when
to move, when to sleep and more importantly how to behave. It seems like the
girls do not have any right even over their own body. For controlling them,
certain vitamins are provided by the authorities which the girls need to take
on a regular basis. Although, they have been told that the vitamins are for
their good health, but later it is revealed that the vitamins are given to make
them fall in deep sleep. It is a clear indication that advance medication can
be used to control individuals. The forces of the bodies are getting controlled
and monitored through constant surveillance to make them internalize those
particular institutional discourses of femininity.
The kind of surveillance is used here to monitor the girls resembles to
Jeremy Bentham’s panoptic surveillance which is designed to keep maximum number
of prisoners under observation with a single guard whom the prisoners will not
be able to see. The invisibility of the authority in power makes the prisoners
aware of its omnipresence which lead them to modify their behaviour according
to the demands of the authority. Foucault considers panopticon as a
disciplinary space which functions to create efficiency, effectiveness and more
specifically docility among the subjects who become its investment
(135-69). And this futuristic
disciplinary institute of level 16 provides a modified form of panopticon where
instead of a central tower, CCTV cameras and monitoring devices are used to
control the girls and to make them efficient the way the authority expects or
in other words to create docility among them so that they continue to performs
the feminine roles which the invisible authority wants. The objectifying gaze
of the modified version of panopticon leads to the self -regulation of the
girls themselves under the constraints of power. So, it will not be unjust to
say that the modern disciplinary institute of this particular film attempts to
normalize the discursive formation of feminine identity by making use of the
mechanism of biopower along with the constant surveillance.
On the other hand, Gilles Deleuze
considers panopticon as “a map, cartography that is co-extensive with the whole
social field” (36). This idea of panopticon is not only limited to the penal
discourse but can be applied on the society as a whole to monitor and control
people. In a world of science fiction various modified forms of panoptic
surveillance can be encountered. In Level
16, the idea of panopticon extends from a penal space to an educational
space as the institute is shown as a boarding school. And by shifting the
panoptic space, this particular film emphasizes on the existence of the
disciplinary techniques even outside the prison which conforms to Deleuze’s
idea of panopticon. These disciplinary techniques or the tools of control to
make people behave in a certain way become normalised within the course of
life. In the same way, the disciplinary techniques in this science fictional
institute make the girls believe in false ideologies regarding their roles in
society by reinforcing the traits of discursive femininity among them.
But the ending of the film makes it clear that the reform of an
individual’s subjectivity as per the expectation of the ruling authority is not
possible only through controlling the bodily forces or by enforcing biopower as
the girls went against the authority and becomes able to escape their condition
of imprisonment. To have a beautiful face is considered as the basic standard
of being feminine in this institute and at the end of the film, one of the
girls cuts her own face to make herself undesirable for the institute or can
also be say that for the society which demands her to be beautiful. So, all the
efforts to make the girls submissive and obedient become futile as the girls
end up being rebellious.
Although Foucault has not paid attention to how disciplinary techniques
can be applied to the construction and normalization of discursive femininity
but his ideas regarding sexuality, biopower and the modern penal system are
conjointly used here to study that how discipline can contribute to the
reinforcement of femininity. Foucault’s main argument in Discipline
andPunish is that modern prison involves disciplinary techniques for the
rehabilitation of the prisoners as per the ruling authority and the presence of
constant surveillance makes these disciplinary techniques work to achieve the
intended goal. The effectiveness of the disciplinary techniques depends on the
extent to which the prisoners internalize the norms that the authority is
trying to impose upon them. From the above- mentioned science fiction film Level 16, it can be said that
disciplinary techniques can also be gendered and these techniques can use
gender to create a condition of imprisonment. The disciplinary techniques of
this particular institute expect the girls to internalize the discourses of
being feminine and in shaping the girls as per their expectation it is making
use of biopower as a form of control and also using constant surveillance of
modern penal system. To conclude, it will not be unjust to say that Level 16
becomes able to provide a vision which clarifies that disciplinary techniques
of modern penal system can also be used to reinforce the normative femininity
and by making institutional attempts to reform the girls futile this film also
questions the rehabilitative ideal of modern penal system.
Works Cited
Deleuze, Gilles. “Proscripts on the Societies
of Control”. L’Autre Journal, no. 1, Columbia
University Press, 1990.
Foucault, Michel. Discipline and Punish:
The Birth of the Prison. Pantheon Books, 1997. Foucault, Michel. The
History of Sexuality. Translated by Robert Hurley, Random House, 1978, New
York.
Kelly, Mark G.E. “Subjectivity”. The
Political Philosophy of Michel Foucault. Routledge, 2009, New York, pp.
78-104.
Level 16. Created by Danishka Esterhazy, Dark Sky Films, 2018.
Pemberton, Sarah. “Enforcing Gender: The
Constitution of Sex and Gender in Prison Regimes.” Journal of Women in Culture
and Society, vol.39, no.1,2013, pp.151-175.