"If you weigh me, it’s normal weight. But because I keep sitting (in the wheelchair), sometimes I feel I look a little overweight." For Bazz, gaining weight affected her feelings of attractiveness and her mobility. She felt that disabled bodies were already perceived as deviant, and gaining weight would make her body even more so.

Results from the Participants

Based on Foucauldian analysis, feminist thinkers elaborate on how female bodies are rendered docile. Cameron and McDermott suggest the example of women starving themselves to achieve contemporary ideals of a slim body.

University of North Texas

Foucault’s ‘docile body’ is a body that is subject to internal self-discipline. This demands a loss of power as the self-discipline stems from subjugation to hegemonic discourses and disciplinary mechanisms exercised in post-modern societies. 

"Docile Body"

Dhillon, M., & Kumar, A. (2026). ‘Disabled and beautiful’: young women’s negotiations of beauty and body ideals. Disability & Society

‘Disabled and beautiful’: young women’s negotiations of beauty and body ideals

Female Bodies as Docile

Integrating disability as a category of analysis and a system of representation expands feminist theory and contributes to feminism’s intersectionality.


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