M.F

"Discipline makes individuals; it is the specific technique of a power that regards individuals as objects [subjects] and as insturments [subjected] of its exercise. It is not a triumphant power..it is modest..which functions as permanent economy"
Foucault, The Means of Correct Training p 170

The subject or individual of the discourse happening is also being SUBJECTED to discourse and is produced within the discourse- the subject couldn’t exist without the discourse to support it. In this way, power is both a positive and negative. But never just one or the other. For example, when we look at ads, movies, porn, magazines, books, etc we often will blame the maker of these for the sexually explicit (etc) messages in them, but that is ignoring the fact that WE HAVE TO BE TRAINED TO RECOGNIZE WHAT THEY ARE, and more importantly, why they are sexual/wrong/right/moral/not moral, etc. It is through this power (created as the individual) that we can create the discourse that is positive and negative at the same time.


from: http://lamar.colostate.edu/~jcarlyon/head-foucault.jpg