It is therefore possible to contribute to political action not only by entering the fray but also by providing studies of official techniques of regulation, punishment, normalisation and so on to those groups that have a direct interest in their subversion. That last sentence fits Chomsky to a 'T'- and, to turn the topic back to its origin, Wolf too. With this chapter Wolf , perhaps unwittingly, reveals the traditional power shy nature of female discourse and establishes the role it plays in abetting the 'normalisation' of the traditional power happy patriarchy. We should try to grasp subjection into its material instance as a constitution. It becomes the vehicle of that power which, in turn, has constituted it as that type of vehicle.
Power is both reflexive, then, and impersonal.
It acts in a relatively autonomous way and produces subjects just as much as, or even more than, subjects reproduce it. The point is not to ignore the subject or to deny its existence but rather to examine subjection , the processes of the construction of subjects in and as a collection of techniques or flows of power which run through the whole of a particular social body. As I continue this analysis it's important to note that Wolf herself does not employ Foucault 's language. While her selected bibliography lists one of Foucault 's pivotal works, she does not cite him within the work itself. Put another way, men are powerful in large part because they were brought up to be that way.