Foucault, power, motherhood, and female incarceration in Brazil

Abstract

This article seeks to link Foucault's theory on discourse and power to issues concerning women, particularly women and incarceration. Prisons were originated as specifically male places, just as norms, laws, and jurisprudence were created from a male perspective. Only in contemporary times there has been greater concern for women, their specificities, and criminal justice. However, there is still a need to bring to light reflections on women, mothers, and prison, which is the focus of this work. Along with feminist theories by Davis (2016, 2018), Badinter (1985), Frederici (2017), Beauvoir (1967 and 1970), Butler (2018), and others, Foucault (1979, 1988, 1999, 2000) inspires us to think about the feminine and the powers that govern, regulate, monitor, and tutor women's bodies. In this way, we seek to reflect on female incarceration in Brazil and its peculiarities by examining the powers involved in this incarceration. We bring up a discussion on motherhood and history, the Brazilian prison system, criminal justice, and the judgments of incarcerated women, with the aim of contributing to the debate on evaluations and the hegemonic patriarchal discourse on the behavior of women-mothers and prison. Thus, we analyze the discourses found in judicial decisions that contain moral judgments about women as mothers, reflecting on the hegemonic discourses surrounding motherhood and mothering and how they are invoked by judges, who often exercise personal power in their decisions. Using female vulnerability as justification for certain norms, judgments, and decisions, the state and its powers seek ways to control the female bodies in this context.