Commentary: Disciplining Bodies

Abstract

I recently gave birth to my first child. Immediately after he was born, the midwives conducted the usual examination — counting toes, checking vital signs, etc. They mumbled a few comments under their breath and made a few minor observations, but nothing seemed to cause undue concern. I looked at the paperwork after they left, and my eyes scanned down to the section titled ‘Abnormalities’. To my surprise, there was an affirmative tick in a section I was expecting to be blank. The offending feature was listed as ‘webbing between third and fourth toes’. My surprise was not that my child had webbing between his toes — I had already noticed that and considered it to be entirely unremarkable. Rather, I was taken aback by the naming of this as an abnormality. Everyone at some point in their lives is made aware of their position on the normal curve (some, unluckily, feel this more often and more acutely than others), but I had never experienced the modern clinical state so squarely classifying my own flesh and blood. Over the next few months, my child’s body was measured and weighed and his progress plotted along a curve of normality that immediately imposed an expected standard of physical development. In a little red book, I conspired with health visitors and GPs to record minute changes to my child’s body as part of the Preschool Surveillance Programme.