Subverting norms requires retraining bodies, not resignifying signs.

Evidence

Note that the mosque participants regard both compliance to and rebellion against norms as dependent upon the teachability of the body-what I called the “docility of the body” in chapter 1 -such that both virtuous and unvirtuous dispositions are neccesarily learn . This means that the possibility for disrupting the structural stability of norms depends upon literally retutoring the body rather than on destabilizing the referential structure of the sign, or, for that matter, positing an altern representational logic that challenges masculinist readings of feminine corporeality. Thus, anyone interested in reforming this tradition cannot simply assume that resignify Islamic practices and virtues (like modesty or donning the veil) would change the meaning of these prac.. tices for the mosque participants; rather, what is required is a much deeper en.. gagement with the architecture of the self that undergirds a particular mode of living and attachment, of which modesty/veiling are a part. — Saba Mahmood, Politics of Piety, 1126

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Butler’s theory of performativity and subversion — Mahmood explicitly engages and challenges Butler here, the key interlocutor of the book.
• DEEPTHINKING: The claim that political subversion of patriarchal norms must go through bodily retraining rather than semiotic resignification resists quick summary and reshapes how one thinks about feminist political strategy.