DISCIPLINE OF THE BODY AND REPRODUCTIVE POWER: A FOUCAULDIAN READING OF VASECTOMY PRACTICES IN INDONESIAN PUBLIC DISCOURSE

This study aims to describe how the state exercises power through biopolitical practices in regulating the bodies and reproductive capacities of poor men via the discourse of vasectomy, as well as to examine the forms of social resistance that emerge against such policies. The focus of this study is on the statement made by West Java Governor Dedi Mulyadi, who proposed vasectomy as an ideal form of participation for poor men in the family planning (KB) program. The research applies Michel Foucault’s theory of biopolitics of the body. The findings reveal that the state uses multidimensional discursive strategies to regulate the male body of the poor—ranging from public moralization through viral family cases, internalization of masculine responsibility, medical legitimization, economic incentives, to the framing of gender equality. These strategies reflect the operation of biopower, which combines disciplinary and productive forces.However, within this configuration, resistance also arises—through religion, human rights discourse, global critiques of social selectivity in population policy, and symbolic rejection of stigmatization. Such resistance does not manifest in frontal or legalistic forms but rather through symbolic reversals, narrative critique, and public empathy that challenge the state’s visual and moral strategies in narrating bodily control.