Download Michel Foucault: Discourse and Power in the History of Sexuality - Prof. Lorelei Mcaloon-K and more Study notes International Women's Voices in PDF only on Docsity! Michel Foucault Michel Foucault (1926-1984) • Born in France • Philosopher & historian For example: • “Deviant” sexual behavior can give rise to whole series of objects of knowledge (personality of person, hereditary influences environmental factors) only because a set of rules and conditions were established between institutions, economic and social practices and patterns of behavior. • These do not add up to sexual deviancy, but their relations and differences allow us to say certain things about sexual behavior as discourse. In other words, we can create discourses about a person’s “deviant” sexuality: Personality of Person: 1. Was he/she born that way? 2. Did something happen to him/her as a child to make him this way? 3. It’s the mothers fault, always is. 4. He/she was always “weird” as a child. 5. Did he inappropriately touch another child? 6. As an adult, does he/she have sexual feelings for adolescents or children? 7. Was he/she inappropriately touched? 8. If she’s a hooker, she’s probably been molested and had a troubled life. 9. He/she has always been a homophobe; maybe he’s hiding his real sexual desires Hereditary influences & Environmental Factors 1. I think his brother is gay , too; it runs in his family. 2. Must be the “Gay Gene.” 3. Researchers say that the more boys a mother has, the higher the likelihood that the younger ones will be gay. 4. Maybe “it” is in the water. (i.e., gov. conspiracy) 5. Selling sex is just wrong. 6. No woman “likes” selling sex (strippers, escorts) 7. Too much of any kind of sex is wrong. 8. Dr. Phil says men are natural predators, so she shouldn’t be surprised if he stalks her! 9. If he’s gay and he’s a Republican, he cannot expect to work in public service. 10. We cannot cure/rehabilitate pedophiles; they have said so themselves. We must put them in jail. Schools should teach comprehensive sex ed. Schools should teach abstinence only. The Lord can make you clean again. Institutions that support discourse about a this person’s “deviant” sexuality: Psychiatric: DSM diagnoses (Not “normal”) (Many changes over time; some “disorders” get eliminated, some added) Criminal Justice: Penalties for certain sexual behaviors. Retribution (vengeance or justice = jail time) or Restoration (Repair = paid for your crime, second chance). Religious: Creates Morality, Attitudes (ungodly, repent, change) Behavior will “hurt” others. Family: Acceptance/Rejection (Not one of us.) Educational System: Acceptance/Rejection (bullying) Political: Creates Laws, Attitudes that implicitly sanction violence (DOMA, “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”) Mass Media: Disseminates certain sexual images, but not all (Craig’s List) Society: Creates and enforces the attitudes: Acceptance of violence against • Beginning of 17th century, people’s sexuality out in the open –“Bodies made a display of themselves” (p. 3) • By 19th century, the legitimate and procreative couple represented sexuality –“… serious business of reproduction” (p.3) We “Other Victorians” “Other Victorians” • Illegitimate sexualities were acknowledged and pushed to the fringes of society: – The brothel – The mental institution “Everywhere else, modern puritanism imposed its triple edict of taboo, nonexistence and silence” (pp. 4-5) Discourse of Modern Sexual Repression • Holds up well because it is easy to uphold • Discourse on sexuality became intertwined with discourse of capitalism and pursuit of capitalistic “If sex is so rigorously repressed, this is because it is incompatible with a general and intensive work imperative” (p. 6) The History of Sexuality • Attempts to refute: “Repressive Hypothesis" – Sex has been consistently repressed, – We can only achieve political liberation by means of sexual liberation • Focuses on last two centuries – Function of sexuality as an analytics of power related to the emergence of a science of sexuality • Reparative Therapy of Male Homosexuality Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) Secrecy for a Sexual Practice that Banishes People to Restrooms Foucault states: • That what we think of as "repression" of sexuality actually constituted sexuality as a core feature of our identities, and produced a proliferation of discourse on the subject. • We think of sexuality as our essence, as the thing that makes us what we are, when in fact, it is just a social construct that makes us easier to control. • So, in reality we do speak about sex via speaking about repression of sex • Sex has not been repressed or silenced • Discourse about sex increased –Confession of sexual desire/temptation –Scientific study (demographic and statistical analysis) • Became an object of knowledge Ars erotica Kama Sutra: Sanskrit for “Aphorisms of Love” A collection of Hindu sexual practices “The enjoyment of appropriate objects by the five senses of hearing, feeling, seeing, tasting and smelling, assisted by the mind together with the soul.” • Tantra: • Emerged as rebellion against organized religion, which held that sexuality should be rejected in order to reach enlightenment • Sexuality was a doorway to the divine –Earthly pleasures are sacred acts Ars erotica • Tantra means “to manifest, to expand, to show and to weave” • Sex as a means of transformation http://www.idiom.com/~kalin/tantra1.html
