The Introduction to the History of Sexuality by Foucault Essay

line of his book is the chronology of sexuality throughout Western history. Foucault theorizes that the desire to remove a part of the self from the sexual realm grew out of the Victorian aversion against the "dirty", or supposedly unclean parts of the human experience. He says: The seventeenth century, then, was the beginning of an age of repression emblematic of what we call the bourgeois societies, . . . As if in order to gain mastery over it [sexuality] in reality, it had first been necessary…

According to Halperin, “the 'sexuality' of the classical Athenians...was constituted by the very principles on which Athenian public life was organized” (Halperin 419). By this he is referring to the fact that sexuality in the Ancient Athens society was socially constructed, but not in the way that it is understood to be socially constructed in modern thought. The so-called sexuality of the Ancient Greek peoples in Athens was directly related to how the society worked, how it was built and how it…

Known as the Two Sex theory, devised by historian Thomas Laqueur, female sexuality would be characterized purely by a woman’s reproductive potential, where the concept of an innate maternal instinct would become the new prioritized ideal. The female orgasm was renounced by a new essence of masculine superiority. This notion can be asserted with the Phallocentric inclination of the late 18th century, examined by historian Tim Hitchcock, as period characterized by penetration and precedence of the…

the regulatory controls such as bio-politics of the population take place. Foucault describes how this “bio-power” has been influential to the rise and growth of capitalism. He was adamant that the triumph of this economic structure “would not have been possible without the controlled insertion of bodies into the machinery of production and the adjustment of the phenomena of population to economic processes”. (Foucault, p. 141) Since capitalism demands growth, such as establishment of new companies…

Both Foucault and Butler claim that sexuality is not what makes us who we are, that it is simply a social construct. In addition, they both believe that by submitting to the mechanisms of power and categorizing ourselves sexually, we are giving impetus to our own subjugation. While they hold similar beliefs in many ways, and much of Judith Butler's work is building upon work done by Michael Foucault, Judith Butler does diverge from Foucault's ideas. The reason Butler revises Foucault is that his…

always be present. The Panopticon, a prison described by Foucault, “is a machine for dissociating the see/being seen dyad: in the peripheric ring, one is totally seen, without ever seeing” (321, Foucault). This literally means that in the formation of the panopticon those who are being seen can not see one another and the one who sees everything can never be seen. That is the most important tool of the panopticon. Foucault makes this assumption about today’s society by saying that we are…

For example in the setting of a workplace the power does not pass from the top down; instead it circulates through their organizational practices. Such practices act like a grid, provoking and inciting certain courses of action and denying others. Foucault considers this as no straightforward matter and believes that it rests on how far individuals interpret what is being laid down as "obvious" or "self evident", institutional power works best when all parties accept it willingly. Foucault's notion…

The public spectacle went as far as chain-gangs until that was abolished in 1848 (Foucault 8). The reason for this change, according to Foucault, was due to the overwhelming thought of humanization that developed in society. How did this change to a humanization thinking come about and more importantly how was it implemented into the penal system? Foucault accredits the evolution to the humanization process of thinking based on how people portrayed the executioner. What that means is the overwhelming…

Although power is seen as an unrestricted issue it is still viewed by Foucault as a stabilising force that leaves little room for manoeuvre, the way in which this is done is by, for example, a workplace closing down possibilities, inciting or inducing a certain course of action as oppose to proliferating them, this is the way in which they keep a hold on peoples lives, ordering them in a particular direction. It is at this point, Foucault argues, where the workforce feels as if they are being monitored…

can be just as nerve racking. “Thus the Christian school must not simply train docile children; it must also make it possible to supervise the parents, to gain information as to their way of life, their resources, their piety, and their morals.” (Foucault, 18) To truly understand someone you must not only know the individual, but those associated with that individual. By knowing and understanding the lifestyle that this person chooses to live you have gained…