The History of Sexuality: An Introduction

The History of Sexuality: An Introduction, Volume 1 (1990 [1978])
By Michel Foucault

Synopsis: Asks: Why have Westerners so obsessively talked about sex since the 17th century? Also wants to know "why we burden ourselves today with so much guilt for having once made sex a sin" (9). "The object, in short, is to define the regime of power-knowledge-pleasure that sustains the discourse on human sexuality in our part of the world" (11). Says that all of the repression and endless discourse surrounding sexuality has been motivated by one major concern: "to ensure population, to reproduce labor capacity, to perpetuate the form of social relations: in short, to constitute a sexuality that is economically useful and politically conservative" (37). [I love that line! Conspiracy!] Foucault basically lays out the various ways sexuality came to be talked about and the ways it came to be controlled via its relegation to certain spheres and certain "pathologized" definitions (i.e. how it came to be cornered and contained and used as an element of power and weapon of control). Argues that in the 17th century, with an increased influence of Christianity and with the rise of the bourgeois, sex was pushed into a constant discourse and through an endless process of speech. It was not that we all became "repressed," but rather, sex was taken up and "owned" by the bourgeois and forced into very specific categories which they could then control - i.e. sex was "supposed" to be for married couples. Other types of sexuality which did not fit this category were pathologized and made deviant - and we see a rise in these "other" sexualities because of attempts to control them. The bourgeois control of sexuality focused on four categories: 1) the hysterical woman; 2) the masturbating child; 3) the Malthusian couple; 4) the perverse adult. Childhood sexuality was especially suspect and squelched, providing proof of the way sexuality was "discoursed" as a tool of power and control. Power is embedded in everything.

Interesting Specifics:

"...power is tolerable only on condition that is mask a substantial part of itself" (86).

It was in the bourgeois family that sexuality of kids and adolescents was first problematized and feminine sexuality medicalized (120).

Sex became a tool through which the body was disciplined and the population was regulated; the discussion of sex thus became a supreme form of power and control.

Interacts With:
Refutes books that deal with Victorian repression hypothesis. Foucault says it wasn't repression, it was obsession - but obsession forced into a very specific and controlled discourse.