Sexuality is nothing but ‘the sets of effects produced in bodies in a complex political technology’ (Foucault) Discuss.
In supporting the late French philosopher Michael Foucault, l argue that sexuality is a cultural construction. In doing so, this essay shall explore Foucault’s History of Sexuality, volume 1 (1976) that belies the assumption that sexuality is an inherent truth of humanity. What is at the hallmark of Foucault’s thought is how we have shifted from sovereign power to ‘governmentality’ (Foucault, 1978: 87). A term that asks us to understand how aspects of modern societies are now constructions made by techniques of power /knowledge that are designed to govern, monitor, normalise and control the behaviour of individuals (Gordon, 1991). With regard to the latter, this essay explores Foucault’s analysis of sexuality by utilizing two of his focal points. On the one hand I will explore his notions that condemn sexuality as a fictitious ‘effect’ yet argue against his assertion that this is a modern phenomenon (Halperine, 1998) (Thorpe, 1992) . On the other, I will define and explore his concept of ‘bio power’ and touch upon the problems this paradigm can pose (Fraser, 1983) (Foucault, 1976: 137). Ultimately, whilst this essay acknowledges the shortcomings to Foucault’s concept of omnipresent power (how it problematizes an understanding of freedom), it adheres to his belief that no universal ‘truths’ (such as sexuality) of humanity exist.
In Foucault’s History of Sexuality volume 1 (1976) (HOS 1) he takes issue with the ‘repressive hypothesis’; a Freudian notion that dictates Victorian influences to have repressed sexuality in modern society (Foucault, 1976: 18). Alternatively, rather than society silencing sexuality, Foucault argued that discourse (groups of statements that represent influential and historical knowledge (Hall, 1997)) has proliferated around the subject since the eighteenth century (Foucault, 1976). Instead of elite power repressing sexuality, we have paradoxically constructed it; sexuality is in itself power/knowledge and operates through technologies such as modern science, politics and psychiatry (Foucault, 1976) (Lacombe, 1996). Nancy Fraser (1981) pointed out that in rejecting the repressive hypothesis Foucault is rejecting ‘repression versus liberation’ (Fraser, 1981: 281). This, argued Fraser, suggests that we are in need for an alternative framework for liberation and importantly, Foucault fails to offer this (Fraser, 1981). Is this the case? Or was Foucault significantly disinterested in discovering such liberation potentials? (Dean, 2012). Foucault’s academic mission was arguably not so concerned with the future; it was our present and our past that was up for examination.
According to Foucault, when individuals wanted to sexually ‘liberate’ themselves from repression, they were not freeing themselves from power; they were simply embodying this power for their own advantage (Foucault, 1976). Contrary to pre-modern sovereign rule where power required force, modern power intensifies itself; it is everywhere, it is ‘capillary’ (Foucault, 1976 : 44) (Fraser, 1981). Foucault specifically rejected the ‘juridic- discursive’ concept of power that paradoxically perceives power as something that dominates the less powerful (Foucault, 1976 : 88). Charles Taylor argued that Foucault’s conception of power (power as omnipresent) was ‘incoherent’ (Taylor, 1984: 166). Foucault’s main aim was to argue that ‘inner truths’ about are sexual selves are in fact disguises of power. Taylor argued that in Foucault’s attempts to unmask such constructed ‘truths’ he in turn contradicts his critique by searching for other ‘truths’ (Taylor, 1984). We can see the trap here, yet was this what Foucault endeavoured to do? For Foucault there was no criterion of ‘truth’, as soon as we attempt to discover truth about our sexual selves we simply fuel additional power into the discursive regime (Deleuze, 1988)(Foucault,
Panopticism Michel Foucault Final Draft Have you ever realized that we live in the society surrounded by panopticism? In our modern society, we live under the surveillance of the greater power, our every step and action is watched. According to Michel Foucault’s definition, panoticism is “the general principle of a new ‘political anatomy’ whose object and end are not the relations of sovereignty but the relations of discipline” (Foucault 295). It is a practice to discipline the modern…
to the emergence of the penitentiary through anecdotes and references then continue to explain how John Howard’s philosophies and Jeremy Bentham’s panopticon design revolutionized the prison system and its architecture. I examine theories of Michel Foucault, Jeremy Bentham and Erving Goffman who argue why prison architecture developed in the manner that it did and what the subsequent consequences are for inmates, prison staff and society. In the last section I will deliberate my own opinions based…
simplistic however, and only serve to further question the true value and necessity of the author’s presence in any written work. Through the comparison and analysis of literary scholars Roland Barthes and his essay “The Death of the Author” as well as Michel Foucault’s “What is an Author” the role of the author will be examined. More specifically the study of the origins and traditional understanding of the author, an exploration of the element of writing in relation to the author-text relationship and…
Professional Ethics October 1, 2013 Professor Rayman The Scientific Knowledge of the Individual In the book, Discipline and Punish, by Michel Foucault, Foucault explains the reform of the penal system and how it shifted from punishment to understanding the criminal as an individual by reaching “...the thoughts, the will, and inclinations”(DP, 16). Foucault states, “certainly the ‘crimes’ and ‘offenses’ on which judgment is passed are juridical objects defined by the code, but judgment is passed…
Michel Foucault wrote a book called History of Sexuality. In Part five of the book Right of Death and Power over Life, he discusses about the historical “Sovereign Power” where one is allowed to decide who has the right to live and who has the right to die. The sovereign uses his power over life through the deaths that he can command and uses his authority to announce death by the lives he can spare. Foucault then moves on to Disciplinary Power where he came up with the “Panopticon” where one…
Huang Yiyang Intellectuals in history Michel Foucault was questioned in an interview by 1982: “Many people look at you as someone who is able to tell them the deep truth about the world and about themselves. How do you experience this responsibility? As an intellectual, do you feel responsible toward this function of seer, of shaper of mentalities? ” To answer the question above, Foucault said:” I am sure I am not able to provide these people with what they expect…
forces of control, while Foucult gives insight on the mind games that are played in society. The two types of powers are displayed miraculous in both articles, and it gives the audience a chilling sense in which society is being controlled. Michel Foucault, in his article, “discipline & punishment” (1975) argues the idea that the masses are controlled by fear, and that “discipline in an unseen way, acts as a tool for the hierarchy to control the society.” Disciplinary power is exemplified by Bentham's…
dictionary, plastic surgery is the surgery that improves or repairs the form or appearance of body parts (“Plastic Surgery”). With plastic surgery, one can alter any part of the body to how they would like their appearance to be. We talked about Foucault and how he looks at the human body and brought up the term “docile bodies”. In a Foucauldian sense we can look at plastic surgery as a means of people control their own bodies and they have power over their bodies. This raises the issue of what is…
Foucault, Consumerism, and Identity Michel Foucault presents those revolutionary sorts of analyses that are rich not only for their content but for their implications and novel methodological approach. Just beyond the surface of his works lies such philosophical wealth that one can be overwhelmed by considerations of which vein to mine first, and what to make of the elements therefrom extracted. I’ve broken earth in several attractive sites this last week. Some, it seemed, hid their treasures…
in 1972 to a feminist/social justice advocate named Cheryl • Editor, private practice, training program developer • In 1983, he and his wife founded the Dulwich Centre for Narrative Therapy. www.google.images White was influenced by Michel Foucault Foucault, a French philosopher , who spoke of how language is subtly created and used by the privileged to support their understanding of truth. During his private practice in the early 1980’s, White developed the notion of “externalizing the problem…