Michel Foucault on sexuality
How should we talk about sexuality, and why do we talk about it so much? Five questions from the first volume of The History of Sexuality.
Michel Foucault on sexuality
How should we talk about sexuality, and why do we talk about it so much in the first place?
In the first volume of his big project, The History of Sexuality, the French philosopher Michel Foucault argues against the familiar idea that in the modern era sexuality was only suppressed and forbidden. On the contrary, medicine, psychology, schools, the church and the state discussed sexuality more and more, classified desires and tried to define what counts as the norm and what counts as a deviation.
To mark the first volume of The History of Sexuality going on sale, Ad Marginem and Purpur have gathered a few of the questions about sexuality, power and freedom that Michel Foucault asks in his text. Questions we can think through too!
Illustrations: an illustrator
What happens to desire when it is constantly analyzed?
What happens to desire when it is constantly analyzed, talked through and interpreted? Does it become freer, or more constrained?
Michel Foucault on sexuality
What gives a person the right to talk about sex?
What gives a person the right to talk about sex, and why is it so often seen as an act of courage?
Michel Foucault on sexuality
What if talk of sexual freedom is a new form of control?
What if talk about sexual freedom is not liberation, but a new form of control over people?
Michel Foucault on sexuality
Why do we see sex as the key to the truth about ourselves?
Why do we see sex as the key to "the truth about ourselves"?
Michel Foucault on sexuality
Who decides what is "normal"?
Who decides which forms of sexuality count as "the norm" and which as "a deviation", and on what grounds?
Michel Foucault on sexuality
