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Assignment 8

Foucault’s reference to a “technology of sex” seems to suggest a transformation from the “Repressive Theory”. A transformation from the 17th century history of sexuality that includes sex being contained in the home to the 20th century when methods of repression were beginning to get lifted. The “technology of sex” is a new way to analyze sexuality, and according to Foucault this occurred in the 19th century. He also states that the transformation opened more opportunities for other changes and techniques to be developed.

Foucault’s argument seems to characterize sexuality as a way to show that the history of sexuality began with the bourgeois preoccupation of ensuring and extending their noble family lineages. It was not a rejection of pleasure as previously suggested by the “repressive theory”. Nobles wanted to ensure the strength of their lineage and did not acknowledge the lower or working classes as humans or as ones who had sex. The lower classes had no worth. Foucault suggests that the bourgeois used the innovation of psychoanalysis to share their personal desires. However, psychoanalysis could be experienced more by the bourgeois than to the lower classes. The bourgeois used their perception of sexuality as a way to control and dominate society. The bourgeois not only wanted to control society but to correct the sexuality of children, women, and wanted to be alerted of any potential health problems that could effect hereditary traits of future offspring. An innovation that helped with this came during the 19th century when, the medicine of sex and the body was separated. Programs were developed to improve the human population and studies regarding hereditary traits.

“Technology of Sex” represented innovative methods and techniques to analyze sexuality. Innovations like the “technology of power” were limited only to the upper and dominant classes. Foucault’s reference of the “technology of sex” presents an argument to oppose the “Repressive Theory” that has been circulating for centuries.