‘—

Assignment #8

In chapter 4, of “History of Sexuality”, Foucault discusses a ‘technology of sex.” He puts a strong emphasis on the fact that it affected the whole state and not just the church. Society often forced people to abstain from sex and it seemed as if all eyes were on people partaking in “illegal” sexual activities. The technology of sex was used as a way of controlling sex and measuring its impact on society.

Medicine was being used to cure sexual “diseases.” Knowledge of medicine was being used to progress the eugenics movement, which would control breeding and control the genetic quality of the population. The technology of sex began taking the church and religious aspect out of sex and began instilling a more fact and scientific based approach on people. The idea that people could control certain hereditary characteristics of society made people more interested in sex. Studies in hereditary made people more knowledgable and allowed them to carry a certain biological responsibility with regards to future generations. The possibility of transferring diseases and un-normal hereditary traits made people more aware of the consequences of sexual activity. Medicine was being used to make sex more about life and people. It took the shame and punishment aspect out of sex, which made sex a more plausible topic.

Foucault mentions that certain hereditary traits such as homosexuality was passed down and that it could not be controlled. It is a disability that hinders the views that society holds. Foucault tries to imply how society characterizes sexuality highly changes the way people view sex. When discussing the characteristics of sex we see how society held the lower class to a little to none standard when it came to sex. The lower class were seen as people that did not have sex and had no knowledge of it. The lower class had no worth and that the bourgeois controlled the sexual aspects of women and children and to eliminate any hereditary traits that would harm the future children of society. The technology represents an improvement over past beliefs on sex, but it is still a very flawed idea.