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Danielle Edwards Assignment #7

In part one of his book, The History of Sexuality, Michel Foucault explains that sexuality was not something discussed and there were very strict guidelines people followed in regards to sexuality. Foucault describes how sexual practices before the seventeenth century were quite casual and there was no shame about the practice. However, in the seventeenth century with this new Victorian regime, everything became more rigid and oppressive. Sexuality could no longer be practiced outside the home, more specifically, the parents’ bedroom. Sex became a private matter that no one talked about aloud anymore. It became a taboo subject. Foucault says that in this way, sexuality became repressed. He then shifts to discuss how brothels and mental institutions became the places for illicit and unconventional sexualities. These were the places where people were not restricted to acts of sex unlike the puritan outside world around them. Foucault discusses the belief that the bourgeois order repressed sexuality because of the dawn of capitalism that also blossomed during that time period. The popular idea was that sex was incompatible with a rapidly increasing and vital work order. Foucault does not agree with this notion, and thinks that the repression of sexuality is a part of a political cause. Foucault says that a reason we define the relationship of sex and power in terms of repression is that if sex is repressed, then the fact that someone dare talk about it looks like they’re committing a wrongdoing. This person is just striving to be different and not conforming to social norms by disrupting the established rule. He says that people are eager to speak out sex because it’s sort of an opportunity to speak out against those in power.

Question 1: How were the puritan ideas of sexual practices enforced in the 17th century? What is something civilians conformed to or where there strict policies put in place and what were the repercussions?
Question 2: How would Foucault’s argument about sexuality tie into modern day debates about homosexuality?