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Assignment 07

It is in Part Two of The History of Sexuality by Michel Foucault that the author demonstrates the progress that has been made to allow more discussions centered around sexuality. Following the uprising of the bourgeoisie, acts characterized as pleasurable became increasingly denounced. More importantly, sexual relations became exceedingly privatized. Sexual acts performed outside of marriage were repressed and not addressed in discourses. Thoughts and discourses regarding premarital sex and other seemingly taboo sexual affairs were considered immoral, let alone the act itself. As time went on, anything that was even remotely related to the idea of sexuality was censored. Foucault further elaborates on the transformation of discourses centered around sexuality and its relation to religion. Foucault explains the irony of the controls placed to limit these discourses. He seems to claim that although these controls were implemented with the intent to eradicate discourses involving sexuality, they seemed to have the opposite affect. During this time, followers of Christianity and Catholicism were able to participate in what is known as confession, the revelation of an act of sin to a holy figure within the church. At first, even these confessions were censored. It was not considered the norm to go into enormous detail regarding a sexual encounter that had already occurred. However, this censorship, too, soon began to experience a shift over time. People were expected to closely examine their memory, senses, thoughts, words, actions, and dreams and relay even the slightest of details involving their sexuality to the priests they reported these confessions to.

In addition to the history of sexuality that he introduces, Foucault also claims that we still have yet to overcome our repressive behaviors and develop the ability to be more comfortable with addressing the topic our own terms, rather than rely on professionals and psychoanalytics to explain sexuality.