Discourse on Sex and Sexuality
Discourse on Sex and Sexuality
In Part One of The History of Sexuality, Michael Foucault poses the question: “Did the critical discourse that addresses itself to repression come to act as a roadblock to a power mechanism that had operated unchallenged up to that point, or is it not in fact part of the same historical network as the thing it denounces (and doubtless misrepresents) by calling it “repression”?” While Foucault states that he does not mean to answer this question directly, this idea was, for me, thought provoking. Certainly, the idea that we as a culture have been sexually repressed is firmly cemented into the public consciousness, and Foucault’s challenge of this idea turns much of my thinking upside down. But the idea that speaking of sex in terms of repression might reinforce that very idea had never occurred to me, although it seems fairly obvious now.
Foucault’s statement that “If sex is repressed, that is, condemned to prohibition, nonexistence and silence, then the mere fact that one is speaking about it has the appearance of a deliberate transgression” seems especially evident in the article “X Rated America.” Sex themed magazines at ivy league institutions are treated as such: transgressions; the fact that they are or were initially supported by such scholarly institutions is treated the same way.
Foucault seems to continue on this train of thought in Part Three. He discusses how confessions used to be something forced on us by those in power (especially the Church), and now confession has become so accepted is seen as liberating, but having to “confess” sex and its related thoughts and actions reinforces its position as a secret. Foucault views the unnamed English man who wrote My Secret Life mentioned in Part Two the same way; he is not liberating himself from “Victorianism” but a representation of a directive seeking to turn sex into discourse.
For me, the immediate question was (before I had continued past Part One), if these discourses on sex aren’t liberating us from repression, what can? But perhaps there is no need to be liberated; as Foucault argues, “the repressive hypothesis” has merely been to give the discourse on sex and sexuality the semblance of being revolutionary. While Foucault acknowledges that repression exists, he maintains that repression is not necessarily “fundamental and overriding.” Therefore, my question remains, though it is now augmented by a new question: to what extent does repression exist in or dominate culture? Knowing that could help discern in what ways and to what extent we need to be liberated – and perhaps help answer my original question.
Tags: confession, discourse, liberation, repressive hypothesis, X-Rated America
