A Brief Book Summary from Books At a Glance
by Steve West
About the Author
Michel Foucault is one of the most influential thinkers of the 20th Century. His iconoclastic studies have had an enormous impact on the social sciences and cultural studies. Understanding Foucault is important for understanding the values and thought-patterns of contemporary anti-Christian culture.
Table of Contents
Part 1 We “Other Victorians”
Part 2 The Repressive Hypothesis
Part 3 Scientia Sexualis
Part 4 The Deployment of SexualityPart 5 Right of Death and Power over Life
Part 5 Right of Death and Power of Life
Summary
Part 1 We “Other Victorians”
In the early 1600s, we can see that frankness and openness about sex and sexuality were common in society. This openness was shadowed in the 1800s when sex became hidden and was no longer discussed in certain social relations. The act of intercourse was constrained to the purposes of procreation in marriage. In the silence of repression, sex was deemed to merit disappearance; it was taboo. Only in brothels and with psychoanalysts could it be discussed or acknowledged. The solution seems to be to end the silence and repression and reject the political and social structures that are oppressive.
The above story has been often told, and there is some basis for it. It conveniently correlates with the rise of capitalism and the bourgeoise. Those who now speak against sexual repression have the satisfaction of knowing they are speaking subversively to power, and that they are anticipating and creating a more liberated future. “What sustains our eagerness to speak of sex in terms of repression is doubtless this opportunity to speak out against the powers that be, to utter truths and promise bliss, to link together enlightenment, liberation, and manifold pleasures: to pronounce a discourse that combines the fervor of knowledge, the determination to change the laws, and the longing for the garden of earthly delights” (p. 7). Our society is the only one in history where officials are paid to listen to people talk about sex. Today, sex has been the sermon in our society, chastising, rebuking hypocrisy, calling to new practices, and finding the new city. . . .
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