Michel Foucault's The History Of Sexuality
Summary Michel Foucault’s “The History of Sexuality” explores how the topic of sexuality came to be so censored and secretive, and how sex came to become a discourse in modern society. Foucault emphasizes the various concepts that play into the past three to four centuries, and how society shapes its norms in order to believe the reality it thinks of itself truly exist while none else does. The free behavior of sexuality becomes entrapped within a society seeking to shape its individuals in a manner which meets a specific norm, labeling all who fail to meet the characteristics as abnormal, different, even criminal and sick. Modern society criminalizes differences, demonizes abnormal sexual behavior, taboos the language, and yet is fascinated by the endless details of that very concept which they attempt to treat as nonexistent. Quote 1 “Examine, moreover, all your thoughts. Every word you speak, and all your actions. Examine even unto your dreams, to know if, once awakened, you did not give them your consent. And finally, do not think that in so sensitive and perilous a matter as this, there is anything trivial or insignificant.” Discourse therefore, had to trace the meeting line of the body and the soul” (Foucault p.20). …show more content…
While the topic of sex was one to be addressed carefully and in tasteful, vague terms, the imposed fear of the flesh as the source of evil led one to constantly reexamine every action, word, sensation and thought for fear of having sinned. The very subconscious dream became a danger zone for involuntary sin. While recognition of these dangers were necessary, confession still required minimal detail. Fear led individuals to reexamine every minimal detail in their very being, yet forbade one to speak of it, it is this awareness that led individuals to make detailed notice of their own
Gonad The Barbarian And The Venus Fly Trap Analysis
994 Words | 4 PagesAnne McClintock wrote her essay “Gonad the Barbarian and the Venus Flytrap: Portraying the female and male orgasm” to examine pornography and how it has changed throughout history and its effects on how women perform as sexual beings. McClintock focuses on the various roles of pornography such as its emphasis on voyeurism, pleasure, and the male ego. She wants her readers to know that women are still not represented in pornography to satisfy their own desires, but they are there to cater to men and their subconscious. I will analyze how McClintock argues that due to the history of sexism towards women, the roles that men and women have in pornography are inherently different because of the societal belief that women are only seen as objects of sexual desire and are solely there to satisfy the male audience.
Rum Sodomy And The Lash Chapter Summary
1651 Words | 7 PagesTurley explains, “heterosexual desire occupies a dominant place in an emergent middle-class society. This is a society that classifies men and women into separate and interlocking spheres of economic subjectivity”. Moreover, the anonymous author of the work titled Plain Reasons for the Growth of Sodomy explained that men who engage in sodomy could not separate their sexual identity through this “non-human action, and asks the question, “Since he does not act like a man, and he is not a woman, how can he be human?... to the author of Plain Reasons, the sodomite is closer to an “Ape” or a
Women In Raunch Culture
263 Words | 2 PagesIntroduction People from all around the world are watching Victoria’s Secret’s fashion show in every year. Especially, this fashion show catches most of teenagers’ attention, not only because the fairy tale-like stage, but also does various supermodels wearing delicate bras shows in the fashion show. There was an evident showed that women in the description of raunch culture were characterized by the increased presence and popularity of female pornographic imagery: high heels, sequins and glitter, bunny rabbit ears and exposed cleavage (Bishop, 2012). Correspondingly, Livingstone (1998) remarked that the number of young women engaged in sex acts with other women has increased and the result was linked with chiefly performed for the titillation of men, rather than reflective of genuine lesbian or bisexual desire. Also, problematic was that young women were positioned in this literature as passively absorbing sexist media and culture.
Historical Context Of The Social Perception Of Sexual Behavior
603 Words | 3 PagesThere has been an evaluation of sexual behavior over the past centuries, and it has demonstrated that there were acts that were considered taboo, homosexuality, bestiality and so on. Due to the emergence of most of the cultures, the history of sexual behavior shows an increase in the collective supervision of sexual abuse, moral codes were developed in the process. The sexual activity of some cultures have been “detailed in art, literature, poetry, mythology, and theater”(pg. 24). Even same-sex behavior was actually displayed in visual arts.
On Date Rape Camille Paglia Summary
979 Words | 4 PagesNotice that it’s not black or Hispanic women who are making a fuss about this—they come from cultures that are fully sexual and they are fully realistic about sex.” (Paglia). Here, Paglia uses a hasty generalization by characterizing all young feminists as “protected, white, middle-class” and “sexually repressed.” She characterizes all black and Hispanic women as “fully sexual,” while offering only weak or no evidence to support her conclusion.
Wiesel Allusions
742 Words | 3 PagesAs Foucault writes in the Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison: “But let there be no misunderstanding: it is not that a real man, the object of knowledge, philosophical reflection or technological intervention, has been substituted for the soul, the illusion of theologians. The man described for us, whom we are invited to free, is already in himself the effect of a subjection more profound than himself. A 'soul' inhabits him and brings him to existence, which is itself a factor in the mastery that power exercises over the body. The soul is the effect
Michel Foucault's Discourse On Sexuality
785 Words | 4 PagesMICHEL FOUCAULT ON SEXUALITY Michel Foucault was a French philosopher, philologist and social theorist. He made discourses on the relationship between power and knowledge and about how they are utilized as a form of social control through social establishments. This essay talks about Michel Foucault’s discourse on sexuality. He put forward his theory of the history of sexuality.
Summary Of She Is Old School Like That By Lorena Garcia
492 Words | 2 PagesOther readings have discussed the history of sexuality—A history of Latina/o Sexualities. Throughout history, women were supposed to be passive. Women were there to please the man and ofter were viewed as the inferior. Sex was viewed as something that was essential only for reproduction; it was only to be pleasurable during a marriage and through very strict guidelines set by the church. This is still an influential way which women are being treated today.
Analysis Of Alan H. Goldman's 'Plain Sex'
1425 Words | 6 PagesInside and beyond the myth and the social impact of the subject as One or Substance. Alan H. Goldman’s essay ‘Plain Sex’ is a central contribution to the academic debate about sex within the analytic area, which has been developing since the second half of the ‘90s in Western countries. Goldman’s purpose is encouraging debate on the concept of sex without moral, social and cultural implications or superstitious superstructures. He attempts to define “sexual desire” and “sexual activity” in its simplest terms, by discovering the common factor of all sexual events, i.e. “the desire for physical contact with another person’s body and for the pleasure which such contact produces; sexual activity is activity which tends to fulfill such desire of the agent” (Goldman, A., 1977, p 40).
Female Sexuality In Eliza Haywood's Fantomina
2406 Words | 10 PagesEliza Haywood writes the cautionary tale Fantomina in order to instruct women against pursuing their sexual desires. The protagonist, an unnamed “Lady of distinguished Birth” (41), secretly pursued her desires for Beauplaisir under the guise of four different personas, ultimately leading to the ruin of her reputation and being sent to live in a monastery. I will refer to the main character when she is not disguised as the protagonist to avoid confusion. I will be discussing female sexuality, where I will be focussing on certain aspects including sexual identity, sexual behaviour, and how social and religious aspects affect this sexuality. I will argue that Haywood uses the cautionary tale in order to represent female sexuality as distinguishable
Individuality In George Orwell's 1984
1446 Words | 6 PagesWithin Oceania, the Party strives for sexual puritanism in order to eradicate true humanity and demonize sex. Actual sexual acts are portrayed as filthy deeds to the citizens of Oceania since young childhood. Organizations such as the Anti-Sex League work to exalt individuals who choose to remain chaste rather than to partake in sex. According to Gorman Beauchamp in his essay “Of Man’s Last Disobedience: Zamiatin’s We and Orwell’s 1984,” these societies are comparable to “medieval monks and nuns” who demonstrate “their superior love for and loyalty to their God” and are in turn treated with a greater degree of respect and are given a higher position in their society (11). The Anti-Sex League functions similarly, but instead of growing in faith or
The Purity Myth Analysis
1385 Words | 6 PagesMoreover, this restriction on expressing sexuality encourages passive behavior amongst women. In addition, linking a woman’s ethics to her body reinforces the double standard related to sexuality between men and women. Ultimately, being sexual is “stigmatized in women, but encouraged in men” (Heldman, Part 2). This double standard, combined with the expectations of passivity, reinforces the concept of rape culture. Women are expected to refrain from sex in order to embody purity and thus, are defined by what they do not do.
Summary Of Sedgwick's Epistemology Of The Closet
1105 Words | 5 PagesSedgwick abounds in her statement saying that “the appropriate place for the critical analysis to begin is from the relatively decentered perspective of modern gay and antihomophobic theory” (Sedgwick 2008, 1). The prospect of Sedgwick, as it is that of Butler, is to deconstruct the models of thought that Western discourse has imposed upon cultures and individuals. Thus, according to the author, the epistemology of the closet is the: [i]dea that thought itself is structured by homosexual/heterosexual definitions, which damages our ability to think. The homo/hetero binary is a trope for knowledge itself. […] 20th century thought and knowledge is structured–indeed, fractured–by a chronic, now endemic crisis of homo/heterosexual definition […]
The Utilitarian Theory Of Ethics Of Pornography
1627 Words | 7 Pages“Pornography is the theory; rape is the practice.” (Kutchinsky B. 1991) The word ‘pornography’ acquires and bears a constant negative connotation, the word itself encapsulates the abhorring behaviour of exploiting women’s rights and rape fantasies. With a long history, from the beginning of Playboy in the 1950’s (Sanburn, 2011), pornography has progressed hugely and is becoming more normalised and accepted. The pornography industry is predominantly catered to the male perspective, hence the male viewpoint portrayed against the female viewpoint portrayed in pornography.
Essay On Human Sexuality
1371 Words | 6 PagesHuman Sexuality Diane Dyche Sociology 21 # 22071 The top three things in my life that have most influence my viewpoints about sex and sexuality are my family, peers, and tv and movies. My family influenced my viewpoints on sex and sexuality because that is usually what I grew up listening to. My family was very open about a person’s sexuality and sex while growing up. They talked about gender roles, sexuality, and even sex.
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