The Roots Of Sexuality In The 1600s By Foucault
In his book, Foucault identifies the roots of sexuality back to the 1600s, where Christian ideology resulted in an augmented interest in sexuality within families. As sexuality began to intensify throughout society, ruling classes began to regulate it by seeking guidance from mentors, doctors and pastors that resulted in a massive dissemination of discourse on sexuality. Over time, sexuality has become rather significant to individuals, something that defines them spiritually, physically and socially. Foucault believes that this manifestation had something to do with the linkage between power, knowledge and sex. He understands that this power is universal and it is not merely a force that restricts but also a productive entity that shapes discourse.
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What's more, Foucault states that “The emphasis on the body should undoubtedly be linked to the process of growth and establishment of bourgeois hegemony: not, however, because of the market value assumed by labor capacity, but because of what the "cultivation" of its own body could represent politically, economically, and historically for the present and the future of the bourgeoisie.” (125). In other words, the bourgeoisie’s concern for sexuality had little to do with economic intentions, and a lot to do with safeguarding its existence and political status, despite the fact that the intensification of this concern overlapped with the rise of industrial capitalism. Likewise, while one might argue that the bourgeoisie struggled to define its sexuality for economic motives, it wasn’t most certainly achieved by directing sexual repression against the working classes as the sexuality of the proletariats were all too important to …show more content…
These included the sexuality of women, pedagogization of children’s sex, socialization of procreative behavior, and psychiatrization of perverse pleasure. “…It is worth remembering that the first figure to be invested by the deployment of sexuality, one of the first to be "sexualized," was the "idle" woman” (121). The hysterization of women’s bodies conceived a female’s physique as a symbol of sex; it became a focus for public attention and discipline. As a result, women became a center for medicinal knowledge. Second, the sexuality of children considered young adults as extremely carnal beings and thus, had to be studied and controlled via adults, pastors, doctors. The instigation of such regulations was solely based on the fact that these children would be inheritors to the obligation of preserving their social class in a conventional fashion, and if unmonitored, may grow into sexual perverts, resulting in the diminution of one’s lineage. Third, the socialization of procreative behavior saw sex for reproduction as necessary to the health of the social classes but sex for pleasure as insignificant. Lastly, the psychiatrization of perverse pleasure was a result of clinical study of abnormalities in sexuality, in which inappropriate behaviors were regularized
What's more, Foucault states that “The emphasis on the body should undoubtedly be linked to the process of growth and establishment of bourgeois hegemony: not, however, because of the market value assumed by labor capacity, but because of what the "cultivation" of its own body could represent politically, economically, and historically for the present and the future of the bourgeoisie.” (125). In other words, the bourgeoisie’s concern for sexuality had little to do with economic intentions, and a lot to do with safeguarding its existence and political status, despite the fact that the intensification of this concern overlapped with the rise of industrial capitalism. Likewise, while one might argue that the bourgeoisie struggled to define its sexuality for economic motives, it wasn’t most certainly achieved by directing sexual repression against the working classes as the sexuality of the proletariats were all too important to …show more content…
These included the sexuality of women, pedagogization of children’s sex, socialization of procreative behavior, and psychiatrization of perverse pleasure. “…It is worth remembering that the first figure to be invested by the deployment of sexuality, one of the first to be "sexualized," was the "idle" woman” (121). The hysterization of women’s bodies conceived a female’s physique as a symbol of sex; it became a focus for public attention and discipline. As a result, women became a center for medicinal knowledge. Second, the sexuality of children considered young adults as extremely carnal beings and thus, had to be studied and controlled via adults, pastors, doctors. The instigation of such regulations was solely based on the fact that these children would be inheritors to the obligation of preserving their social class in a conventional fashion, and if unmonitored, may grow into sexual perverts, resulting in the diminution of one’s lineage. Third, the socialization of procreative behavior saw sex for reproduction as necessary to the health of the social classes but sex for pleasure as insignificant. Lastly, the psychiatrization of perverse pleasure was a result of clinical study of abnormalities in sexuality, in which inappropriate behaviors were regularized