The Concept Of Sexuality And Foucault's Theory Of Identity

835 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Identity definition essay

Who am I? What defines who I am? Identity, and how this comes together, is one of the most frequent questions asked, both as in everyday life as in philosophy. Identity concerns who you are in essence and what this explains about you as an individual. A rather significant part of our identity is our sexuality. However, the idea that our sexuality is a part of our identity and also is one of the factors that determines our identity is a rather new concept. For Foucault, the concept of identity in terms of sexuality is the product of a social construction determined by your social and cultural surroundings. This is associated with Foucault’s idea of the “repressive hypothesis”: The general belief that openly discussing sexuality was repressed, …show more content…

They were seen as a violation of marriage bonds, the law and with these a violation of what was naturally determined. (Foucault, 1990, p. 38) The modern concept of homosexuality comes from a desire to see sexuality as a fundamental aspect of who we are. But is this desire correct? And more importantly: Is sexuality a part of identity within the terms of Foucault’s theory? To be able to answer this question it is first noted to make clear what is meant with the terms of “sexuality” and “identity”. With “sexuality” is meant the feelings and activities that are connected with a person’s sexual desires. And with “identity” is meant as being able to recognize someone or something and make answer further explanations of what and who they …show more content…

In the name of a biological and historical ur­gency, it justified the racisms of the state, which at the time were on the horizon. It grounded them in “truth." (Foucault, 1990, p. 54)
Sexuality gained a connection to the truth. This results into the idea that sexuality is a part of identity and a key aspect in understating who we are individual. And all of this is only possible due to the discourse of sexuality, which is determined by social culture and time. However, the idea that sexuality objectively defines who you are is false, because the idea where this is based on, the “repressive hypothesis” also is

Show More
Related

  • Essay On The Discourse Of Sex By Foucault

    739 Words  | 2 Pages

    Foucault capitalizes that power and knowledge contribute to the discourse of sex; he discusses how people in power controlled this discourse to repress sex entirely. Foucault talks about the repressive hypothesis in his book. The repressive hypothesis states that whoever holds the power, also controls the discourse on sexuality. Specifically, those in power, according to the repressive hypothesis, exercise to repress the discussion of sex. In addition, Foucault comments that knowledge represents power. Whoever has the power can dictate the language of the population, thus this causes powerful people to also regulate the knowledge of the population. Although Foucault does not agree with every aspect that the repressive hypothesis exclaims, he agrees about the timing of when people started to repress sex. With rise of the bourgeoisie in the 17th century, a rise in tighter control about sex also took place. Foucault stated that the discourse of sex remained

    Read More

  • Critical Analysis Of An Anthropological Look At Human Sexuality

    1241 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the article “An Anthropological Look at Human Sexuality” the authors, Patrick Gray and Linda Wolfe speak about how societies look at human sexuality. The core concept of anthology is the idea of culture, the systems of attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors people acquire as a member of society. The authors give an in depth analysis on how human sexuality is looked at in all different situations.

    Read More

  • Sexual Autobiography Analysis

    525 Words  | 2 Pages

    To provide a summation, I have learned a great deal about sexuality throughout this class and have utilized some of its teachings in order to help clarify my sexuality. While I have strayed away a bit in this essay about sexuality especially on Freud, I have tried incorporate their teachings into constructing my sexuality identity such as Foucault teaching of sexuality and power and Judith Butler’s sexuality and categories. Freud was just absurd however I will take advantage of these teachings utilized in class in order to constitute a more accurate representation of my sexual

    Read More

  • The Victorian Sexual Movement In The Victorian Era

    1783 Words  | 4 Pages

    ...am Victorian society, sexual liberalism transformed the ways in which people arranged their private lives. Shifting from a Victorian environment of production, separate sexual spheres, and the relegation of any illicit extramarital sex to an underworld of vice, the modern era found itself in a new landscape of consumerism, modernism and inverted sexual stereotypes. Sexuality was now being discussed, systemized, controlled, and made an object of scientific study and popular discourse. Late nineteenth-century views on "natural" gender and sexuality, with their attendant stereotypes about proper gender roles and proper desires, lingered long into the twentieth century and continue, somewhat fitfully, to inform the world in which we live. It is against this cultural and political horizon that an understanding of sexuality in the modern era needs to be contextualized.

    Read More

  • The Introduction to the History of Sexuality by Foucault

    1111 Words  | 3 Pages

    In The Introduction to the History of Sexuality, Foucault explains how during the 19th century with the raise of new societies, the discourse or knowledge about sex was not confronted with repulsion but it “put into operation an entire machinery for producing true discourses concerning sex” (Foucault 69). In fact, this spreading of discourse on sexuality itself gives a clear account of how sexuality has been controlled and confined because it was determined in a certain kind of knowledge that carries power within it. Foucault reflects on the general working hypothesis or “repressive hypothesis,” and how this has exercised power to suppress people’s sexuality. It has power on deciding what is normal or abnormal and ethical or unethical about sexuality. Through discourses of life and sexuality, power is exercised because humans learned how to behave in relation to sexuality, which method keep individuals controlled and regulated. This explains why people experience that sense of behaving inappropriate when we talk about sex in a different way than the whole society. Foucault points up how sexuality is not just treated in terms of morality, but it is a matter of knowledge and “truth.” However, these discourses, including sexual discourses are not true or false, but they are just understood to be the truth or falsehood to control society. As a result, sexuality begins to be explored in a scientific way, developing the “truth” science of sex (Foucault 69). For Foucault, he asserts that sexuality has developed as a form of science that keeps us all afraid of such phenomena, which people think to be true, thus this science helps society to discipline and control individuals’ behaviors.

    Read More

  • A History of Sexuality

    1957 Words  | 4 Pages

    Unlike sex, the history of sexuality is dependant upon society and limited by its language in order to be defined and understood.

    Read More

  • Legalizing Prostitution

    2503 Words  | 6 Pages

    Milstein, Susan A. Taking Sides Clashing Views in Human Sexuality. Ed. William J. Taverner and Ryan W. McKee. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2009. Print.

    Read More

  • History Of Sexuality By Michel Foucault

    1834 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the book History of Sexuality: An introduction, Volume 1 by Michel Foucault, he discusses the “repressive hypothesis” which he had developed. Sexual repression was due to the rise of the bourgeois. He suggests that the repressive hypothesis is important for discourse on the revolution of sexuality. Foucault has recognized the repressive hypothesis as a form of discourse. The repressive hypothesis has power to repress the debate of sexuality. Foucault mentions that society has created control over how people talk about sex over time. In the 17th century with the rise of the bourgeoisie, there had been control on the discourse of sex. In the 18th century, sex was studied for the means of regulating the demographic of the population. Sex lives

    Read More

  • Repressive Hypothesis Essay

    2023 Words  | 5 Pages

    The Repressive hypothesis states how we currently live in a sexual repressed society. The repressive hypothesis also states that sexuality needs to be liberated, or that it does not have to be repressed. Identifying with ones sexuality is the key to unlocking ones identity and one’s happiness. The repressive hypothesis initially implies three edicts; that derive from our repressed society. According to the repressive hypothesis, specifically in the repressive culture we live in, the first edict explains how all sexuality must be silenced in all occasions, for the mention of sexuality is taboo. In modern times, specifically within the 17th century, it was also important to keep sexuality “hush-hush”, only those who belong to the lower class

    Read More

  • Sexual Identity Development

    1068 Words  | 3 Pages

    There are several theorists that have presented models on sexual identity development. Many of the models have stages of sexual identity development suggesting that certain characteristics are present during a specific period. However, Anthony D’Augelli presents a model that suggests processes rather than stages. These processes take place over the span of one’s life and not necessarily in any specific order or fashion. D’Augelli’s (1994a) life span model of lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) identity development takes into account “the complex factors that influence the development of people in context over historical time” (Evans et al, 2010). According to D’Augelli’s (1994) theory, identity formation includes three sets of interrelated variables that are involved in identity formation: personal actions and subjectivities, interactive intimacies, and sociohistorical connections. Personal subjectivities and actions include individuals’ perceptions and feelings about their sexual identities as well as actual sexual behaviors and the meanings attached to them. Interactive intimacies include the influences of family, peer group, and intimate partnerships and the meanings attached to experiences with significant others. Sociohistorical connections are defined as the social norms, policies and laws found in various geographical locations and cultures, as well as the values existing during particular historical periods (Evans et al, 2010).

    Read More

  • Sexual Orientation: Is It a Choice?

    1857 Words  | 4 Pages

    Osmundson, Joseph. "'I Was Born This Way': Is Sexuality Innate, and Should It Matter?" Harvard Kennedy School. N.p., 2011. Web. 11 Feb. 2014. .

    Read More

  • Analysis of The Transformation of Intimacy by Anthony Giddens

    792 Words  | 2 Pages

    How does 'sexuality' come into being, and what connections does it have with the changes that have affected personal life on a more general plane? In answering these questions, Anthony Giddens disputes many of the interpretations of the role of sexuality in our culture. The emergence of what he calls plastic sexuality, which is sexuality freed from its original relation of reproduction, is analyzed in terms of the long-term development of the modern social order and social influences of the last few decades. Giddens argues that the transformation of intimacy, in which women have played the major part, holds out the possibility of a society that is very traditional. "This book will appeal to a large general audience as well as being essential reading for those students in sociology and theory."(Manis 1)

    Read More

  • Nature vs. Nurture Essay

    2113 Words  | 5 Pages

    The sexual orientation of a person has been a critical debate over the past several centuries. For several...

    Read More

  • Homosexuality Homosexuality

    1969 Words  | 4 Pages

    Jacques Balthazart, in the book, Biology of Homosexuality, examines the historical and cultural context in which homosexuality is expressed and attempts to dissect homosexual behavior and cognition from a biological perspective. He explains that there are behaviors in human sexuality that exhibit greater diversity than the sexual behavior of other animals. This exertion may lead one to conclude that human sexuality, as a result of its biological and emotional components, is more complex than the sexuality of other species. (Balthazart, p.4)

    Read More

  • Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation

    3600 Words  | 8 Pages

    In order to discuss the biology of gender identity and sexual orientation, it is necessary to first examine the differences between multiple definitions that are often mistakenly interchanged: sex, gender, sexual orientation, and gender identity. Sexual orientation is defined by LeVay (2011) as “the trait that predisposes us to experience sexual attraction to people of the same sex as ourselves, to persons of the other sex, or to both sexes” (p. 1). The typical categories of sexual orientation are homosexual, heterosexual and bisexual. Vrangalova and Savin-Williams (2012) found that most people identify as heterosexual, but there are also groups of people that identify as mostly heterosexual and mostly gay within the three traditional categories (p. 89). This is to say that there are not three concrete groups, but sexual orientation is a continuum and one can even fluctuate on it over time. LeVay (2011) also defines gender as “the ...

    Read More

More about The Concept Of Sexuality And Foucault's Theory Of Identity

Open Document