Sexuality is nothing but ‘the sets of effects produced in bodies in a complex political technology’ (Foucault) Discuss. In supporting the late French philosopher Michael Foucault, l argue that sexuality is a cultural construction. In doing so, this essay shall explore Foucault’s History of Sexuality, volume 1 (1976) that belies the assumption that sexuality is an inherent truth of humanity. What is at the hallmark of Foucault’s thought is how we have shifted from sovereign power to ‘governmentality’…
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Introduction – Notes In Vol. I Foucault maps out what he sees as the emergence of the modern sexual discourse from the Victorian era on. Vol. II we will see moves further back to examine what Foucault conceives as an alternative to the Judeo-Christian morality of sex discussed in the Introduction This alternative takes the form of an ethics of pleasure that Foucault derives from Greek society Foucault unearths from Greek antiquity a structure for the ethical use of pleasure, hence the title…
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The emphasis on normalcy in the investigation into sexuality, as explicated by Mary Louise Adams, can be understood as form of power relations in which the construction of the category of normal reinforces an alterity that is made intelligible through newly emerging discourses. In this essay I will employ the work of Michel Foucault, Gayle Rubin, Gary Kingsmen, Fredrich Engels, Judith Butler, Simone De Beauvoir and Julian Lee in order to explicate how Mary Louise Adams article, “Why Can’t I be Normal…
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Biopower for Foucault contrasts with traditional modes of power based on the threat of death from a sovereign. In an era like ours where power must be justified rationally, biopower is utilized by an emphasis on the protection of life rather than the threat of death, on the regulation of the body, and the production of other technologies of power, such as the notion of sexuality. Foucault defines it as positive, in opposition to the classic understanding of power as basically negative, limitative…
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Comparing the Chakrabarty and Foucault Modern Power Understanding Name Institution Course Instructor Date Comparing the Chakrabarty and Foucault Modern Power Understanding According to Mawani (2010), in the past two decades, Foucault Michel’s compendium of lectures and writings about modern power has spurred enormous, vibrant and long-term discussion within studies of post-colonial and beyond. Philosophers have reworked and debated on the insights of Foucault such as the proposed triangle…
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1.) Describe the key contributions of early researchers of sexuality. In what ways are their perspectives shaped by nineteenth- century cultural ideologies? Yamamoto senji undertook he first extensive sex surveys of males in japan. He found out that more than 33% of men in japan first sexual experience was with a prostitute. And that masturbation was a natural phenomenon and had no negative impact on men’s health. He was less concerned with a comprehensive theory of sex. He was interested in sexual…
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Michel Foucault wrote a book called History of Sexuality. In Part five of the book Right of Death and Power over Life, he discusses about the historical “Sovereign Power” where one is allowed to decide who has the right to live and who has the right to die. The sovereign uses his power over life through the deaths that he can command and uses his authority to announce death by the lives he can spare. Foucault then moves on to Disciplinary Power where he came up with the “Panopticon” where one…
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Bennett and Royle “literary texts are embedded within the social and economic circumstances in which they are produced and consumed” (119). Fitzgerald embeds his novel with history that was transformed as he wrote it during his life time. Michael Foucault states that…
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What is queer theory? Focuses on gender sexuality Nonconforming, restrictive to non-gender binaries What does contemporary mean in this context? Last thirty years Recent Griselda Pollock, “The politics of theory…” (1996) What is feminist theory? – What is feminism? Feminism is a “set of positions, not an essence; a critical practice not a doxa” (5) Interventions – a discipline or that which breaks down disciplinary divisions? Can there be a feminist art history… or any other discipline, or is feminism…
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theory (Parker,2001; Seidman,1997), queer theory has become one of the most important theories, which contributes to the research of sociology, arts and organizations. On the one hand, queer theory has been used to study the relations between the sexuality, gender and workplace. On the other hand, by utilizing denaturalized, deconstructive and performative methods to queer the presumptions of the taken-for-granted norms, queer theorists question and disprove the traditions which people cherish (Seidman…
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