The History of Sexuality 1: An Introduction

by Michel Foucault

book data

2,744 ratings, 3.97 average rating, 186 reviews (more data...)

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4		38%
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2		5%
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published

1978 by Pantheon Books (NY) (first published 1976)

details

Hardcover, 168 pages

isbn

0394417755 (isbn13: 9780394417752)

description

The author turns his attention to sex and the reasons why we are driven constantly to analyze and discuss it. An iconoclastic explanation of modern se…more

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Jun 01, 2008

Matthew rated it:

(review of isbn 0679724699)

bookshelves: gay-non-fiction

Read in October, 2006

I suppose it's high time I write a review of this book, as I finished it several days ago. At the time, though, it was quite late, and I have much to say -- or at least, I thought I did -- so I wanted to wait until I had more time. And here we are. To summarize, I think Foucault's argument is quite interesting, and the ideas he proffers are mind-boggling... and yet, they also have an extremely large blind-spot: the individual's sexuality or, to put it another way, sexuality as the individual exp...more

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3 comments

Jan 03, 2008

Trevor rated it:

(review of isbn 0679724699)

A much more difficult Foucault - and not nearly as interesting as his history of madness. He seems to take a long time to get started and does seem to repeat himself an awful lot.

All the same, the ideas around the difference between Western and Eastern notions of sexuality are well with thinking about. Essentially Eastern sexuality is an erotic thing - something understood through experience. Western sexuality is 'scientific' in the sense that it only makes sense once we can tal...more

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5 comments

Feb 14, 2008

Yumi rated it:

(review of isbn 0679724699)

bookshelves: theory-history-sociology

um. what can i say about this book that hasnt already been said? i read it my second year of college and it blew my mind, and in a good way, unlike kant, who made me cry actual tears in overwhelming frustration. foucaults ability to trace the burgeoning relationship between science and sexuality, the changes in the ways of perceiving a womans body, the notion of the creation of (a) sexuality, and, of course, the dynamics of power and discourse, are nothing short of brilliant in this classic stud...more

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May 09, 2008

kappoo rated it:

(review of isbn 9643127176)

bookshelves: best, csociety-policy-history

Read in September, 2008

ازپایان سده شانزدهم بدین سو، "به گفتمان درآوردن" سکس نه از فرایند محدودیت، بلکه برعکس از سازوکار تحریک فزاینده تبعیت می کند، که نشان می دهد تکنیک های قدرتی که بر سکس اعمال می شود، نه از اصل انتخاب سختگیرانه، بلکه از اصل انتشار و اشاعه سکسوالیته های چند ریختی تبعیت می کند �...more

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Feb 28, 2010

Erik Graff rated it:

(review of isbn 0679724699)

bookshelves: history

Owns a copy — Read in October, 1998

recommended to Erik by: Karen Engdahl
recommends it for: Foucault fans

I read this while visiting friends in Springfield, Vermont, mostly on their porch and outside the town's sole cafe. The reading occurred after the completion of Norman O. Brown's Life Against Death, another book concerned with the liberatory and repressive potentials of sexuality.

My intellectual interest in sex stems in part from the recognition of how references to it are used to manipulate. Advertising is a conspicuous example, but the manipulatory sexualization of society is far...more I read this while visiting friends in Springfield, Vermont, mostly on their porch and outside the town's sole cafe. The reading occurred after the completion of Norman O. Brown's Life Against Death, another book concerned with the liberatory and repressive potentials of sexuality.

My intellectual interest in sex stems in part from the recognition of how references to it are used to manipulate. Advertising is a conspicuous example, but the manipulatory sexualization of society is far broader and more subtle than that, ranging from cosmetic techniques to considerations of gender and generation. Much of this manipulation is taken for granted and, so, effectively unconscious. I am not free of this myself and it bothers me to think of how I and others play the game, judge and am judged by its rules, without much sense of alternatives.

A recent example, a trivially common and pernicious example, was that I was walking down the street in this neighborhood from the food market on a warm day and saw two scantily clad women a block ahead of me, both with good figures. They were engaged in conversation, so I gradually caught up with them to discover that one was a friend's thirteen year-old daughter, the other her schoolmate. Both had bare midriffs, extremely short shorts and lots of makeup. The recognition and the immediate switching of mental gears was pronounced.

Now, there was nothing wrong, morally speaking, with my seeing these girls from behind as sex objects. What was wrong was that they dressed to the roles, not appreciating what they were doing. I knew one of the girls pretty well and am reasonably confident that they didn't think much about sex--about having boys paying attention to them, yes, but not about fucking. Indeed, these hypotheses have been confirmed over subsequent years by her maturation through dating, some unfortunate party expereinces and now--she being seventeen currently--a serious relationship with a fellow. Those euphemistically phrased "unfortunate party experiences" were, to my perception, examples of the unintended consequences of apparent, but not real, sexual precocity.

Where I find myself ethically compromised by this most regularly is in the preference I give to normatively sexy women. It workd two ways, both of them bad. I either avoid such persons in recognition of my prejudice or I favor them, assigning to them virtues which go way beyond the facts of appearance or behavior. I don't so much consciously do this as catch myself having done this, often when the projections are disappointed by contrary evidence.

The tendency to be lured by suggestions of sex complicates and makes suspect relations between heterosexual men and women and makes same-sex friendship easier. Similarly, all relations between persons involving potential, desired transactions, narrow those relations and distort perception, particularly when their respective powers are unequal. Some of my objections to capitalism, and reactions to its relations, are similar to those I have as regards sex and sex roles.

I read Foucault as I read Brown, in order, to raise my consciousness, to break out of habits, to become more free and authentic. The fact that Foucault was an active, even aggressive, homosexual makes him particularly intriguing--not that he mentions this in this book. (less)

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May 30, 2009

Bradley rated it:

(review of isbn 0679724699)

Reading this for my Materialist Workshop/Reading Group. We've delved into Birth of the Clinic, a few of his Lectures, and the three volumes of History of Sexuality. Foucault said that History of Sexuality was supposed to be his magnum opus. It took him nearly a decade to complete, and it is comprised mainly of 'Big Ideas,' in the sense that Foucault often forgets to flesh out the details of his work. He paints in broad brush strokes, and I attribute this lack of detail to his burgeoning status ...more Reading this for my Materialist Workshop/Reading Group. We've delved into Birth of the Clinic, a few of his Lectures, and the three volumes of History of Sexuality. Foucault said that History of Sexuality was supposed to be his magnum opus. It took him nearly a decade to complete, and it is comprised mainly of 'Big Ideas,' in the sense that Foucault often forgets to flesh out the details of his work. He paints in broad brush strokes, and I attribute this lack of detail to his burgeoning status at the time.
By the 1980's he was no longer a young-hot-shot intellectual on the make, he was a middle-aged, established titan of critical theory, renowned the world over. He did not need to put down every footnote (in fact there are no footnotes in the Intro.). He no longer has to really show his work, because everybody can predict the conclusions he will reach based on his previous published texts.
While Birth of the Clinic ends with a beautiful set of surrealistic images related to the immutability of death, and the frailty of human existence, History of Sexuality is less prosaic. The last chapter of this Introductory text consists of Foucault clinging to the idealism of the Sexual Revolution. While the sixties were about the "plenitude of the possible," as he says, it is less important to cast the radicalism of the sixties as demanding unobtainable Utopian fantasies, it is more important to keep the discourses of radical change alive.

This series of books were written on the cusp of the Swinging 70's and the Moral Majority Paranoia of the 80's (Reagan and Thatcher, Pat Robertson, and co.) and Foucault is a kind of soothsayer predicting hard times to come for the New Left. He was right! It is only fitting that he wrote this while he was dying of AIDS. His death signified everything that went wrong with the Sexual Revolution, and everything that had been co-opted by "The Powers that Be," in lieu of that dying Idealism. When I read this book I remember something my professor said was written on the city walls of Paris by the radical students in May '68... "Let us be realists and demand the impossible." (less)

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Mar 06, 2010

Jay rated it:

(review of isbn 0141037644)

bookshelves: books-i-own, classic, historical-distant, historical-recent, incest-is-best, my-lesbianism-let-me-show-you-it, non-fiction, philosophy, tab-a-in-slot-b, translation

Read in March, 2010

Hm.

I could give this three stars. I very easily could. I actually rate this one closer to 2.5/3 than two stars. It's revolutionary and thought provoking and challenging, and oh look at what Foucault has said, but I need to be honest to myself, and honestly I didn't find it challenging, or very thought provoking. Revolutionary, yes, and deeply philosophising maybe, but not enjoyable. And ultimately, that's what I rate things on. A book or author may have people on the edge of their se...more

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May 24, 2007

Holly rated it:

(review of isbn 0679724699)

bookshelves: taught, theory

There's some interesting juxtapositions here, but if you've read a reasonable amount of Freud, had some early exposure to Thomas Kuhn, and plowed through a lot of Max Weber (as Foucault has, compare "Discipline & Punish" to the 2 Volume "Economy & Society" and the more difficult "Methodology of the Social Sciences"), there's nothing especially new here. The punch line is interesting, and I give Foucault credit for his striking formulation of it, but I'm not blown a...more

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May 27, 2009

Kristen Shaw rated it:

(review of isbn 0679724699)

bookshelves: critical-theory, sexuality

Read in May, 2009

In the words of my professor, "we're living in a post-Foucauldian world, so this will seem really self-evident, but that doesn't mean its right." Coming from that angle, I've been reading from a very critical position. I like Foucault's thesis and his examination seems pretty exhaustive, at least historically. I'm really caught on the discussion of the bourgeoisie and proletariat 'sexual bodies.' Foucault's statement that the technology of sexuality and proliferation of sexual power di...more

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Nov 30, 2009

Thomas rated it:

(review of isbn 0679724699)

Read in December, 2009

The title of this book is a misnomer. To be more precise, it should be "Historical Relationships of Power and the Discourse on Sex." Rather than describing the development of sexual expression itself, Foucault focuses on the discourse surrounding sex. But he does so intentionally-- his claim is that there is no such thing as "sex itself." It is a socially constructed idea that fascinates, frustrates, and torments us. The physical act of sexual reproduction is only one factor...more

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Aug 11, 2009

Leila T. rated it:

(review of isbn 0679724699)

Read in April, 2004

God, Foucault is so intense. I read this at university, and now that I think of it, I probably didn't end up reading the whole thing. I really do appreciate reading Foucault itself, not an interpretation of his stuff, but it's very long and dense and requires a level of concentration that most of my life does not demand; I am therefore unpracticed and inept at it.

The point of this review is that even if you read just a few chapters of this, it will be intellectually edifying. And I ...more

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Feb 18, 2009

Gill rated it:

(review of isbn 0679724699)

bookshelves: academic

Read in January, 2007

How do our ideas of gender and sex relate to the political economy and history of Europe... well, voila!

Strange to see how powerful this book is in its arguments and to still have sociobiologist come out to explain how modern sexuality actually can be explained by genetic coding of our behavior... Maybe there is somewhere in between? The subject internalizes social power, but is there some sort of rhyme or reason to social power besides material accumulation or accumulation of power ...more

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Jun 09, 2009

Jesse rated it:

(review of isbn 0679724699)

bookshelves: on-my-bookshelf

Read in May, 2009

What can one possibly hope to say, especially in a capsule review? Much more accessible than I was anticipating, and the way it flipped over and then systematically deconstructed a general assumption of mine (and most people, I'd say)--namely, that the steadily increasing discourse regarding sex, sexuality and the human body over the last several centuries has NOT led to a more open and liberated understanding of such topics, but has actually led to more restriction and, inevitably, guilt.
...more

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Jul 21, 2009

Sandy rated it:

(review of isbn 0679724699)

bookshelves: critical-theory

The only book you really need to read of Foucaults (although many others are very worth reading). It is a great exercise in his prominent theory of the myth of the hierarichal origins of power. Among other interesting claims, Foucault explains how the rise of medical terminology like "perverse" and "invert" gave rise to an identity that could later be reclaimed as something more positive. According to Foucault, in a very Post-Structuralist vein, naming gives rise to existence...more

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Feb 06, 2010

Vern Glaser rated it:

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Read in February, 2010

this was not a book chosen by me to read, but was actually fairly provocative and interesting...in essence the book is mostly about power, concepts like that power is not just disciplinary but that it lies in the less obvious ability to set definitions of normality and abnormality are insightful and very true.

it is interesting that the primary conclusion of this book is actually congenial with Christian thought: all of the focus on the topic that the book is named for has created a ...more

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Dec 14, 2009

Matt rated it:

(review of isbn 0679724699)

Read in January, 2010

The History of Sexuality is a history with little to no citation. What struck me as particularly frustrating with Foucault in Discipline and Punish is also present here. Whereas I have some understanding of legal history to recognize the generalities and oversimplified principles operating within his summary of criminal law, I don’t have the same background in gender studies or the equivalent. Undoubtedly, he sketches the evolution of societal response to sexuality in a hurried outline, bu...more The History of Sexuality is a history with little to no citation. What struck me as particularly frustrating with Foucault in Discipline and Punish is also present here. Whereas I have some understanding of legal history to recognize the generalities and oversimplified principles operating within his summary of criminal law, I don’t have the same background in gender studies or the equivalent. Undoubtedly, he sketches the evolution of societal response to sexuality in a hurried outline, but I cannot point to specific omissions.

Though I hear Foucault most spoken of as in terms of a philosopher, The History of Sexuality is really more of an ethnography. He strikes me more as a cultural anthropologist than anything else. He limits his discussion to western societal standards (which is still probably much too broad- his overview seems more specifically limited to western European and North American values).

But these criticisms are not meant to demean what is apparently brilliant. This introduction to his 4 part series (only 3 of which were completed) presents a piercing double hypothesis:

1) The idea of sexual repression in terms of discourse is a myth. In actuality, from the 17th century, sexuality has become increasingly applied to, and discussed within, all aspects of our lives; from psychoanalysis to government regulation; and

2) Sexuality is a rather asinine way of identifying ourselves. By doing so, we unnecessarily submit ourselves to various from of societal control.

Foucault’s analysis of the various ways in which the increasing vocabulary and application of sex to our lives hinders our ability to experience our sexuality freely was one of the more insightful connections I’ve read in some time. Though Foucault’s work is plagued by his seeming inability to back his historical conclusions with referenced data, his ideas lend themselves to modern culture. Regardless of whether his historical facts are accurate, the ultimate consequence of our society’s treatment toward sex can be seen with the lens Foucault fits. Thus, it's not so much revisionist history but revisionist thinking. (less)

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Sep 21, 2009

Jen Seman rated it:

(review of isbn 0679724699)

Read in September, 2009

After reading this, I can't read anything else without seeing his influence. The relationships between power/knowledge and the construction of sexuality...he turns assumptions upside down and offers a different way of interpreting events, especially commonly held ideas about power relationships. For example, he dismisses the idea that victorian values repressed sexuality. He would insist that just the opposite is true - that the Victorian age offered multiple sites and institutions which increa...more

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May 29, 2007

Amol rated it:

(review of isbn 0679724699)

bookshelves: philosophy-proper, social-historical

The more I get angry at this book, the more I become intrigued.

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May 03, 2008

Jamie rated it:

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bookshelves: lgbt, summer-reading-list-09, theory

Read in September, 2009

Foucault's "History of Sexuality" was assigned twice over the course of my semester; for one class, our theme is the intersection between queer and race theories; for the other, a strict literary (theory) methods foundation. As such, we discussed the text in two very different ways for each of the classes, with one debate focusing largely on the absence of race in Foucault's history; the other, on conceptions of power in the text, and their relation to Foucault's "What Is an Auth...more

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Feb 03, 2008

Velcro Putnam rated it:

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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

[continued from above]

By making himself both rubber and glue, Delany employs what James calls a "diachronic, discourse-space model of writing and reading," where two time periods are present in a single text: both the time of the composition and the time of the explication, the time of writing and the time of reading; I would argue that "Wagner/Artaud" also holds a dual sense of "time when i began this essay" and "time when i finished it."
...more [continued from above]

By making himself both rubber and glue, Delany employs what James calls a "diachronic, discourse-space model of writing and reading," where two time periods are present in a single text: both the time of the composition and the time of the explication, the time of writing and the time of reading; I would argue that "Wagner/Artaud" also holds a dual sense of "time when i began this essay" and "time when i finished it."

His 1991 essay "Reading at Work: and Other Activities Frowned on by Authority: A Reading of Donna Haraway's 'Manefesto for Cyborgs: Science, Technology, and Socialist Feminism in the 1980s" furthers this 'diachronic discourse-space' by laying out a reading of his own reading of Haraway's article, complete with his uncertainties, mis-readings, reservations, and revised explanations. Part of the essay's pleasure comes from the double-entendre of the title's first phrase, but a more substantial portion of it deploys from the way he mobilizes such dual-consciousness throughout the piece, departing from his initial sense of 'cyborg-as-metaphor' to venture through doubt, corrections, and supplementary evaluations to arrive at 'metaphor-as-cyborg' (James' terms). Along the way, he skirts (with characteristic reticence and suggestiveness) a Derridean counter to preconceptions with castration, wherin the Lacanian "image of inevitability is an artifact of the phallocentrism underlying psychoanalytic thought - an artifact conjured up by the surrounding discourse in order to ensure its own stability."

Foucault made similar arguments about the rhetoric of sexual suppression by which medical, education, and religious institutions presupposed a notion of "the unspeakable truth" hidden within sexuality: if people are convinced that they are enslaved by their inability to speak the truth about their sexuality, then they will turn to a higher authority that can divine the exact nature, proper role, and moral significance of their individual activity - and will soon stop to see any other sort of action as important. In this sense, sexuality becomes a metaphor for the unknown, and the institutions that authorize a particular interpretation of that metaphor enforce it as a technology of knowledge and power - a cyborg whose only program is to say "neener neener neener, you don't have a weiner."

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