Discourse of Sex and the Creation of Docile Bodies Essay

Discourse of Sex and the Creation of Docile Bodies Subjection is a process that operates in society, and according to sociologist Michel Foucault, can be applied to a multiplicity of discourses. Foucault explains that the beginning of the nineteenth century marked the age of sexual repression and censorship, which became a time of subjection through exerting disciplinary control over a docile population. In his The Introduction to the History of Sexuality, Foucault explains how the scientification of sex came about. Specifically, it was an attempt to obtain a uniform truth about sex. However, there is no truth to it, but rather it is merely a vehicle for social control. Foucault distinguishes the discourses of sexuality from the science of†¦show more content†¦Thus, the so-called true discourses concerning sex were based on collective and accepted societal thoughts, how people operated in the world, and what was said to be true. Yet, the views on homosexuality, whether or not they were necessarily or fundamentally true, were merely considered true discourse at the time. Therefore, true discourse at any given time equates to power because when something is said to be true, people tend to act as a collective group as if it is true. Foucault’s theory holds similarities to the Thomas theorem, which claims â€Å"if men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences† (Thomas 1928:571). For example, when we believe that students from low-income families achieve less academically than those from high-income families, the school might devise and implement programs to assist low-income students in order to remedy the â€Å"problem.† Further, cigarettes provide another example of the changes in â€Å"true† discourse because in the past smoking was considered the height of sophistication and cosmopolitanism, but now the discourse on smoking has become highly negative from both a health and social perspective. In this way, what is considered true discourse can dramaticall y change over time, resulting in fundamental changes in society.Show MoreRelatedState s Control Over Sexuality2212 Words   |  9 Pagesaround laws that discriminate against specific groups because of specific features that are claimed to be â€Å"inherent† and â€Å"wrong† pertaining to that specific group that don’t match the normal view of society of a â€Å"good† citizen. Hence, most of the discourse on the subject of oppression has been dedicated to introduction or reform of laws that nullify this oppression and advance the status of those oppressed groups in the name of human rights. This is particularly what Dean Spade refers to as the Victim-PerpetratorRead MoreDiscipline and Punish: a Critical Review. This Is a Summary of Michel Foucaults Seminal Work on the History of Criminal Punishment and Social Discipline as It Transformed from Punitive to Correctional Models During the2913 Words   |  12 Pagespossessed. He explains that power and knowle dge imply one another, as opposed to the common belief that knowledge exists independently of power relations (knowledge is always contextualized in a framework which makes it intelligible, so the humanizing discourse of psychiatry is an expression of the tactics of oppression).[2]  That is, the ground of the game of power isnt won by liberation, because liberation already exists as a facet of subjection. The man described for us, whom we are invited to freeRead MoreOne Significant Change That Has Occurred in the World Between 1900 and 2005. Explain the Impact This Change Has Made on Our Lives and Why It Is an Important Change.163893 Words   |  656 Pagesand population growth, the expansion of industrial production and global markets, the spread of wage labor, the growth and extraction of food and resources to feed those workers, the revolution of transportation technologies, and the accompanying creation of an international system of nation states, borders, and population management techniques. Cities were the epicenter of this world in transformation, and one of the main magnets for migrants. In 1800, 6 million people lived in the largest ten