Foucault. “We ‘Other Victorians’”

from The History of Sexuality: An Introduction vol. 1, New York: Vintage Books, 1990

3.
During the early 17th c, there was a “tolerant familiarity with the illicit”
With the ascendance of Victorian bourgeoisie, sexuality became confined
Procreative heterosexual couples became norm, sex viewed as utilitarian function
4.
“These are the characteristic features attributed to repression, which serve to distinguish it from the prohibitions maintained by penal law: repression operated as a sentence to disappear, but also as an injunction to silence, an affirmation of nonexistence…”
“Illegitimate sexualities” were only tolerated in confined contexts- brothel, mental institution
5.
“…if repression indeed has been the fundamental link between power, knowledge and sexuality since the classical age, it stands to reason that we will not be able to free ourselves from it except at a considerable cost: nothing less than a transgression of laws, a lifting of prohibitions, an irruption of speech, a reinstating of pleasure within reality, and a whole new economy in the mechanisms of power will be required”
We cannot end this repression solely through medicine or theoretical discourse
6.
The pursuit of pleasure is incompatible with rigorous work ethic
Since sex is repressed, the mere act of speaking about it can be viewed as a transgressive act
8.
Foucault calls into question whether the proliferation of discourse about sex meaningfully interrogates hegemonic power structures
9.
Our attitudes toward sexual transgression / liberation are contradictory- Foucault wants to know why do we speak so ostentatiously about sex being repressed?
10.
Three key doubts:
i. Is sexuality being repressed?
ii. Are prohibition and repression the principle means through which power is exerted?
iii. Does critical analysis centred on a repression (that may / not be present) produce repressive power structures?
11.
Objective is to define regime of power-knowledge-pleasure that sustains Western notions of sexuality
12.
Repression exists, but is not the basis of post/modern sexuality
Wants to move toward discursive production (which includes silencing) of the production of sexual power