The History Of Sexuality ( Michel Foucault ) free essay sample

Analyzes the authors feminist perspective on sexual liberation and repression, Freud and talking about sex vs. enjoying sex. Michel Foucault, in The History of Sexuality, can definitely be considered a feminist, if one sees feminism as a search for truth about human nature, relationships, and the role and function of power in defining ones identity (including ones sexuality). Foucault argues that since the eighteenth century Western civilization has increasingly become obsessed with talking and thinking about sex as a subject, rather than partaking of bodies and pleasures (157). Feminism certainly posits that a woman to be authentically alive must overcome alienation from her body, whether that alienation is imposed upon her by an individual male or by power as it is exercised by the entire structure of society. This generalized sense of power is what Foucault posits as the controlling force behind the history of sexuality and the accompanying increase in public discourse