Queer Sexuality
According to Tasmin Spargo (1995, p.3) the term “queer” implies a challenge of “our most basic assumptions about sex, gender, and sexuality, including the oppositions between heterosexual and homosexual, biological sex and culturally determined gender, andman and woman.” With this challenge, Spargo argues, comes an invitation to develop new ways of exploring the complex meanings of human identity and subjectivity. Examining the role of sex and sexuality in the process of formation of human identity, historically and subjectively, is crucial to understanding the ways in which heteronormative (sexual) norms shape and construct communities and subjectivities. One of the most prominent theoretician of sexuality is Michel Foucault (1926-1984) to whose thought wenow turn in order to reflect more in depth about the production of sexuality in the Western civilization.Michel Foucault was a philosopher, historian and activist, and his work is generally thought of as being poststructuralist (although he himself rejected the term, in an attempt to resist any theoretical categorizations or labels).Poststructuralism is generally understood as a critique and rejection of Western heteronormative structures by questioning and examining the binary oppositions that form those structures.Foucault’s diverse inquiries into knowledge and power have formed the basis of much recent work on the status of the human subject.Foucault was also a gay man who died of AIDS in 1984. His work and life have made him a powerful model for many gay, lesbian and other intellectuals or activists ready to challenge restrictive and constrictive social, cultural, historical and political norms. According to Spargo (1995), Foucault’s analysis of the interrelationships of knowledge, power and sexuality has played an essential role in the development of queer theory. To understand the socio-cultural and political implications of queer theory, we first need to understand what we mean by “sex” and “sexuality” and what role they play both in the formation of individual subjectivity and group identity. To do so, you need now to read the excerpt of Foucault’s seminal workHistory of Sexuality,listed under the Readings section, entitled “Domain” (pp. 103-114) and “Periodization” (pp 115-131). While reading the text, try to answer the following questions:
1.How does Foucault define sex and sexuality?
2.When Foucault is talking about the production of sexuality, what does he mean when he defines sexuality as a “name that can be given to a historical construct?” (p. 105)
3.Which are the four strategic unities that, beginning in the 18th century until late 19th century, helped form specific mechanisms of knowledge and power centering on sex?
4.In which ways are sexuality and power related?
5.How does Foucault define power?6.What were the techniques, strategies and discourses used to take control of sexuality and restrict it or confine it to specific categories from the 17th to the 20th century?
