Foucault

This is the first time since Zizek that I have really enjoyed and made a connection with a reading. The points that Foucault makes in “The History of Sexuality” are incredibly intriguing; they are on the level with Althuesser’s notion: “there is no practice expect by and in ideology.” Its really mind-blowing stuff. On the most basic level he is saying that sex and sexuality today are a social construct. We all know that sex today does not have nearly the same meaning or social or economic significance that it did in the early 20th century or even 20 years ago. We can see this in the increasing level of sexuality in advertising. Take the pin-up girls from the WWII era and compare them with today’s Victoria secret ads. Look at the Calvin Klein ad we watched in class not too long ago (remember, the mark your spot thing, which btw didn’t even make sense). Foucault is saying that this hyper-sexuality has extended from the discourse of sex (Freud is the first thing that comes to mind) and its normalization. What intrigues me the most is thinking about what life would be like if this discourse had not been established. Granted it was bound to happen, as it is human nature to pursue knowledge and an explanation for what we are and why we do what we do. And we know “there is no practice except by and in ideology,” so this discourse and the ideology that permeates from its acceptance is instilled in us from the time we are very young. The normalization of sex is a construct of man and the general social acceptance of that notion makes it more and more acceptable. We become desensitized to it and it takes more and more every time to truly shock us, if anything is capable of shocking us anymore. And this is our own fault. We created the discourse necessary to perpetuate this cycle.