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A review by akemi_666
The History of Sexuality, Volume 1: An Introduction by Michel Foucault
3.0
not foucault's best work. few, if any, references. like, i agree individualism was constructed through self-reflexive knowledge production, a confessional technique deployed through criminological, psychological, juridical and pedagogical infrastructures, whose origins can be traced back to medieval developments in christianity, but aren't academics meant to give us the historical evidence of such developments? there were plenty of references in discipline and punish, as well as security, territory and population — this feels lazy in comparison.
at the same time, foucault's argument remains profound. he shows how the suppression of deviant sexualities operates through the proliferation of identities (as scientific objects of knowledge). through confession, we speak the truth of sex to an expert who will supposedly cure us, spiritually, psychologically or socially. this is obvious in present-day queer and neurodivergent discourses, which operate through ever expanding categories of self-labelling (a more neoliberal variant of what foucault describes) — the incessant need to unveil the essence of one's sex. foucault rightly detects in such discourses a construction of desire arising through lack, the constitution of normality through abnormality. along with this, a pleasure in supplication and intellectualisation — a pleasure in knowing desire, over desiring itself. in other words, we get off in knowing that we get off, or knowing that the other gets off. it's a form of power and pleasure, over the one's own, or the other's, pleasure.
i couldn't help but notice how this logic explains conspiracy theorists. there's a certain suspicion of the other's pleasure that drives the endless knowledge production of conspiracy theorists. those god damn jewish black queer feminists are stealing our money, minds and children — and they're enjoying it! naturally, the only way for the conspiracy theorists to regain their own joy is through the exposure of the other's joy, whether it exists or not. they obtain joy only through negation, the endless examination of the deviant other who joys without morality or self-constant.
this, i feel, is the most important and relevant thing to take from this book. the secret joy of compulsive knowing, of unravelling the secret desire of the world, that arises out of enlightenment instrumentality. the petty pseudoindividualism of the nihilist child, incapable of obtaining their own joy, except through the annihilation of the other's. the 21st century in a nutshell.
at the same time, foucault's argument remains profound. he shows how the suppression of deviant sexualities operates through the proliferation of identities (as scientific objects of knowledge). through confession, we speak the truth of sex to an expert who will supposedly cure us, spiritually, psychologically or socially. this is obvious in present-day queer and neurodivergent discourses, which operate through ever expanding categories of self-labelling (a more neoliberal variant of what foucault describes) — the incessant need to unveil the essence of one's sex. foucault rightly detects in such discourses a construction of desire arising through lack, the constitution of normality through abnormality. along with this, a pleasure in supplication and intellectualisation — a pleasure in knowing desire, over desiring itself. in other words, we get off in knowing that we get off, or knowing that the other gets off. it's a form of power and pleasure, over the one's own, or the other's, pleasure.
i couldn't help but notice how this logic explains conspiracy theorists. there's a certain suspicion of the other's pleasure that drives the endless knowledge production of conspiracy theorists. those god damn jewish black queer feminists are stealing our money, minds and children — and they're enjoying it! naturally, the only way for the conspiracy theorists to regain their own joy is through the exposure of the other's joy, whether it exists or not. they obtain joy only through negation, the endless examination of the deviant other who joys without morality or self-constant.
this, i feel, is the most important and relevant thing to take from this book. the secret joy of compulsive knowing, of unravelling the secret desire of the world, that arises out of enlightenment instrumentality. the petty pseudoindividualism of the nihilist child, incapable of obtaining their own joy, except through the annihilation of the other's. the 21st century in a nutshell.