Discourse on sex and the creation of docile bodies Subjugation is a process that operates in society and, according to the sociologist Michel Foucault, can be applied to a multiplicity of discourses. Foucault explains that the beginning of the 19th century marked the era of sexual repression and censorship, which became a period of subjugation through the exercise of disciplinary control over a docile population. In his Introduction to the History of Sexuality, Foucault explains how the scientificization of sex occurred. Specifically, it was an attempt to achieve a uniform truth about sex. However, there is no truth to this, but rather it is simply a vehicle for social control. Foucault distinguishes discourses on sexuality from the science of sexuality, also discussing how the implementation of the discourse on sex has been made possible by various strategies of social control, such as the medicalization and scientificization of sex. Furthermore, she argues that sex and sexuality have become social issues in an attempt to manage and direct the lives of individuals, and this change has helped provide society with greater power over individual bodies through “real” sex talk as this discourse has become internalized over time. According to Foucault, “truth is a thing of this world: it is produced only by virtue of multiple forms of constraint since it induces regular effects of power” (1980: 131). Therefore, he suggests that the production of “truth” is not entirely separable from power, and that knowledge is power, as it constitutes new objects of inquiry that can be manipulated and controlled (1994: 97). In other words, true speeches do not exist since all speeches are simply the product of a society attempting to exert power over people, which is perceived… at the center of the card… controlled by the “uniform truth”. of sex” (Foucault 1978:69). Therefore, moral rules about what is considered normal or abnormal regarding sex and sexual orientation are enforced and regulated by hegemonic institutions. These institutions act as vehicles to produce docile individuals who submit to the so-called true discourses that are established in society at a given time. In this way, Foucault correctly argues that disciplinary power shapes individuals who voluntarily subject themselves to self-surveillance. When people fear that their sexual behaviors may be what real discourse deems abnormal, they adjust their bodies to conform. Therefore, the power of true speeches is omnipresent as it shapes human existence and permeates even the most private aspect of individual life and ultimately impacts society as a whole..
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