He said sex…hehehehe. For all of us with the minds of twelve year olds, I think that this was the exact reason that Foucault wrote this. When we were younger, sex was not something we talked about, or if we did, we were embarassed by it. It was taboo. It was censored.
One main reason Foucault gave for the censorship of sex, is the Catholic Church. “But while the language may have been refined, the scope of the confession-the confession of the flesh-continually increased. This was partly because the Counter Reformation busied itself with stepping up the rhythm of the yearly confession in the Catholic countries…” (1649). We are taught from an early age in the Catholic Church that you do not have sex until you are married. You don’t do any act that is similar to sex, and you do not ever engage in the act yourself. Strict, huh?
Then I thought back to high school. Sex ed was lacking where I went to high school. We had a health class that we were required to take to graduate, but it didn’t really focus on sex ed. Instead we got to wear beer goggles and learn about not drinking and driving, and various other health concerns. We did spend a few days on sex education I believe. (It was 10th grade so I’m trying to remember 5 years ago). I remember we got to watch the movie, The Miracle of Life, for a few class periods. I also remember being creeped out that my teacher wanted to bring the movie home to watch with his wife, who was one of my other teachers. I was lucky enough to have had parents that talked to me from an early age about lots of stuff, sex being one of them, and explained that I could ask them questions whenever I needed to, rather than getting info from friends. It was nice to know that I didn’t have to worry about getting yelled at for asking about it. But it makes me angry that high schools don’t have sex ed. or if they do, it’s only taught that you cannot have sex.
Take good old Saint Rose for example. We’re not allowed to give out condoms or birth control on this campus because it promotes sexual promiscuity. Wow. We’re in college. We’re adults. We can think for ourselves. By not providing us with safe ways of having sex, I’m betting a lot of people on this campus have been down to planned parenthood to get tested. We need to move into the 21st century. We’re no longer a Catholic school, so why should there be a problem with keeping out students safe?
That is so funny that you bring up Saint Rose because, in a way it ends up forcing students to perform their desires in unhealthy manners. Well force is a strong word, but this I feel causes students to be up in arms about sexual freedom even more. If Saint Rose were to allow condoms to be given out we wouldn’t even be having this conversation. So Foucault is right. That this repression in some way is not really to stop us from talking about it, but to channel that talk in an avenue that is going to bring some sort of economic or power gain to the person manipulating the system.
Hey Meg
It seems like we had similar high school experiences. There was the standard 1 day of health class that talked about sex, but that focused mainly on STD’s. As for the condoms and birth control on campus, that does seem a bit ridiculous. Giving somebody a condom does not encourage them to instantly go out and use it. It only means that when they do have sex, it will be done the right way. By not allowing this, the school is controlling the sexual discourse, as Foucault would say.