Wednesday, May 19, 2010

The History of Sexuality

It was interesting to see the comparison of the way sex was treated and used to be seen. To what it is now. Before people tried to put purpose behind sex, limiting it to married couples for reason of reproduction early. To ensure this, people (probably women) would be chastised if they comply with their marital duty, as this was seen as being just as bad as giving into carnal temptation. Nowadays, sex is still a hot topic; people are still being chastised for such things as infidelity. But now people have more freedom with what they do and reproduction is not at the top of most people’s list. As even Foucault knew that, “It was time for all these figures, scarcely noticed in the past, to step forward and speak, to make the difficult confession of what they were. No doubt they were condemned all the same, but they were listened to,” (893). And speak they did and condemned they were, these confessions led to the sexual revolutions o the past and have lead to the open door we leave sex to frolic in. Now, no longer is sex (seen as something non-sexual) but is seen as something liberating and something that is naturally fun. Sex has now come out of its trap and alive and everywhere, as stated by Ludwin Molina in the article “Human Sexuality,” “Next to sleeping and eating, it seems that it is one of the most important drives we have to deal with as humans. That is, it takes up so much of our time in thought and behavior that it sometimes seems that every facet of our life revolves around this to a certain extent.”Here we see that sexuality has broken down those uncomfortable walls built up and is now something that is producing life in a whole different way.

Works Cited

Foucalt, Michel. “The History of Sexuality.” Literary Theory: An Anthology. Ed. Rivkin, Julie and Ryan, Maichael. Victoria, Aus.: Blackwell Publishing, 1998. 892-899. Print.

“Molina, Ludwin.” Human Sexuality. 1999.Web. 17 May 2010.

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