Queer Sexuality

According to Tasmin Spargo (1995, p.3) the term “queer” implies a challenge of “our most
basic assumptions about sex, gender, and sexuality, including the oppositions between
heterosexual and homosexual, biological sex and culturally determined gender, and man
and woman.” With this challenge, Spargo argues, comes an invitation to develop new ways
of exploring the complex meanings of human identity and subjectivity. Examining the role of
sex and sexuality in the process of formation of human identity, historically and
subjectively, is crucial to understanding the ways in which heteronormative (sexual) norms
shape and construct communities and subjectivities. One of the most prominent theoretician
of sexuality is Michel Foucault (1926–1984) to whose thought we now turn in order to reflect
more in depth about the production of sexuality in the Western civilization.
Michel Foucault was a philosopher, historian and activist, and his work is generally thought
of as being poststructuralist (although he himself rejected the term, in an attempt to resist
any theoretical categorizations or labels). Poststructuralism is generally understood as
a critique and rejection of Western heteronormative structures by questioning and
examining the binary oppositions that form those structures. Foucault’s diverse
inquiries into knowledge and power have formed the basis of much recent work on the
status of the human subject.

Foucault was also a gay man who died of AIDS in 1984. His work and life have made him a
powerful model for many gay, lesbian and other intellectuals or activists ready to challenge
restrictive and constrictive social, cultural, historical and political norms. According to
Spargo (1995), Foucault’s analysis of the interrelationships of knowledge, power and
sexuality has played an essential role in the development of queer theory. To understand
the socio–cultural and political implications of queer theory, we first need to understand
what we mean by “sex” and “sexuality” and what role they play both in the formation of
individual subjectivity and group identity. To do so, you need now to read the excerpt of
Foucault’s seminal work History of Sexuality, listed under the Readings section, entitled
“Domain” (pp. 103–114) and “Periodization” (pp 115–131). While reading the text, try to
answer the following questions:
1. How does Foucault define sex and sexuality?
2. When Foucault is talking about the production of sexuality, what does he mean when
he defines sexuality as a “name that can be given to a historical construct?” (p. 105)

3. Which are the four strategic unities that, beginning in the 18th century until late
19th century, helped form specific mechanisms of knowledge and power centering on
sex?
4. In which ways are sexuality and power related?
5. How does Foucault define power?
6. What were the techniques, strategies and discourses used to take control of sexuality
and restrict it or confine it to specific categories from the 17th to the 20th century?
Assignment
Now let us see if any other questions came to mind while reading Foucault’s text, and see
what your answer to these questions are. Choose one question that you’d like to answer in
detail.
After having read and discussed Foucault’s text, what do you think “queer” sexuality might
mean or imply, in the context in which Foucault’s work is considered as one of the important
precursors of queer theory? What is “queer” and would you identify yourself as “queer”?
Now let us see briefly how some critics define queer sexuality.