Foucault: The History Of Sexuality

Foucault resumes his shift from theory to the analysis of power in The History of Sexuality, volume 1: An Introduction (1990) by stating that power is not centralized. He argues that power is “the multiplicity of force relations (Foucault, 1990, p.92). This quote refers to power as a process where many aspects come together, without attracting forces, to form a dominant sphere within society. Power can found everywhere, since it is established locally on smaller scales. This process of struggle creates structures within these local societies to impose guidelines that must be followed by the subjected. This reinforces Foucault’s idea that reality is an illusion, constructed by “powerful” individuals that want the population to believe that their ideologies are the Universal truth, when in fact there is no universal truth. This process of power is ever changing in regards to

Power can come from occupying a certain position in a hierarchy, but it is not a property since as power relations change, so does its design and meaning. Relations of power can also be linked to “other types of relationships such as economic processes, knowledge relationships or sexual relation” (Foucault, 1990, p.94). The difference is that power relations are the outcomes of the inequality found in other types of relations, which will also be further discussed in the description of discourses. Foucault continues by stating that power does not have top down features, but it actually is found in the network of power relations. It is the “relationships of force that take shape and come into play in the machinery of production, in families, limited groups, and institutions, are the basis for wide-ranging effects of cleavage that run through the social body as a whole (Foucault, 1990, p.94). Since power can be found everywhere, it is the production from below that creates a “cleavage”, an inequality in the distribution of power within