Speaking of Sex with The Pleasure Mechanics

Speaking of Sex with The Pleasure Mechanics


SoS #132: Prohibited Sex

September 16, 2015

Get schooled on prohibited sex from French philosopher Michel Foucault, the founder of Queer Theory.


We discuss how power & sex operate in culture, and how we all occupy a position of power. With this power comes an opportunity to change sex culture for the better. Find out how to use your power to evolve sexual discourse.


Foucault's Cycle of Prohibition:


“Thou shalt not go near, thou shalt not touch, thou shalt not consume, thou shalt not experience pleasure, thou shalt not speak, thou shalt not show thyself; ultimately thou shalt not exist, except in darkness and secrecy. To deal with sex, power employs nothing more than a law of prohibition. Its objective; that sex renounce itself. Its instrument; the threat of a punishment that is nothing other that the suppression of sex. Renounce yourself or suffer the penalty of being suppressed; do not appear if you do not want to disappear. Your existence will be maintained only at the cost of your nullification. Power constrains sex only through a taboo that plays on the alternative between two nonexistences” - The History of Sexuality, Michel Foucault