Homosexuality in Foucault's, "The History of Sexuality"

In Michel Foucault's, "The History of Sexuality," it mentions that in the nineteenth-century, "homosexual became a personage, a past, a cast history, and a childhood, in addition to being a type of life, a life form, and a morphology, with a indiscreet anatomy and possibly a mysterious physiology," when referring to the new specification of individuals (Foucault 687). In essence, what he is saying is that during this time, homosexuals were basically seen as a new species or "life form," that were evolving in humankind, whose body were of a new structure of the homo-sapien that had developed through our history.

I found this argument very significant when looked at what's going on today. The argument that homosexuals either chose to be gay or were born with it is still questioned in 2010, where there are people who are still arguing whether gay's should be punished for their choices. It is radical that Foucault who wrote this theory in the 1970s would state that homosexuality begins at birth, significantly, arguing that homosexuals do not have a choice as it is biological, something that is some religious beliefs state that it is untrue, as it considered that man and woman has always been together and should always be together.

Foucault's statement that homosexuality has been here since the nineteenth-century led me to relate to the film we watched in class, Shakespeare in Love. In the film, it is shown that in theater during the 1500s, women were not allowed to act, and instead young men who had not yet hit puberty would take their place. At the end of the film, when the crowd sees a real live woman on stage playing (gasp!) the character of a woman, they are silently shocked.

It is very intriguing that in the 16th century, it was considered okay to have men kissing men, acting, dressing and talking like a woman, yet outrageous to have a woman act on stage. It makes me wonder why "cross-dressing" was an appropriate act for men during a time when homosexuality was I think, not discussed about very much, and yet today, it is shocking to see two men kissing. In sum, though I do not believe homosexuality is a new form of "species," but has been with us for centuries, and though even today it is not completely accepted, it is slowly gaining support in America and in countries around the world through laws granting them their rights in society.



Foucault, Michel. "The History of Sexuality." Print. 683-91.