Social Construction Of Sexuality By Adrienne Rich And Catherine Mackinnon

What develops sexuality? Is it the innate sexual desires for the opposite sex, or social experiences where media, family and religion interfere? I will focus in this essay on Michel Foucault, Adrienne Rich and Catherine Mackinnon who all indicate that sexuality is socially constructed but argue on the source of construction. While Foucault believes that sexuality is historically constructed by genderless power, knowledge and discourse; Mackinnon assumes that sexuality constitutes gender and is a social construct of male power; Rich, instead, claims that there is no innate desire toward the opposite sex but rather there is a social construction of sexuality in favor of man’s social, economic and physical benefits. All agree that liberation is
Foucault argues that though sexuality is based on biological desires, it is historically and culturally constructed by power, knowledge and discourses that have regulated people’s life, behavior and conduct. To Foucault, power is everywhere, in everything, and in every relation including sexual relations and is responsible for the inequalities, divisions and disequilibrium in these relations (94). However, Foucault here is gender neutral and doesn’t refer to the oppression of women by men as power that resides in males alone and pops in all directions (94). All our knowledge about the sexual discourse, what we think about sex, what we learned about sex, is defined and controlled by a variety of power relations that are constantly changing and possessing different forms of repression. Foucault examines multi power relations among pleasure, knowledge and power that construct the social existence of sex. Foucault does not say that sex is repressed by power but rather the social existence of sex is constructed by the combination of power, pleasure and knowledge where power is not always repressive but also productive and liberating. To Foucault, knowledge
To Rich heterosexuality is not an innate desire that is intuitively directed to the opposite sex, but rather it compels women’s sexual and emotional needs by prohibiting any sexual desire that is unrelated to males. This will prevent women from developing coalitions with one another that would help produce a powerful social existence. To Rich, heterosexuality is a political institution where inequality of power and authority in favor of men are implanted and produced by this institution. Also according to Rich, the patriarchal male dominated society confirms this “Compulsory Heterosexuality” and extends the illusion that any other sexual relation that doesn’t fall within these boundaries is deviant. Rich asserts that heterosexuality is like racism, capitalism, or colonization produces false consciousness of reality and is maintained by force and violence; thus a liberation from this false reality needs a political revolution Rich emphasizes how media, religion and politics consider lesbianism as an abnormal relationship. Mothers idealize opposite sex relationship to their children through fairy tales, religion or their reassurance of heteronormativity making same sex