Lots of people are like, "You aren't reading Foucault (or at least you aren't reading him right), I'm reading him right!" I've been reading him for 40 years, which at least means I've been reading him! 1/4
The modern view says this: look at your desires in order to "discover" yourself. This assumes that a) desires are stable and b) they are the source of your identity. Foucault says desires are (a) unstable and (b) to a degree the product of power relations on you. 2/4
Therefore, you must create your identity—not discover it. Even to see ‘sexual desire’ as a category is being formed by power relations. We can’t totally escape power relations this way, but we can resist them and critique them. So create yourself. 3/4
That is my reading of Foucault over the decades. I may be wrong but I have read and thought a lot about it. Admittedly, I can’t read French, though. So I’m open to correction. 4/4
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