Sociology Paper 4

Foucault writes inThe Introduction to the History of Sexuality(p.69)
Let us put forward a general working hypothesis. The society that emerged in the nineteenth centurybourgeois capitalist or industrial society call it what you willdid not confront sex with afundamental refusal of recognition. On the contrary it put into operation an entire machinery for producingtrue discoursesconcerning it. Not only did it speak of sex and compel every one to do so; it also set out to formulate theuniform truth of sex. Thus sex gradually became an object of great suspicion; the general and disquieting meaning that pervades our conduct and our existence in spite of ourselves; the point of weakness where evil portents reach through to us; the fragment of darkness that we each carry within us: a general signification a universal secret an omnipresent cause a fear that never ends.
The goal of this essay is to show your understanding of Foucaults notions of discourses power and surveillance and the way these have shaped societys views and experiences of sex.
To achieve this goal you need to explain the passage above relating it to Foucaults notions of:
1) Discourse and the exercise of disciplinary power
2) The role that the many discourses concerning sex play in creating a more disciplined population greater surveillance and more control.
You need toexplain in your own wordsandprovide examples from the text and support your explanation.
(I attached text)
Note:Foucault uses the term true discourses and a uniform truth of sex to assert that knowledge is a form of power and discourses are products of a machinery to exert disciplinary control over a population. For Foucault there is no truth about sex or such a thing as a true discourse; rather each is a vehicle of social control offered at a given timeas ifthey are true.