He says power, knowledge and sexuality have not been taken in to account while developing this theory. Foucault claims that it is the capitalist society and capitalism itself that has bereft the working class from attaining fulfillment of desires or having any sexual pleasures because of the politics in society. The working class is not given the choice of indulging in what they may like because these pleasures are only for the upper classes who are the leaders and the rich rulers. Foucault has linked sexuality with power. He refuses Sigmund Freud’s theory of repression by saying that it is rather suppression that we go through when we suppress our freedom of sexual expression and this is what he called the repression …show more content…
The ruling class used to believe that by controlling sexuality they were protecting their future generations, their own health of soul and body and felt it was important to exercise this control. They believed that with healthy sexuality they could preserve their power and elevate their influence.
Hence Freud’s theory is in a completely different light from that of Foucault. Foucault’s theory claims repression hypothesis to have been used for self affirmation while Freud argued that humans are unable to clearly express disturbing thoughts for the fear of being judged and punished and hence they keep such desires at bay in order to keep themselves from being ashamed and