Foucault discusses many concepts in the first volume of his book; The History of Sexuality. According to Foucault, there are four rules of which power deploys in terms of sexuality; the one I will discuss is Tactical Polyvalence. I will explain what this rule means, as well as how it applies to everyday life. The final rule of the deployment of power, tactical polyvalence, is a challenging term to understand. First, to break down the rule itself, I will define the term word by word. Tactical is defined by the careful planning of actions to reach a specific goal. Polyvalence, on the other hand, has multiple definitions in relation to chemistry, medicine and English. For chemistry, the definition is an element having three or more valence electrons.
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The definition of tactical is the basis of tactical polyvalence. This rule is based on the strategy that one with power uses in order to manipulate society in governing their actions. The carefully planned out actions they take to reach this goal involves the further definitions of polyvalence. As the chemistry definition states, there being more than three valence electrons in an element, there are also multiple ways and points that are made within this tactic in order to reach the goal. The main tactic used, falls into the second definition relating to medicine. The counteracting discourse used by power, allows manipulation to occur and a contradicting situation to choose from. For example, if someone says, “Don’t cheat, but do spice up your relationship,” this can send a person mixed signals since they contradict one another. Finally, using the English definition, tactical polyvalence comes in various forms and is used for different functions. In the last example, the persuader has a different goal to reach than if someone else were to say, “Don’t be a prude, but don’t slut around.” These both have different “laws” or social expectations that society must abide by. As Foucault states in his book, “Discourses are tactical elements or blocks operating in the field of force relations; there can exist different and even contradictory discourses within the same strategy” (102) All in all, tactical polyvalence is the strategy used by power in many ways to govern
The definition of tactical is the basis of tactical polyvalence. This rule is based on the strategy that one with power uses in order to manipulate society in governing their actions. The carefully planned out actions they take to reach this goal involves the further definitions of polyvalence. As the chemistry definition states, there being more than three valence electrons in an element, there are also multiple ways and points that are made within this tactic in order to reach the goal. The main tactic used, falls into the second definition relating to medicine. The counteracting discourse used by power, allows manipulation to occur and a contradicting situation to choose from. For example, if someone says, “Don’t cheat, but do spice up your relationship,” this can send a person mixed signals since they contradict one another. Finally, using the English definition, tactical polyvalence comes in various forms and is used for different functions. In the last example, the persuader has a different goal to reach than if someone else were to say, “Don’t be a prude, but don’t slut around.” These both have different “laws” or social expectations that society must abide by. As Foucault states in his book, “Discourses are tactical elements or blocks operating in the field of force relations; there can exist different and even contradictory discourses within the same strategy” (102) All in all, tactical polyvalence is the strategy used by power in many ways to govern