ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a historical approach to the intersection of violence and sexuality, suggesting that the forms and practices have changed over time. In discussing the history of sexualized forms of violence in the constitution of civilizations and society, Michel Foucault proposes that sexual desires are not intrinsic, but conditioned by social convention. A form of sexualized violence that has never been pre-negotiated, lynching has historically been used to maintain socioeconomic control, displaying power through the graphic and often sexual mutilation of brown, sexualized, gendered bodies. Sex work and imperialism also normalize sexual violence as a part of the practice. Nonetheless, the historic relationship between sex work and colonialism is ancient. The shift in discourse from domestic violence and its compulsory heteronormative undertones to same-sex intimate partner violence is largely invisible as a social problem.
