ABSTRACT
Sexuality – the subject matter seems so obvious that it hardly appears to need comment. An immense and ever-increasing number of ‘discourses’ have been devoted to its exploration and control during the last few centuries, and their very production has, as Foucault points out (Foucault, 1978), been a major characteristic of bourgeois society. Yet, ironically, as soon as we attempt to apply the concept to history, apparently insurmountable problems confront us.
