Foucault 5: "By placing the advent of the age of repression in the seventeenth century, after hundreds of years of open spaces and free expression, one adjusts it to coincide with the development of capitalism: it becomes an integral part of the bourgeois order."
in this theory, sex is "rigorously repressed" because it is "incompatible with a general and intensive work imperative" (6)
"it is in the nature of power, particularly the kind of power that operates in our society, to be repressive, and to be especially careful in repressing useless energies, the intensity of pleasures, and irregular modes of behavior"
sounds good, but note, however, that this is exactly the thesis that Foucault is critiquing
he notes the intellectual laziness of this position: "Sex and its effects are perhaps not so easily deciphered; on the other hand, their repression, thus reconstructed, is easily analyzed."
and he notes that people make excuses for it in their liberatory politics: "We must not be surprised [if] the effects of liberation vis-a-vis this repressive power are [...] slow to manifest themselves" and if "the effort to speak freely about sex [...] is bound to make little headway for a long time before succeeding in its mission"