Our orders are delivered strictly on time without delay 
Foucault discusses the importance of the confession in sexuality. It begins as a religious ritual that simultaneously demands obedience to a higher power (god/gods/etc) but also a socio-political higher power (religious authority). Over the 18th and 19th centuries, and into the present day, the confession has migrated from a religious ritual to something that underlies a tremendous amount of our social interactions; there are few institutions that do not demand some sort of confession, and individuals are increasingly, more or less voluntarily, turned into self-confessing machines. We are made to confess to so many, but confession for us also feels like some sort of liberation, freedom, etc., so we take it upon ourselves to confess as well. The power of the confession is to reveal something hidden, and sex is often something that we consider deeply personal, intimate, and dangerous, so it is hidden, once as sin, but now also as therapy, help, self-curation, etc. That is, through confession, we produce new discourses – new circuits of power-knowledge – that reveal the truth of who we are. Thus, instead of only a discourse of repression, the discourses of sex, multiple and competing as they are, mobilize various new forms of truth, new possibilities for truth.
Reflect on at least one, but as many as you like, experience where you have been made to, or have chosen to, confess something about your sexuality. What were the power relationships? What were the present discourses? Explore and use Foucault’s text and ideas to substantiate your experience(s).
