There was an increasing institutional incitement to speak. The first example Foucault gives of this is the Church and the confessional requirements. The period of reformation within the church changed the conditions of the confessional. The parishioners were encouraged to divulge more of their sexual activities in order to cleanse their souls of sin. The Christian pastors of the reformation transformed an individual's sexual desire into discourse. Foucault proposes that there was a shift from the act of sex being a sin, to the moment of transgression being the thoughts, senses, spoken words, memory and even dreams. The church both condemned sex whilst encouraging exacting details from the individual through confession. Foucault reasons that this resulted in an explosion in the dialogue about sex.
This was supported by other institutional mechanisms. There was an economic and technical incitement to discourse. In the eighteenth century, talking about sex became public interest. The Government became aware of a growing population and was increasingly concerned with growing the economy as a result. Increased population meant an increase in productivity and economic growth for the country. A period of analysis, stocktaking and classification followed. There were many statistics that could be gathered such as; marriage rates, birth and death rates, health of individuals, fertility and habitation. The first Census was taken in 1801 (National Archives 2014) and provided a quantitative record of how the population functioned. The emphasis of the discourse of sex shifted towards reproduction and how it affected economic and political behaviours. Sexual conduct of couples was analysed and officially noted. In this way a dialogue between the state and the individual was opened. It became necessary for people to find a balance between the authorised and unauthorised discourse on sex. In order to be labeled, categorized and placed within a functioning society, sex had to be talked about.
Control over female labour and female sexuality was a norm, an ordinary practice during the historical era. ... As Michel Foucault states, discourse' is a power of knowledge, one's culture, and belief in what is taught to be the norm in society. ...