The blindspot of power

Considerations on Foucault and pedophilia

Abstract

This article aims to explore, in a critical sense, Michel Foucault's considerations around “pedophilia”. As we know, Foucault produced several texts on sexuality and normalization, on which I will base my consideration by presenting Foucault's theoretical positions as well as the problems of some of these positions, mainly linked to a certain understanding of possible symmetry in power relations between adults and children. I will use, in particular, three texts from Foucault's corpus: the course The abnormals, from 1975, the book History of sexuality I: The will to know, from 1976, and the interview entitled The law of prudency, from 1978. It is not my intention to eliminate all of Foucault's analysis on the major themes he dealt with throughout his work, but to highlight deficiencies in his theoretical analysis as well as in his political positions on the subject of pedophilia, understood here as the sexual relationship between majors and minors.