Sexual Morality and the Law

Sexual Morality and the Law is the transcription of a 1978 radio conversation in Paris between philosopher Michel Foucault, playwright/actor/lawyer Jean Danet, and novelist/gay activist Guy Hocquenghem, debating the idea of abolishing age of consent laws in France.

In 1977, the issue was brought to public attention in France by a petition against age of consent laws addressed to the Parliament, defending the decriminalization of all consented sexual relations between adults and minors below the age of fifteen (the age of consent in France). Foucault stated that the petition was signed by several philosophers including himself, Jacques Derrida, Louis Althusser, pediatrician and psychoanalyst Françoise Dolto, and also by people he described as belonging to a wide range of political positions.

The dialogue was broadcast on April 4, 1978 by radio France Culture. It was originally published in French as La loi de la pudeur [literally, "The law of decency"] and reprinted in English as The Danger of Child Sexuality. The text was later included under the title Sexual Morality and the Law in Foucault’s book Politics, Philosophy, Culture – Interviews and other writings, 1977–1984.

Foucault and Hocquenghem focus, in the first place, on the penalization of the "sexual offences", at the time of the 19th century, and on the invention by the then incipient psychiatry of the category of the "perverts".

Foucault points out that the French Penal Code of 1810 comprises 485 articles defining crimes, offenses, and misdemeanors as well as the resulting punishments. It was promulgated on February 12, 1810, and did not regulate the sexual behaviors, "as if sexuality was not the business of the law". He explains that legislation on sexuality during the 19th century and specially in the 20th century, at the time of Pétain and of the "Mirguet amendment" (1960). The Mirguet amendment of July 18, 1960, increased the penalties for "public insult against decency" between same sex couples. It has changed article 38 of the 1958 French constitution.

...
Wikipedia