Introduction

‘Biopolitical pleasure’ is the phrase used in this chapter to describe how pleasure operates in the biopolitical era. The phrase can be understood to mean either the way biopolitical mechanisms control sexual behaviour, or the strategies of resistance developed by individuals and groups to counter attempts to manage their bodies. Foucault explores both meanings in his writings on sexuality. He first deconstructs the way bodies, through discourse and dispositif, are modelled to maximize productive aims in a biopolitical era. He then explores how individuals could fight back against biopolitical assaults by reclaiming their bodies through unmapped pleasures. Bentham's writings prefigure Foucaultian descriptions of and resistance to discourses on sex. By deconstructing legal discourses on sexual offences, he shows how pleasure should circulate in a State based on the rules of utility. I will argue that Foucault's ‘pleasures’, understood as resistance, are akin to Bentham's utilitarian sex.