The nineteenth century brought with it themedicalization of the representation thatindividuals within European societies, France, UK,and then Arab-Muslim societies, developed of theirnational identities, until then considered as“cultural,” or even civilizational, identities, inparticular through the “normalization” of sexualorientations and gender identities. For indeed, isthere a more efficient, more devious, way to controlindividuals than by inducing fear and guilt, and, ifnecessary, by employing verbal and physical violenceon their most instinctive sexual behaviours? Thishistoric movement towards greater control overEuropean identities, which would lead totwentieth-century fascism in Europe, was accompaniedand marked, during the same period, by increasinglyradical colonial policies and equally strict,xenophobic control over those who were considered“natives” of territories now belonging, in theory,to the imperial metropoles.

For example, at the time, the narratives of Europeanssuch as William Lemprière, a traveller and doctorwho exceptionally gained access to Ottoman orMoroccan harems, contrast sharply with those fromtwo centuries earlier about female doctors, ormidwives, who practised various types of medicinewithin these same harems, without the need forEuropean doctors. Things began to change during thisperiod, as Lemprière's narrative suggests:

Jean Potocki, an eighteenth-century Polish aristocratwho travelled extensively and wrote about Russia,the Ottoman Empire, and Morocco (in 1791), wasreportedly sent on a mission of diplomacy andespionage. Potocki maintained a more empathetic, andmore nuanced, relationship with Moroccan societythan Lemprière.