Today's Out Spotlight was a French philosopher, sociologist and educator who had a profound impact on academic thought. He is best known for his critical studies of psychiatry, the prison system and human sexuality. Today's Out Spotlight is Michel Foucault.
Paul-Michel Foucault was born October 15,1926 in Poitiers, France, the son of a prominent surgeon. He graduated from the prestigious École Normale Supérieure, where he earned degrees in psychology and philosophy. Studying philosophy with the distinguished Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Foucault was recognized as a brilliant emerging academic.
In 1960, he became head of the philosophy department at the University of Clermont-Ferrard, where he wrote his groundbreaking book, “Madness and Civilization." Foucault earned his doctorate and met philosophy student Daniel Defert, who became his lover for 20 years.
When Defert was deployed for military service in Tunisia, Foucault followed, and in 1965, took a teaching position at the University of Tunis. His second major work “The Order of Things” was a best seller in France and established him as an esteemed intellectual.
In 1970, he was elected Professor of the History of Systems of Thought at the Collège de France, the nation’s preeminent academic institution. While there he published “Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison”, his most influential book. Foucault founded the Prisoner Information Group to give inmates a forum to share their concerns.
In the mid-1970’s, he went on to teach at the University of California, Berkeley. He became enamored with San Francisco and its liberated gay sexuality—especially the bathhouses. “I think that it is politically important that sexuality be able to function … as in the bathhouses,” he wrote. “You cease to be imprisoned in your own face, your own past, in your own identity.”
Foucault worked on “The History of Sexuality,” a planned six-volume project. He completed three volumes, which were published shortly before his death. The first volume had a powerful influence on gay consciousness.
On June 25, 1984, Foucault died of complications from AIDS at age 58, leaving a legacy of important works affecting contemporary issues of GLBT identity.
“It’s not enough to affirm that we are gay, but we must also create a gay life.”
5 comments:
I"m not so sure it's WME that's got Jake looking the way he does. I think they just leave him alone and don't bug him about how he looks because that's not what they are emphasizing in his career. Remember how he complained about his old management on Letterman bugging him about the beard?
I think Jake has his own issues, I think he has engaged in a lot of passive aggressive behavior over the years, and the untrimmed beard, etc. is just the latest way of exhibiting that.
That along with the punching the mirror incident makes me wonder if indeed the mention of rehab isn't accurate.
I kind of lean the other way Destiny. I think he is manufactured in every way. He looks so desperate in some of these pics. I can see the emptiness inside him leaning him to abuse drugs or alcohol.
I agree about the emptiness.
Maybe it is our imagination but he just looks so broken. Like something has sucked the life out of him :-( It started with reeke. It was obvious that took such a toll on him.
I think it's a little bit of both. I agree Destiny, Jake has a history being passive aggressive and this could be an other example.
And I do think that his deal with relationship with WME is different than what he had with CAA. Not just the direction of his roles, but the hands off on the off time, and the whole approach to the faux.
And Tom, I do think there is a little bit of brokenness. Happy that he has his family and what he's always wanted but the burden of what he did in the trade off weighing on him.
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