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May 16, 2026Journal of the History of Sexuality0 citations

Foucault, Identity, and a Transgender Theory of History

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LMLaurie Marhoefer

Key Points

  • The essay aims to critique the current understanding of transgender identities in historical studies, particularly influenced by Foucault's work.
  • Examines historical trends in the study of sexuality and transgender identities.
  • Critiques the claims of previous studies asserting the absence of transgender people in history.
  • Analyzes Foucault’s arguments in his History of Sexuality vol. 1.
  • Identifies a pattern of anxiety surrounding identity categories in queer histories.
  • Argues for a shift in approach to better understand transgender identities in the past.
  • Highlights limitations of Foucault’s frameworks in addressing transgender historical narratives.

Abstract

Abstract: From its beginnings in the 1980s, the field of the history of sexuality has been extremely anxious about identity categories, particularly for queer histories. In the 2010s and 2020s, this anxiety shaped a wave of studies of transgender people in the past that did not find any transgender people in the past, or so their authors claimed. This essay examines this trend in the field, tracing its history and arguing that we need a new approach. It does so in part through a critique of Foucault’s History of Sexuality vol. 1.

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Cite This Study

Laurie Marhoefer (2025) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/6a080a41a487c87a6a40c222https://doi.org/10.1353/sex.00068
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