I Am Being A Bakla: Some Reflections On Michel Foucault’s History Of Sexuality Volume 1

In his lecture entitled ‘Holding It Straight: Sexual Orientation in the Middle Ages’, Dr. Bob Millshas demonstrated how our ideas and beliefs around sexual orientation are rather recent developments. In the middle ages for instance, people who were attracted to the members of the opposite sex did not see themselves as heterosexuals. The same thing can be said to men and women who have a romantic relationship or sexual encounter with the members of the same sex: they do not see themselves as homosexuals. To refer to them as such would not only be an anachronism but could also be misleading. Sex and sexuality are what they do, it is not who they are. In other words, sex, sexuality, sexual orientation – no matter how you want to call it – were not the defining factor through which they identify themselves. Watching his lecture (see the video above) has propelled me to reflect upon how I own and claim the bakla identity.