Foucault, the public figure and famous theorist of power and sexuality, was indebted to Tunisia for his early transformative experiences.
He was enthralled by the intensity of the intellectual debates he took part in, and the radicalism of political activism against dehumanisation he witnessed during his stay in Tunis in the late s. During the same time, Foucault, the private figure, allegedly sexually abused Tunisian prepubescent children.
The possibility of consent could not be sought. These were things of extreme moral ugliness. Matzneff is now facing prosecution, while Mitterrand and Lang categorically denied all rumours and accusations. In the case of Foucault, however, the issue will likely be swept under the carpet without much debate.
Meanwhile, Matzneff, a renowned French writer, has been publicly disgraced and is facing prosecution by the French authorities for accusations of paedophilia against French and Filipino children.
The uncomfortable truth is that the difference in the intense backlash against Matzneff, as opposed to the tamed indictment against Foucault, results from a long history of viewing the neo colonial subject as a disposable body. Foucault, however, was much more strategic. Although he is the most influential theorist and critic of the relationship between sexuality, knowledge, and power in the West, Foucault completely disregarded the colonial subject from his writings on sexuality.
