Foucault states that the 70s was a period of sexual revolution when people transitioned from the old perspective of a forbidden sexuality to suddenly liberating this sexual energy. However, Foucault seems to believe that our culture has been fixated on sexuality for much longer than this by having turned sexuality into a discourse.
Foucault expands this discourse to include the Christian method of confession. Ironically, sexuality is integrated into our culture and given such an importance in our society because of the fact that such meticulous detail is required in these confessions and because sexuality is looked at as sinful. In this way, the act of repressing sexuality seems to backfire into making it more significant.
Does everybody agree that sexuality is as "ubiquitous" in our lives as Foucault describes it to be?
I think I agree with Foucault's opinion here. I have heard people espouse both the views that Foucault counters: that sex is ignored and repressed in society, and also that it is inappropriately omnipresent. I have never heard anyone, however, describe as Foucault does a sophisticated compartmentalization of sex, but his explanations make a great deal of sense to me. Whether because of evil capitalist power trying to regulate the means of production or not, Foucault's arguments about how sex is, with societal blessing, constantly under discussion in sanctified areas like operating rooms and psychiatrists' offices, made sense to me. While I don't believe that this describes all discussion of sex in our culture, I think it applies to what is on average considered "polite" and "appropriate".