The Origins of Sex

Sex is a very real historical formation it is what gave rise to the notion of sex as a speculative element necessary to its operation. For Foucault that's not what's going on here and he certainly doesn't want it to seem as though sex is some kind of real thing that exists in nature. Sex then for Foucault became a police matter in the 18th century so this act of policing as Foucault makes clear was a policing of sex  not the rigor of a taboo but the necessity of regulating sex through public discourses.