ABOUT THIS BOOK

Winner, 2020 Judy Ewell Award for Best Publication on Women's History
Winner, 2020 LASA Best Book Award in the Humanities (Southern Cone Section)
Winner, 2020 CLAH Bolton-Johnson Prize
Honorable Mention, 2020 Alfred B. Thomas Book Award

Under dictatorship in Argentina, sex and sexuality were regulated to the point where sex education, explicit images, and even suggestive material were prohibited. With the return to democracy in 1983, Argentines experienced new freedoms, including sexual freedoms. The explosion of the availability and ubiquity of sexual material became known as the destape, and it uncovered sexuality in provocative ways. This was a mass-media phenomenon, but it went beyond this. It was, in effect, a deeper process of change in sexual ideologies and practices. By exploring the boom of sex therapy and sexology; the fight for the implementation of sex education in schools; the expansion of family planning services and of organizations dedicated to sexual health care; and the centrality of discussions on sexuality in feminist and gay organizations, Milanesio shows that the destape was a profound transformation of the way Argentines talked, understood, and experienced sexuality, a change in manners, morals, and personal freedoms.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Natalia Milanesio is an associate professor of history at the University of Houston, Texas.

REVIEWS

“This groundbreaking history of sexuality and gender politics demonstrates that a new openness about sex was a fundamental aspect of Argentina’s transition from dictatorship, directly informing many citizens’ understanding of the meaning of democracy. The scope and depth of Milanesio’s research is breathtaking, as is her careful attention to nuance and contradiction.” —Matt Karush, George Mason University

“Based on a wealth of sources, Destape illuminates multiple facets of social repression and contestation in historical perspective. Placing sexuality at the center of her inquiry, Milanesio also provides important clues for current debates on gender violence, sex education, contraception, and abortion. Altogether, the book offers a novel and engaging account of the meanings and linkages between sex and democracy in post-dictatorship Argentina.” —Barbara Sutton, author of Surviving State Terror: Women’s Testimonies of Repression and Resistance in Argentina

“This book is extremely well researched and broad in its interpretive and theoretical analysis. It is most likely the most important book on human and sexual rights during the Argentine dictatorship and afterward.” —Twentieth-Twenty First Centuries

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

INTRODUCTION

1. THE RETURN TO DEMOCRACY AND THE SEXUALIZATION OF MEDIA CULTURE

2. A REAL CHALLENGE TO TRADITIONAL SEXUAL CULTURE?

3. SEX IN DEMOCRACY

4. FAMILY PLANNING, SEX EDUCATION, AND THE REBUILDING OF DEMOCRACY

5. THE OTHER DESTAPE

EPILOGUE

NOTES

BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX

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