Beyond the Ballot Box: Sex and the Meanings of Democracy in Postdictatorial Argentina

In 1983, elections in Argentina ended one of the bloodiest dictatorships in Latin America (1976–83) and Argentines rejoiced in a democratic spring. One of the most important socio-cultural transformations of the democratic transition was the destape, a process of sexual liberation after years of sexual repression and censorship imposed by the military regime. This talk explores how for most Argentines, the new culture of sexual frankness re-signified the meanings of democracy. New sexual freedoms—from purchasing an erotic novel or attending the screening of an adult movie to campaigning for school-based sex education—rendered democracy a lived experience as much as practices like voting and protest marches did.

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Natalia Milanesio is a professor of Modern Latin American History at the University of Houston. She is the author of Destape: Sex, Democracy, and Freedom in Postdictatorial Argentina (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2019) and Workers Go Shopping in Argentina: The Rise of Popular Consumer Culture (University of New Mexico, 2013). Spanish translations of both books were published by Siglo XXI. She has published in leading journals in the field, including the Hispanic American Historical Review, Gender and History, the Journal of Women’s History, and the Journal of Social History. She is currently a Leverhulme Visiting Professor at UCL Institute of the Americas.