Sex and Democracy

The Meanings of theDestapein Postdictatorial Argentina

Bibliographic Data

ID2837535
AuthorsNatalia Milanesio (0000-0002-6530-4844, corresponding author)
Year2019
Volume99
Issue1
Pages91-122
Publication date2019-02-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueHispanic American Historical Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0018-2168 • E-ISSN: 1527-1900
PublisherDuke University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1215/00182168-7287984
OpenAlexW2911242026
LanguageEN
References cited18

In 1983, elections in Argentina ended one of the bloodiest dictatorships in Latin America (1976-83), and once the elected president Raúl Alfonsín took office, Argentines rejoiced in a democratic spring. The destape was the most explosive cultural trend in the return to democracy, emerging timidly in 1981 as the military grew weaker but remained in power and gaining momentum between 1983 and 1987. Destapar means to take the lid off, uncover, expose, and the destape was, in fact, an avalanche of sexual images and narratives. This article considers the censorship and repression of sexual content in the media during the dictatorship and examines the destape as a large-scale media phenomenon that amplified sexual explicitness to a historically unrivaled degree. The essay demonstrates that for most Argentines the destape was a metaphor for democracy, freedom, modernity, national adulthood, self-expression, and the exuberant enjoyment of life. While the article focuses mostly on celebratory meanings, it also briefly examines the positions of ultra-Catholics and of feminists, who, from very different perspectives, raised the most critical voices against the destape

Art · Censorship · Democracy · Dictatorship · Latin Americans · Literature · Media studies · Metaphor · Modernity · Narrative · Phenomenon · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Theology · Communism, Protests, Social Movements · Gender Studies · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Law · Philosophy · Sexuality, Behavior, and Technology

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