Sexpolitics in Pinochet’s early Dictatorship: Marcia Alejandra’s “sex change” in the press discourses

Abstract

This article discusses the conditions of possibility of a series of medical and legal procedures of “sex change” during the period of State Terrorism in Chile. Considering the media coverage of Marcia Alejandra’s story, the first trans woman who obtained civil “sex change” during Pinochet´s dictatorship, the article is divided in three sections. In the first one, we analyze Marcia Alejandra’s “sex change” request, published in the Official Journal, to describe the legal framework in which “sex changes” were undertaken during thtat period. Second, we focus on the proliferation of statements and medical categories that circulated in the press related to the case of Marcia Alejandra, and emphasize the role of the Chilean Society of Anthropological Sexology in shaping discourses regarding “sex change”. In the third section, we analyze the inscription of the story of Marcia Alejandra’s transition within the socio-political narrative about the rupture between Popular Unity and Dictatorship.