The sexual revolution before the Sexual Revolution. Libertarian doctors discourse on pleasure (Argentina, 1930-1940)

Abstract

This article analyzes the anarchist medical narratives about sexual pleasure during the thirties and forties in Argentina. Juan Lazarte and Manuel Martín Fernández interventions allow a periodization of sexual discourse and the Sexual Revolution. These doctors, participants of the anarchist movement, defended the legitimacy of sexual pleasure independent of reproduction, and opposed the matrimonial institution and prostitution as the only recognized sexual exercise spaces – anticipating the main propositions of the sixties Sexual Revolution. By defining sexual bonds, they also recreated exclusions derived from the heterosexual matrix which served as their foundation. Through a Critical Analysis of Discourse, and from a gender studies perspective, this article analyzes their medical narratives published in books and cultural magazines.