UCL Institute of the Americas: Leverhulme Lecture with Professor Natalia Milanesio

After Censorship: Media Culture and Sexual Content in Argentina's Transition to Democracy (1983-1990)

In 1983, elections in Argentina ended one of the bloodiest dictatorships in Latin America (1976–83), and Argentines rejoiced in a democratic spring.

This talk explores censorship and repression of sexual content in the media during the military regime and the historically unrivaled sexualization of culture in different media forms in the return to democracy. From being censored and obscured in the dictatorship, sex became the star of the postdictatorial context, a symbol of modernity, freedom, and democracy for audiences and cultural and media creators alike.

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.

Professor Natalia Milanesio is the author of the following publications:

Destape: Sex, Democracy, and Freedom in Postdictatorial Argentina

El destape. La cultura sexual en la Argentina después de la dictadura

Workers Go Shopping in Argentina: The Rise of Popular Consumer Culture

Cuando los trabajadores salieron de compras: Nuevos consumidores, publicidad y cambio cultural durante el primer peronismo