https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0640-145X
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Abstract
This paper examines the articulation of race, class, gender, and politics in erotic magazines during the Argentine and Peruvian destapes in the transition from dictatorial to democratic rule at the turn to the 1980s. We argue that porn, as a genre, was not limited to a niche of readers seeking to use the magazines only for erotic purposes. In Peru, porn was one of the main agents in the opposition to military rule, and it only became a separate, autonomous genre devoid of politics with the coming of democracy. The emergence of magazines focused mostly on eroticism developed as editors attempted to lure readers among recent migrants from the Sierra who lived in the pueblos jóvenes (squatter settlements) in Lima. In this context, the audience demanded pictures of local women to replace foreign white female nudes. In Argentina porn became a crucial aspect of democratic politics, understood as a tool to overcome inhibitions, develop a self-exploration, and undermine traditional mores while fostering democracy. Driven by an impulse to emulate the alleged open-mindedness of Europe and the US, Argentine porn cemented white middle-class identity at a time of economic decline. In this context, Argentine erotic magazines praised sexual experimentation as courageous and gave voice to women, gays, and lesbians. Our approach combines social, political, and cultural history focusing on how the readership shaped magazines and at times achieved significant editorial changes. Through the study of porn we offer new insights regarding the transition to democracy in late Cold War Latin America.
Acknowledgements
We want to acknowledge the help of Adolfo Vega, Fernando Lizarraga, Adrián Zegarra, Juan Pablo Queiroz, Rubén Barcelli, and Luciano Uzal. This article would not have been possible without them. Vega facilitated the access to the Mexican archive El Insulto despite the challenges posed by the pandemic. Queiroz generously helped us to have access to materials otherwise impossible to reach. Lizarraga and Zegarra assisted us with archival work. Barcelli, a seasoned Peruvian editor of erotic magazines in the twenty-first century, like SoHo, enlightened us about the commercial challenges posed by this genre. Uzal shared with us his valuable knowledge of 80s Argentine cultural magazines.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Magazines
Viva (Buenos Aires)
Destape (Buenos Aires)
Shock (Buenos Aires)
Zeta (Lima)
Eros (Ciudad de México)
Archives
Memorias Desviadas, Buenos Aires.
El Insulto, Ciudad de México.
Archivo General de la Nación, Lima.
Interviews
Ruben Barcelli (director of SoHo magazine), interview by Santiago Joaquín Insausti & Pablo Ben, Lima, 2021.
Correction Statement
This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.
Notes
1 This assumption is partly inherited from one current of 1980s feminism participating in the so-called “porn wars”, see Dworkin (Citation1989) and MacKinnon (Citation1991). In the Spanish-speaking world, the assumption that porn reproduces hierarchies can also be observed among some trends in the “posporno” movement. The idea that porn has been inherently oppressive has been challenged by the historiography of pornography, as in the case of Hunt (Citation1993), Laqueur (Citation2003), Sigel (Citation2005).
2 For instance, Zelmar Acevedo in Argentina, and Max Obregón and Amadeo Grados Penalillo in Peru. This trend was even more noticeable in Mexico, where erotic magazines like Eros published essays by Carlos Monsiváis, one of the most iconic public intellectuals in the country, or Nancy Cardenas, famous leader of the lesbian and gay movement.
3 See, for example, in the same issue: “El futuro del APRA”, “El APRA sufre revés”.
4 “El Peru busca un líder civil: ¿Haya muy maduro? ¿Bedoya muy inmaduro?” Zeta, 1, no. 1, 15 February 1979.
5 Categories like “serrano/a” or “white middle class” as used in this article should not be taken as representing clear-cut racial groups. In fact, some of the categories are based on geography. The Sierra, for instance, is a location. Serranas and serranos (from the Sierra) include a majority of mestizo/a people and a minority of whites. Similarly, Lima’s middle class is associated with whiteness but includes people who are not white and, in some cases, even former Serrano/a migrants who experienced upward mobility.
6 Pictures of mestiza women included the name of Peruvian photographers, showing that the images were produced by Zeta (for instance: Miguel Cartolini in issue 29, Francisco Castillo in issue 35 and 37) while the pictures of white women have no references and were either purchased from American image banks offering lower prices because of mass scale production, or were even probably just stolen at no cost.
7 Zeta, 2, no. 64, August 1981.
8 “Cartas de lectores”, Bravo, Issue 27, n/d.
9 Zeta, 1, no. 13, August 1979.
10 Zeta, 1, no. 8, May 1979.
11 “Peñas criollas: drogas y putas”, Zeta, 2, no. 63, August 1981; “Citas de drogas y sexo en los cines Omnia, Bolivar y Alameda”, Zeta, 2, November 1980.
12 “Burdeles en pleno centro”, Zeta, 2, no. 73.
13 “En el Cinco y Medio ganan un millón diario”, Zeta, May 1979.
14 “La parada al rojo vivo”, Zeta, 44, November 1980, 12-5.
15 “La parada al rojo vivo”, Zeta, 44, November 1980, 12-5.
16 “Betsy”, Zeta, 63, 61
17 “La campaña es contra los explotadores y no contra ellas”, Zeta, 73, 18.
18 “Las viejas se mueren en las calles”, Zeta, 1, no. 6, May 1979.
19 “En Barranca todo vuelve a ser como antes”, Zeta, 2, no. 44, November 1980.
20 “La parada al rojo vivo”, Zeta, 2, no. 44, November 1980.
21 “Lucha de clases tras la muerte”, Zeta, 2, no. 43, November 1980.
22 Marxist jargon appears in articles on a variety of themes, such as “Las transnacionales y el negocio de los medicamentos”, Zeta, May 1975; “Las autoridades, las drogas y el INAPROMEF”, Zeta, 2, no. 44, November 1980.
23 “La playa gay de Venice Beach”, Viva, 1, no. 23, May 1984.
24 “Ula”, Viva, 1, no. 23, May 1984.
25 “La revolución de las lesbianas”, Destape, 2, no. 90, May 1985.
26 “Sigue la fiesta de sexo, locura y erotismo”, Viva, 2, no. 63, March 1985.
27 “Show erótico entre serpientes”, Viva, no. 31, July 1984.
28 “Emilse”, Viva, 1, no. 23, May 1984.
29 “Cartas de lectores”, Viva, no. 70, April 1985.
30 In Issue 63 of Viva, for instance, a bisexual couple seeks men, women, or other couples. In their classified add, they state “our relations will happen in a context of respect and cordiality”. “Club de contactos”, Viva, no. 63, March 1985.
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Notes on contributors
Santiago Joaquín Insausti
Santiago Joaquín Insausti, graduated as sociologist, he holds a Doctorate in Social Sciences from the Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA, 2016) where he works as professor. A postdoctoral fellow at the Argentine CONICET and the Universidad Nacional Autónoma in México between 2016 and 2021, he now works as a Maria Zambrano researcher at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. His research explores the sexual and gender politics of memory in Latin America since the 1950s, as well as the impact that memories have in shaping society, culture, and politics. His first book (in press), is based on a doctoral dissertation distinguished by the UBA as the best in the country between 2013 and 2018 (Premio Nacional en Ciencias Sociales). He works in international research teams with scholars from Spain, the United States, and Latin America funded by CLACSO, UNAM, UBA, Brown University and the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad. Dr. Insausti also obtained highly-competitive scholarships to work at the University of Southern California, Brown University, Cornell University, and San Diego State University. Dr. Insausti published in some of the top journals in his field, including articles indexed in SCOPUS first quartile: the Hispanic American Historical Review, Historia Crítica and soon, Memory Studies.
Pablo Ben
Pablo Ben studied Anthropology at the Universidad de Buenos Aires and holds his PhD in Latin American history from the University of Chicago. He is currently an associate professor and the chair at the Department of History, San Diego State University. His research focuses on the history of sexuality and urban social history in Argentina through a transnational comparative approach. He has published numerous articles in English and Spanish exploring the history of science, male same-sex sexual relations, female prostitution, same-sex marriage, and the relation between demography and sexual politics. These are themes that Dr. Ben has explored throughout a long period ranging from the consolidation of the Argentine nation-state in the 1880s to the sexual revolution in the 1960s and 1980s and the passing of the same-sex marriage law in 2010. Dr. Ben is currently finishing his manuscript The Rise and Fall of the Cities of Sin: Sex between Men and Female Prostitution in Buenos Aires and Other Global Cities, 1880-1930.