For and Against Sex Education in Mexico in the 1930S. Discourses About Gender and Sexuality
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For and Against Sex Education in Mexico in the 1930s. Discourses about Gender and Sexuality by Ana Isabel Enríquez Vargas Submitted to the Department of Gender Studies, Central European University In partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Erasmus Mundus Master’s Degree in Women’s and Gender Studies Main supervisor: Francisca de Haan (Central European University) Second supervisor: Teresa Ortiz Gómez (University of Granada) Budapest, Hungary 2016 CEU eTD Collection CEU eTD Collection For and Against Sex Education in Mexico in the 1930s. Discourses about Gender and Sexuality by Ana Isabel Enríquez Vargas Submitted to the Department of Gender Studies, Central European University In partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Erasmus Mundus Master’s Degree in Women’s and Gender Studies Main supervisor: Francisca de Haan (Central European University) Second supervisor: Teresa Ortiz Gómez (University of Granada) Budapest, Hungary, 2016 Approved by: _______________________ CEU eTD Collection CEU eTD Collection To my grandmother Rita, who I barely met but who taught my mother to be courageous, to my mother who passed that knowledge to me, and to my friend Zarina, who supported me in the last months of thesis writing. CEU eTD Collection i CEU eTD Collection ii When I began menstruating, the summer before I started ninth grade, my mother gave me a speech, telling me that I was to let no boy touch me, and then she asked if I knew how a woman get pregnant. I told her what I had been taught in science, about the sperm fertilizing the egg, and then she asked if I knew how, exactly, that happened. I saw the terror in her eyes and so, though I knew that aspect of procreation as well, I lied, and told her it hadn’t been explained to us. A Bengali girl growing up in the United States, in the short story “Hell-Heaven.”1 Jhumpa Lahiri CEU eTD Collection 1 Jhumpa Lahiri, ‘Hell-Heaven’, in Unaccustomed Earth (India: Random House India, 2009). iii CEU eTD Collection iv Abstract This thesis analyses the debates surrounding the first initiative to introduce school-based sex education in Mexico in the 1930s. I focus especially on the constructions of gender and sexuality that were expressed within these discussions. During the presidency of Abelardo Rodríguez (1932-1934), the Ministry of Education (SEP), headed by Narciso Bassols, supported the idea that sex education should be a compulsory subject in public schools and began the procedures for its implementation. The SEP viewed sex education as a social problem requiring the intervention of the state. I argue that this initiative of sex education can be seen as part of a biopolitical project intending to regulate the lives of individuals in society for both individuals’ and society’s wellbeing. Second, I posit that it carried specific and varied content for men and women while promoting “ideal” forms of sexuality. A strong opposition to the implementation of sex education in schools was organized, and considered especially important to parents’ associations with Catholic orientation. They opposed the ongoing process of the secularization of schools and denounced sex education. In 1934, Bassols had to resign from office in part due to the protests against sex education. After this initiative, it took Mexico nearly 40 years to have a program of sexual education in primary schools. In fact, sex education continues to be an issue of public debate. From my perspective, this initiative offers an opportunity to scrutinize how actors such as the state, physicians and religiously oriented organizations intended to redefine what it was to be a man or a woman, and the ideal of female and male sexuality. Thus, this study looks at how different actors in CEU eTD Collection the national realm worked to construct both gender and sexuality. By thoroughly examining these debates, I analyze how the role of women in society, and their behavior in private and public life, was being shaped by various factors. Likewise, it will highlight the backlash that i the changing role of women in society was causing at the time, and how various actors attempted to influence their position. In addition, my research will allow me to explore how medical discourses contributed to creating normative ideals of gender difference and heterosexuality while simultaneously medicalizing all alternatives as “deviant.” CEU eTD Collection ii Acknowledgements First of all I want to thank Francisca de Haan, my supervisor, who carefully read all my drafts and gave me very insightful feedback helping me to write a better thesis. Professor De Haan is a very experienced and devoted scholar and I learned a lot by working under her supervision. Likewise I want to show my gratitude to my second reader, Professor Teresa Ortiz Gómez who encouraged me a lot and who contributed to this work with important feedback and recommendations. Nevertheless if there are any mistakes or inaccuracies I take full responsibility of them. I also want to thank Professor María Teresa Fernández Aceves who bestowed her friendship on me in the last few years and who very generously recommended a variety of relevant articles and books for reference. Also special thanks to my colleagues and friends Hilda Monraz and Ana Sofía Serrano, knowledgeable historians and feminists, who accompanied me in archival work and in finding sources for my thesis. I’m am also very grateful to my friend Marcela Figueroa who opened her home to me during my archival visits to Mexico City. I thank the GEMMA consortium for having given me a place in GEMMA with the Erasmus Mundus Scholarship (Cathegory A) that made it possible for me to be part of the unique and wonderful experience of studying in two great academic institutions, Central European University, and the University of Granada. It was an incredible process of learning CEU eTD Collection and I would like to express my special gratitude to professors Francisca de Haan, Vera Eliasova, Andrea Peto, Prem Kumar Rajaram, Teresa Ortiz Gomez, Mónica Szurmuk and iii Katherine O’Donnel for their stimulating courses. I also thank all my peers who made lessons interesting and stimulating with their different backgrounds and experiences. The past two years have been an incredible journey and I made wonderful friends along the way. Indeed if I mention all their names I would fall short of space, however I would be sorely remiss if I didn't mention some of them: Bess, Aditi, Hedvika, Freyja, Jana, Tessy, Arman, Masha, Giavana, Mona, Luisa, Haruko, Konstantin, Francisco, Alessandra, Nicole, Carme, Milada, Elisa, Daniela, Nora, Isaac, Marcela, Victor, Betty and Ursula. Thanks to you all, I learnt a lot with you and shared beautiful moments that will stay in my heart. I consider myself very lucky for having met such wonderful people. I hope our paths cross again and I wish you good luck in all your future endeavours. Thanks to my support network back home, to my friends there and to the ones who live in different places but always keep in touch. All my gratitude to my family, my parents Raquel and Toño, my sisters Martha (and her sons), Alicia and Lupita and my brother Toño (and his family), whom I missed the most. I also want to show my gratitude to Zarina, who was a very important emotional support in the last months of thesis writing. CEU eTD Collection iv Table of contents Contenido Abstract ................................................................................................................................................ i Acknowledgements .............................................................................................................................iii Table of contents ................................................................................................................................. v List of abbreviations ............................................................................................................................. i Introduction ........................................................................................................................................ 1 Chapter 1. Theoretical and methodological framework ................................................................... 11 1.1. Theoretical framework ...................................................................................................... 11 1.1.1. Scott’s definition of gender ....................................................................................... 11 1.1.2. Foucault’s notions of discourse, sexuality and biopolitics ........................................ 14 1.1.3. Biopolitics and sex education .................................................................................... 18 1.1.4. Constructivist approach in the history of science ..................................................... 21 1.2. Methodology ..................................................................................................................... 22 1.2.1. Sources ...................................................................................................................... 22 1.2.2. Textual or content analysis ....................................................................................... 24 1.3. Conclusion ......................................................................................................................... 27 Chapter 2. Literature review ............................................................................................................. 29 2.1. Historiography on sex education