‘Execrable bad habits’: medical campaign fighting against masturbation and homosexuality among students from boarding schools (1845-1927)

Abstract

This article is about the discourse practice of Brazilian doctors over the risks of masturbation and homosexuality among students from boarding schools, aiming at understanding aspects about the reality of such students in Brazilian social life. Theses produced by doctors trained in the medical schools of Bahia and Rio de Janeiro in the period between 1845-1927 were used as main source. One characteristic of the medical-hygienic discourse was the statement that life in boarding schools made the practices of masturbation and homosexuality proliferate among schoolboys. In this campaign, the doctors presented hygienic guidelines to boarding school principals and teachers in order to avoid the entry and propagation of the ‘execrable vices’ among the pensioners.

Keywords

• educação
• história
• Sséculo XIX
• Século XX