Italian sexology, Nicola Pende’s biotypology and hormone treatments in the 1920s

Abstract

This article analyses a selection of Nicola Pende’s studies from the 1920s on ‘endocrinological abnormalities’ associated with impotence, a lack of virility in men, a lack of femininity in women, and homosexuality. By analysing endocrinological sexual theories and treatments, it aims to illustrate the ways in which hormone research pioneered an innovative approach to the study of sexual behaviour in Italian sexology, and to show how it was used to normalise individuals. It demonstrates how endocrinology promoted an understanding of the body and sexual desire in which the attributes of masculinity and femininity, and even of sexual orientation, were thought to be malleable and subject to deliberate engineering.

Keywords

• Italian sexology
• endocrinology
• biotypology
• homosexuality