Avances del Cesor (Dec 2015)
The patriarchal revenge. Moral crusade and sexual violence in Mendoza (1972-1979)
Abstract
The incorporation of women into political activism in the 60s and 70s introduced disruptions in gender relations order that the military then decided to restore. Already in the years before the putsch there were actions in this sense. In the case of Mendoza, under the idea that it was necessary to preserve the moral order, security forces and local nationalist groups reacted virulently. On the one hand, they reacted against the Educational Seminars organized by teachers, and on the other hand, against prostitutes, who were brutally persecuted by “parapolicial” commands. In this paper, we analyze ruptures and continuities in the repressive action, as well as the development of the “moral” crusade led by the military. We depart from the assumption that the punishment meted out to those called “subversives” and prostitutes, was based on asymmetric relations between the genders. In this article we consider that the last dictatorship involved, along with a “class revenge,” one of “patriarchal” nature.
