Sex in Revolution

Concentrating on episodes and phenomena that occurred between 1915 and 1950, the contributors deftly render experiences ranging from those of a transgendered Zapatista soldier to upright damas catolicas and Mexico City’s chicas modernas pilloried by the press and male students. Women refashioned their lives by seeking relief from bad marriages through divorce courts and preparing for new employment opportunities through vocational education. Activists ranging from Catholics to Communists mobilized for political and social rights. Although forced to compromise in the face of fierce opposition, these women made an indelible imprint on postrevolutionary society.

These essays illuminate emerging practices of femininity and masculinity, stressing the formation of subjectivity through civil-society mobilizations, spectatorship and entertainment, and locales such as workplaces, schools, churches, and homes. The volume’s epilogue examines how second-wave feminism catalyzed this revolutionary legacy, sparking widespread, more radically egalitarian rural women’s organizing in the wake of late-twentieth-century democratization campaigns. The conclusion considers the Mexican experience alongside those of other postrevolutionary societies, offering a critical comparative perspective.

Contributors. Ann S. Blum, Kristina A. Boylan, Gabriela Cano, Maria Teresa Fernandez Aceves, Heather Fowler-Salamini, Susan Gauss, Temma Kaplan, Carlos Monsivais, Jocelyn Olcott, Anne Rubenstein, Patience Schell, Stephanie Smith, Lynn Stephen, Julia Tunon, Mary Kay Vaughan

Jocelyn Olcott is the Andrew W. Mellon Assistant Professor of History at Duke University. She is the author of Revolutionary Women in Postrevolutionary Mexico, also published by Duke University Press.

Mary Kay Vaughan is Professor of History at University of Maryland. Her authored books include CULTURAL POLITICS IN REVOLUTION: TEACHERS,

PEASANTS, AND SCHOOLS IN MEXICO, 1934-1940 (1997) and THE STATE,

EDUCATION, AND SOCIAL CLASS IN MEXICO, 1880-1928 (1982). Her edited

works include (w/ Stephen E. Lewis) THE EAGLE AND THE VIRGIN: NATION

AND CULTURAL REVOLUTION IN MEXICO, 1920-1940 (Duke, 2005) and (w/

Heather Fowler Salamini) CREATING SPACES, SHAPING

TRANSITIONS: WOMEN OF THE MEXICAN COUNTRYSIDE, 1850-1990 (1994).

Jocelyn Olcott is Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Duke

University. She is the author of REVOLUTIONARY WOMEN IN

POSTREVOLUTIONARY MEXICO (Duke, 2005).

Gabriela Cano is Professor in the Depto. de Filosofia Historia at the

Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana, Mexico. She is the author of CUATRO

ESTUDIOS DE GENERO EN EL MEXICO URBANO DEL SIGLO XIX (2001) and

(w/ Verena Radkau) GANANDO ESPACIOS: HISTORIAS DE VIDA: GUADALUPE

ZUNIGA, ALURA FLORES Y JOSEFINA VICENS, 1920-1940 (1989).

Gabriela Cano is Professor of History at Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana in Mexico City. She is a coeditor of the multivolume Historia de las mujeres en Espana y America Latina.