Was Sex Inflexible? Practices, Knowledge, Techniques, and Technologies of “Sex Change” Embodiment in Argentina during the Twentieth Century

2026-07-22

My project seeks to analyse the making of transsexual bodies in Argentina during the twentieth century. It has three keygoals: (i) to investigate the history of a repertoire of medical and social practices that includes the use of self-injected hormones, cosmetic and sex change surgeries, prosthetics, as well as international travel to attain medical treatment, document falsification, among others; (ii) to examine the transformations of the notion of “sex,” and the development of the multiple meanings that doctors, patients, journalists, and judges assigned to it; and (iii) to establish a connection between transsexual embodiment practices and gender-normative technologies performed in the first half of the twentieth century for cissexual men and women. Unlike other countries where sex change surgery access was restricted (the United States) or existed in a legal vacuum (Chile and Mexico), Argentina prohibited surgeries that affected reproductive organs and punished public display of attributes of the “other sex.” As a consequence, the daily lives of transvestites, transsexuals and female homosexuals became public transgressions and “sex change” procedures became clandestine, expensive and dangerous. By analyzing documents such as trial records and using oral history techniques, I will write the first book of the trans* body making in Argentina.

United Kingdom (UK)

2026-02-15