A worker's paradise? Public discourses on sex and erotica in late state socialist Hungary

Dr. Gábor Szegedi: A worker's paradise? Public discourses on sex and erotica in late state socialist Hungary

In this session, I will give a lecture on the Kádár regime's expert-driven sexual politics, focusing on the connection between the emancipation of masturbation and the liberalization of public nudity. The 1970s and 1980s in Hungary is today considered as a time when a more permissive approach permeated public discourses with relation to various areas of sexuality. It was a time of the rise of sex experts who, along with public intellectuals, could disseminate ideas as radical as open marriage. At the same time a more liberal regulation of ads contributed to what was called "democratic sex," a proliferation of erotic imagery in the public arena. Aside from the lecture, we will watch and discuss a Hungarian movie from 1986, entitled "Egészséges erotika" (Healthy Erotica) and a discuss it together with of Mago-Maghiar's article analyzing a popular magazine's erotic jokes. 

The second aim of the seminar is to discuss the relationship between sexual liberation and the objectification of women on a broader level and the participants of the seminar will be invited to bring along their own examples from their respective countries (historical or contemporary) to discuss the issue: to what extent has sexual liberation brought (or is bringing) along a shift in gender relations with a special view to erotica/porn and the sexualization of bodies.