‘A politically non-dangerous revolution is not a revolution’: critical readings of the concept of sexual revolution by Yugoslav feminists in the 1970s

Abstract

This article probes the issues of the ‘sexual revolution’ and ‘feminism’ in the context of Yugoslavia in the 1970s and early 1980s. By the time feminists in that country started to organise themselves in the 1970s, the concept of the ‘sexual revolution’ had become subject to broader discussions. In this article, the author demonstrates that the new feminist discourse in Yugoslavia was critical of the position of women in the country, while also articulating an ambivalent attitude towards the idea of the ‘sexual revolution’. In dealing with diverse issues, such as women's sexuality and pornography, these feminists realised the concept's subversive potential, but also questioned its automatically emancipatory nature for women. In addition, as part of the author's conceptual analysis, she also detects some of the intellectual influences adopted by the new Yugoslav feminists from their US and West European counterparts. The critical or approving reflection of the Yugoslav feminists on these matters positions them in a dialogical and co-operative, yet also distinctive, place vis-à-vis the Western second waves.