‘Execrable bad habits’: medical campaign fighting against masturbation and homosexuality among students from boarding schools (1845-1927)

Authors

  • Joaquim Tavares Conceição Universidade Federal de Sergipe Author

Keywords:

Masturbation, Homosexuality, Boarding schools

Abstract

This article is about the discourse practice of Brazilian doctors
over the risks of masturbation and homosexuality among
students from boarding schools, aiming at understanding aspects
about the reality of such students in Brazilian social life. Theses
produced by doctors trained in the medical schools of Bahia and
Rio de Janeiro in the period between 1845-1927 were used as
main source. One characteristic of the medical-hygienic
discourse was the statement that life in boarding schools made
the practices of masturbation and homosexuality proliferate
among schoolboys. In this campaign, the doctors presented
hygienic guidelines to boarding school principals and teachers in
order to avoid the entry and propagation of the ‘execrable vices’
among the pensioners.

Author Biography

  • Joaquim Tavares Conceição, Universidade Federal de Sergipe
    Universidade Federal de Sergipe. Colégio de Aplicação. História.

Published

2015-05-27

Issue

Section

Original research

How to Cite

‘Execrable bad habits’: medical campaign fighting against masturbation and homosexuality among students from boarding schools (1845-1927). (2015). Revista Brasileira De História Da Educação, 15(2[38]), 111-132. https://www.periodicos.uem.br/ojs/index.php/rbhe/article/view/38926