Tisztaság, tisztesség, fajgyalázás
Purity, decency, and race defilement

Sexual and racial normalization in the Horthy Era

Summary/Abstract: In this article I will show how anti-Semitism and sexuality became intertwined in the Horthy era in Hungary, and how this created a double bind of racial and sexual normalization in practice. As a theoretical framework, I will use sexual normalization as used by Foucault and the application of this theory to race (McWhorter). On the one hand, I will show the sex education materials that the Christian-nationalist regime approved and recommended to the young adults of the time. These works tried to set the standards of appropriate sexual behaviour and taking into account the data on their distribution they played an important role for the exercise of power. I will also analyse Law no. XV 1941 known as the ”Third Anti-Semitic Law,” which – similarly to the Nuremberg Laws in Germany – prohibited marriage on a racial basis, and introduced „race defilement”, which attempted to protect „racial purity” by punishing certain extramarital sexual encounters.

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