Gender Policies Towards Youth: From Stalinism to the Yugoslav Dilemma

Abstract

Policies towards young people often surpassed religious or class notions, being an area in which unified gender identities were created. This chapter shows how the Party’s imagined ideal gender relations, and challenges to impose those ideals in practice. Following the Yugoslav-Soviet break, the rank and file struggled to police youth sexuality in Stalinist terms. From the 1950s, young people enjoyed Western music, films, and comics, and—much to the Party’s disapproval—were having active sexual lives. By examining concerns regarding youth sexuality, this chapter delineates the youth sex culture and delimits crucial moments when Stalinist gender policies were met with challenges. Ultimately, the chapter explains the slow and painful detachment from Stalinism, which was often not entirely straightforward.