Abstract
In this article, I discuss the hypothesis that the emergence of the concept of sexual rights, alongside an increase in the use of the language of human rights in social claims relating to pleasure, bodies and sexual practices, signal more than the mere recognition of the fact that this dimension of human experience was the target of authoritarian intrusions by the state in the past and that it now merits special protection. Based on the already significant Brazilian ethnographic literature on practices, values, identities and public interventions related to sexuality, I analyse the emergence of the concept of sexual rights as a central aspect within a wider process of transformation at the level of sexual politics - one which changes, in crucial aspects, the device of sexuality itself. As the result of the dynamic relationship between different social actors (activists, policy makers, politicians, lawyers, researchers etc.), these rights are here considered a symbol of the historical emergence of a "new" secular regime of sexuality, accompanied by a moral regulatory style of its own.
Key words:
Sexuality; Sexual politics; Sexual rights; Brazil