Jihye Kim, From Sweatshop to Fashion Shop: Korean Immigrant Entrepreneurship in the Argentine Garment Industry (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2021), 200 pp.

Abstract

Argentine history. While the destape was a distinct event that shifted the cultural life of Argentina in the 1980s, the trend of increasing politicisation of intimacy and sexuality has become central to the current debates about the nature of Argentine democracy. In the twenty-first century, feminist and LGBTQI+ movements foster debates about how sexual freedom and material equality are substantial components of the everyday experience of democracy. During this short century, these movements have pushed major legal and cultural transformations – from legalisation on the termination of pregnancy to that expanding trans rights such as ‘selfidentify’ gender recognition. As many of the stories that Natalia Milanesio showcases in her book, these changes don’t necessarily move in any single direction; there are usually conflictive experiences – in which Argentines are defining their lived experience with democracy in their public spaces, homes and beds.