Abstract
Sexuality is embedded in and influences other social, political and economic trends, such as changes in political rhetoric, cultural values and lifestyle choices, and can thus be a fundamental lens through which to interpret and assess the broad processes of social change that have taken place in post-communist Central Europe. However, very little has been so far written about sexuality in relation to post-communist transition in East Central Europe.
The article fills in this gap in scholarship, analyzing representations of sexuality in the Czech media, developments in traffic in women, and the new political discourse on homosexuality in the Czech Republic as both integral to and functions of the democratic and economic transition. By doing so, it shows how studies of gender politics in Central Europe can incorporate sexuality to gain insight into a wide range of social problems that at first glance seem far removed from questions of gender.