Ideologia del gender: towards a transcultural understanding of the phenomenon (original) (raw)

The Challenge of the Italian 'Thought of Sexual Difference' within Gender Mainstreaming

Beykent University Social Science Review, 2016

My article intends to participate to the theoretical debate within gender mainstreaming focusing in particular on the epistemological basis of the feminist dichotomy sameness/difference within the conceptualization of gender equality. I look, in the first instance, at the conceptualization of the sameness/ difference distinction within feminist philosophy. Then I analyze the paradoxes of equality within the logic of exclusion and homolo-gation and the limits of liberal feminism theoretical framework. The core of my article is based on the 'Thought of Sexual Difference' elaborated by Italian feminist philosophers. Through their work I intend to highlight the potential long-term risks of gender policies that fail to integrate sexual difference within a dual conceptualization of being. Key words: gender mainstreaming, thought of sexual difference, Italian feminist philosophy, gender equality, second wave feminism. İtalyan cinsiyet farklılık düşüncesinin cinsiyet kaynaşmasına karşı duruşu ÖZ Bu makale, cinsiyet kaynaşımının teorik açıdan, özellikle feminist dikotomisi-aynılık/farklılık-konusunun cinsiyet eşitliliğinin kavramsallaştırılması düşüncesinin epistomolojik temellere dayanılarak yapılan tartışmasına açıklık getirme amacı gütmektedir. Makalede ilk olarak feminist felsefesine göre aynılık/farklılık terimlerini ayırt etme durumunun kavramsalllaştırılması incelenmektedir. Sonrasında dışlama ve onaylama mantığındaki eşitlik paradoksunu ve özgürlükçü feminizmin teorik çerçevesinin limitleri tartışılmaktadır. Makalenin özü, İtalyan feminist felsefecilerinin üzerinde durduğu "Cinsel Farklılık Düşüncesi" ne dayanmaktadır. Bu düşünce ışığında cinsiyet farklılığını varoluşun ikili kavramlaştırılması düşüncesiyle entegre etmeyi başaramamış olan cinsiyet politikalarının uzun vadeli potensiyel riskleri incelenmektedir.

Intersections of racism and sexism in contemporary Italy: A critical cartography of recent feminist debates

2010

In this article I draw a critical cartography of current feminist debates in contemporary Italy, from an intersectional anti-racist perspective. A number of recent feminine and feminist interventions have focused on the issue of widespread sexism and commodification of female bodies in contemporary Italian politics and media. Yet, as I hope to show in the first section, these interventions -mainly voiced from white, middle-class, heterosexual subject positions -have failed to consider how bodies are simultaneously gendered and racialized, and how gendered violence exists at the intersections with other naturalized axes of power and privilege.

Broadening the Gendered Polis. Italian Feminist and Transsexual Movements, 1979-1982, “Transgender Studies Quarterly”, 3.1/2015, Special issue: Trans/feminism

In the late 1970s to the early 1980s, the Italian transsexual movement began gaining visibility in the public sphere, also making use of the feminist political lexicon. This contamination emerged in the life stories of some trans pioneers, who consider feminism a fundamental element of their political and individual trajectory of subjectivation. In contrast, historiographical reconstructions of Italian feminist movements as well as feminists' accounts never mention the transsexual movement. During battles for the right to change one's gender, transsexuals were supported by only a few feminist members of Left parties. The article analyzes the reasons that prevented Italian feminist and transsexual movements from establishing an open alliance against the patriarchal system deeply rooted in the Italian society of the time.

Femminicidio in Italy: A critique of feminist gender discourse and constructivist reading of the human identity

Current Sociology, 2016

In recent years a feminist gender discourse of femicide has become established in Italian political debate. Stereotypical and sexist representations of women are singled out as key issues to be addressed in the fight against Violence Against Women (VAW). Gender discourse and associated cultural/linguistic enterprise simplify heterosexual (violent) relational dynamics, overshadow different situational, relational and socio-psychological readings of violence and foreground a cultural understanding of the human being as a self-determined artificially constructed identity. The authors of this article suggest that this discourse on femicide can be read through the lens of Foucault's theory of biopolitics, as a device of manipulation of human identity. Furthermore the authors borrow from Habermas's theory of public sphere and argue that the hegemonic gender interpretation of femicide reflects the specific vantage point of feminist groups while it is not the result of any inclusive public reflections on the causes of this social phenomenon. Their core argument is that a gender discourse of femicide contributes to the advancement of a social constructivist paradigm in the interpretation of self in postmodern society, a society that, as warned by sociologist David Riesman and Jungian psychologist Tony Wolff, is populated by individuals that conform to cultural values.

New faces of populism: The Italian ‘anti-gender’ mobilization

In the last years, a relevant part of the public debate in Italy focused on issues relating to gender equality and LGBTQ rights. More specifically, since 2013 two law proposals were presented with the aim to introduce the recognition of partnerships and marriages of same-sex couples, educational programs on gender identities and relations in schools (Giorgi A., Ozzano L., 2015). One of the most relevant voices in this debate is represented by the neo-conservative Catholic movement that countered all the law proposals, invoking the defense of the “natural family”. The contribution is aimed at the analysis of rhetoric and discursive strategies of this movement, considering the main relevant groups and formations. The paper, methodologically based on the Critical Discourse Analysis, examines the most relevant political documents (manifestos and press releases) of these political formations. The analysis of the documents allows to reconstruct topics and political frame of what can be defined as a new conservative and populist wave. In fact, the public discourse of these groups present some typical populist traits. i) The classical “them and us” opposition (Mény and Surel, 2002) that constructs the “traditional and natural family” as object of defeat by specific public threats. ii) The construction of scapegoats in order to mobilise public opinion, producing what Herdt (2009) calls “sexual panic”, related in particular to the protection of the children’ innocence. iii) The evocation of nature as core of this theoretical architecture, with the use of the so-called Gender Ideology. Finally, we will try to show how this discourse is not a simple counter position against a socio-political change, but rather the proposition of a proper socio-political project, nurtured by in the seduction of nature and tradition.

Contentious gender politics in Italy and Croatia: diffusion of transnational anti-gender movements to national contexts

Social Movement Studies, 2022

Contemporary anti-gender movements mobilize against gender and sexual equality for which feminist and LGBTQI+ movements have been advocating for decades. We propose the term ‘conten- tious gender politics’ to capture this clash of opposing movements concerning bodily integrity, kinship structures, sexual morality, and institutionalization of gender equality. Existing literature has recog- nized the transnational character of anti-gender movements and identified matching tactics, frames, and allies across different coun- tries. We examine how these transnational movements used similar campaigns to ‘localize’. Localization is conceptualized in this research as the process of adapting frames and tactics to different national contexts. To do so, this study examines the diffusion of social movements and anti-gender campaigns by comparing anti- gender movements in Italy and Croatia through critical events between 2013 and 2019. We demonstrate that the localization of these anti-gender movements occurred through a three-step path- way: first, by adapting frames and tactics of left-liberal civil society and progressive movements; second, by forging alliances with existing right-wing parties; and third, by embedding its agenda within formal political and administrative bodies.

Where feminists dare. The challenge to the hetero-patriarchal and neo-conservative backlash in Italy and Poland

Oñati Socio-Legal Series, 2020

This paper focuses on the public debate in Poland and Italy concerning the right to abortion in the contemporary rise of populist neo-conservative forces in Europe and of a global feminist movement. In both countries, the historical Catholic interference into women's reproductive rights and self-determination has been enforced by the renewed alliance of right-wing governments and pro-life groups to converge into a transnational “anti-gender war”. This represents a real backlash against women’s achievements over the last decades in terms of reproductive and sexual citizenship, which appears to be the battlefield for redefinition of western citizenship in times of global crisis. Although different genealogies, we identified a common framing of neo-conservative discourse, and of feminist claims and practices, as that of feminist strikes and social mutualism. In this perspective, we consider these practices as a normativity from below, arguing that feminist movement is addressing a ...