A view on queer and feminism in Italy : conflicts and alliances

This article explores some aspects of the relationship between feminism and queer in Italy today. There are significant areas where these two discursive and political paradigms have established and continue to establish productive, mutually reinforcing conversations and alliances. In other contexts, however, a sheer tension has emerged between the two, rooted in diverging views of the pivotal notion of “sexual difference.” The article sets out to investigate and compare queer and feminist approaches to difference, reflecting critically on a number of scholarly, newspaper and blog articles that inform the current queer-feminist debate in Italy. On the one hand, it asks whether queer theory and activism have been misrepresented in these contexts, and how queer studies have responded to the critiques that have been addressed to queer theory and political practice. On the other hand, it points out how queer discourses have also partly misconstrued the positions and motivations of “sexual difference” feminism, at times relying on a form of linear temporality whereby queer fluidity would replace an “outdated” feminism. The article then looks at instances where a fruitful relationship between queer and feminism is established in academia and activism, especially in the recent development of transfeminism and the national network of Non una di meno