Abstract
Reviewed by: Francesca Cavarocchi, University of Florence, Italy
Elena Biagini’s well-documented book represents the first systematic history of the Italian lesbian movement, from its birth during the 1970s to its ‘emergence’ in the 1980s. This research field is still under-studied in relation to the Italian case: only a few studies have been published on the history of LGBTIQ political movements; contributions on political lesbianism are even more sporadic, although generally of great interest.
Biagini’s reconstruction is based on extensive research, aimed at recovering and interweaving documents and proceedings of conferences, magazines, flyers, photographs and film footage, preserved both in associations and in personal archives. Biagini also interviewed over 40 former activists. Her use of these materials reveals a strong attention to the subjective dimension and the meaning that contexts, events and group dynamics acquire in each biography, denoting her remarkable sensitivity in ‘creating’ and handling these sources, and her awareness of the methodological complexity of oral history and its entanglement with gender history.
The work depicts the active presence of a minority of women, who generally defined themselves as ‘homosexuals’, in the ‘Fuori’ (Italian Homosexual Unified Revolutionary Front), an association active from the early 1970s – a significant find, since previous narratives and memoirs characterised ‘Fuori’ as comprised totally of men. Biagini highlights in particular the role of Mariasilvia Spolato, a real pioneer of lesbian visibility who was fired after coming out from the public school where she taught. The initiatives taken by these women, and the column they published in the Fuori magazine, represent the first attempt to build a national network in Italy.
Another interesting section of the book deals with lesbian presence in the revolutionary homosexual groups of the mid-1970s. Biagini pays special attention to the young factory workers organising the ‘Saffo Brigades’ of Turin, reconstructing their creative, ironic and countercultural practices during the short time span of their activity.
The second half of the 1970s is marked by the growth of activist networks within Italian feminist groups, members of which define themselves as ‘lesbian women’; Biagini’s careful mapping highlights local differences and the activists’ complex relationship with ‘heterosexual’ activists. In this framework, the Pompeo Magno emerged in Rome as the most significant group due to its intense debate on lesbian subjectivity.
Around 1979–1980, several ‘lesbian-feminist’ groups were founded, claiming autonomy from the feminist network. As in previous chapters, attention is here paid to the local articulations of these circles that were active mainly in the medium-to-large cities of centre-north Italy. Their political practices combined self-awareness, theoretical issues and the occupation of new social spaces.
The last chapter reconstructs the first steps of ‘Arcigay donna’, born in the late 1980s within the national association Arcigay, an organisation that marks a new phase. ‘Arcigay donna’ abandoned separatist practices, choosing stronger public visibility in order to gain the attention of mainstream media, and to attract the underwater world of ‘peripheral’ lesbians who had not come across feminist political networks.
The book deals with some significant issues. Between the 1970s and the 1980s, a revolutionary paradigm prevailed, focused on a widespread anti-patriarchal and anti-authoritarian mood, whereas ‘Fuori donna’ and ‘Arcigay donna’ at the turn of the 1980s considered social and juridical recognition of equal rights and dignity as important strategic objectives.
Another thread concerns the debate around important theoretical issues, such as separatist practices, the relationship with feminism and the opportunity to forge alliances with other movements. In the two decades under observation, separatism prevailed over collaboration with mixed associations; in the book, different nuances of separatist and non-separatist trajectories are highlighted.
Biagini analyses the construction of theoretical paths starting from the feminist experience: first of all, the reception of texts produced by USA and French theorists (in particular Adrienne Rich, Monique Wittig and the French ‘Psych et Po’ group). Great attention is paid to the impact of the Milan theories of sexual difference that in the 1980s aroused widespread consensus and reinterpretation in a lesbian-feminist key, both for their hegemonic role in Italian feminist circles, and for the central role they assigned to female autonomy. Many lesbian activists underlined, however, the risk of a return to an ‘a-lesbic’ feminism that would blot out the differences existing within female subjectivities, and the dangers of a binary order. This critical approach anticipated key themes expressed by international feminism from the 1990s onwards.
The book discusses practices that are not only political and theoretical, but also social and counter-cultural: separatist communes, squats, fanzines, news columns, meetings and nightclubs. These activities, started in the 1970s, were fed by a strong transnational circulation of people and patterns; in some cases, they endured in subsequent decades.
In conclusion, this original and multifaceted study stresses the rupture caused by the lesbian movement in individual biographies, due to the felt conviction of having taken part in an experimental and pioneering phase. Elena Biagini – who explicitly claims her speaking position as an activist – has managed to combine an internal and participatory look with a learned balanced and nuanced reconstruction. Starting from this research, it will be possible to deepen our understanding of various socio-historical aspects, such as perceptions of homosexuality and lesbianism in Italian society or the links between Italian movements and the wider transnational framework.