Skip to main navigation menu Skip to main content Skip to site footer
FrancoAngeli Journals

Studies and research

No. 300 (2022): Italia Contemporanea - open access section

From revolution to liberation. Feminist consciousness raising and sexuality in the 1970s

  • Virginia Niri
DOI
https://doi.org/10.3280/ic-oa2
Submitted
novembre 30, 2022
Published
2022-12-20

Abstract

The paper proposes a look at the “sexual revolution” (Italy, 1960s and 1970s) in the interpretative framework of emotional history, with a wide use of oral history. Through the analysis of unpublished oral sources and the counterpoint of the agony aunt column of women’s magazines, the Author questions the contribution of the feminist method of consciousness raising in the reception and modification of the inputs of the so-called sexual revolution. Taking into consideration the Italian context of the “long 1968”, the Author analyzes how the new models of an apparently freer sexuality were incorporated and modified within the emotional counter-community created by consciousness raising feminism, in the direction of what will be later defined “sexual liberation”. Furthermore, the Author questions the openings and limits that this approach has entailed.

References

  1. Anni Settanta (2004),“Genesis. Rivista della Società Italiana delle Storiche”, III/1.
  2. Il movimento femminista negli anni '70, (1987) “Memoria. Rivista di storia delle donne”, n. 19-20, Rosenberg & Sellier, Torino.
  3. Allyn David (2000), Make Love, not War. The Sexual Revolution, an Unfettered History, New York, Little, Brown and Company.
  4. Balestracci Fiammetta (2018), The Influence of American Sexual Studies on the ‘Sexual Revolution’ of Italian Women, in Ann-Kathrin Gembries e al., Children by Choice? Changing Values, Reproduction, and Family Planning in the 20th Century, München, De Gruyter Oldenbourg, pp 145-163.
  5. Balestracci Fiammetta (2020), La sessualità degli italiani. Pratiche, consumi e culture dal 1945 ad oggi, Roma, Carocci.
  6. Benadusi Lorenzo (2020), For a Criticism of the Sexual Revolution: from the Liberation of Mores to Pornocracy (1968–1975), “Journal of Modern Italian Studies”, vol. 25/1, pp. 41-53.
  7. Beorlegui Zarranz David (2019) «“Detrás de lo que quieren que seamos, está lo que somos”. Revolución sexual y políticas sexuales feministas durante las décadas de los setenta y de los ochenta. Una aproximación al caso del País Vasco», “Feminismo/s”, vol. 33, pp. 199-223.
  8. Bertilotti Teresa, Scattigno Anna (a cura di) (2005), Il femminismo degli anni Settanta, Viella, Roma.
  9. Boccia Maria Luisa (1990), L'io in rivolta. Vissuto e pensiero di Carla Lonzi, Milano, La Tartaruga.
  10. Bonomo Bruno (2013), Voci della memoria. L’uso delle fonti orali nella ricerca storica, Roma, Carocci.
  11. Bosio Gianni (1998), L'intellettuale rovesciato, Milano, JacaBook.
  12. Bracke Maud A. (2012), Building a 'Counter-community of Emotions': Feminist Encounters and Socio-cultural Difference in 1970s Turin, “Modern Italy”, vol. 17, n. 2, pp. 223-236. DOI:10.1080/13532944.2012.665283
  13. Bracke Maud A. (2014), Women and the Reinvention of the Political: Feminism in Italy, 1968-1983, Routledge, New York.
  14. Bravo Anna (2003), Il fotoromanzo, Bologna, il Mulino.
  15. Bravo Anna (2008), A colpi di cuore. Storie del sessantotto, Laterza, Bari.
  16. Brix Michel (2016), L’amour libre. Brève histoire d’une utopie, Paris, Molinari.
  17. Burke Paul (a cura di) (1973), A New Kind of History from the Writings of Febvre, Londra, Routledge & Kegan Paul.
  18. Carpenter Laura (2005), Virginity Lost. An Intimate Portrait of First Sexual Experiences, New York and London, New York University Press.
  19. Charnock Hannah (2020), Teenage Girls, Female Friendship and the Making of the Sexual Revolution in England, 1950-1980, “The Historical Journal”, vol. 63, n. 4, pp. 1032-1053. DOI:10.1017/S0018246X19000396
  20. Cioni Paola e al. (a cura di) (2018), Donne nel Sessantotto, Bologna, il Mulino.
  21. Clifford Rebecca (2012), Emotions and Gender in Oral History: Narrating Italy's 1968, “Modern Italy”, vol. 17, n. 2.
  22. Contini Giovanni, Martini Alfredo (1993), Verba manent. L'uso delle fonti orali per la storia contemporanea, Carocci, Roma.
  23. Cook Hera (2005), The Long Sexual Revolution. English Women, Sex, and Contraception, 1800–1975, Oxford, Oxford University Press.
  24. D'Emilio John, Freedman Estelle B. (1988), Intimate Matters. A History of Sexuality in America, New York, Harper & Row.
  25. Ehrenreich Barbara e al. (1986), Remaking Love. The Feminization of Sex, Garden City – New York, Anchor Press – Doubleday.
  26. Febvre Lucien (1976), Problemi di metodo storico, Torino, Einaudi.
  27. Felitti Karina (2008), La revolución de la pildora anticonceptiva y la cuestión demografica en Buenos Aires. Apropiaciones y resignificaciones de un debate internacional, in Kathya Araujo, Mercedes Prieto (a cura di), Estudios sobre sexualidades en América Latina, Quito, FLACSO, pp. 161-178.
  28. Flores Marcello, De Bernardi Alberto (1998), Il Sessantotto, il Mulino, Bologna.
  29. Foot John, Looking Back on Italy's “Long 68”, in Cornils Ingo, Waters Sarah (a cura di) (2010), “Memories of 1968”, Cultural History and Literary Imagination, Vol. 16, Berna, Peter Lang.
  30. Foucault Michel (1978), La volontà di sapere, Milano, Feltrinelli.
  31. Frisch Michael (1990), A Shared Authority. Essays on the Craft and Meaning of Oral and Public History, Albany, SUNY Press.
  32. Goodwin Jeff e al. (a cura di) (2001), Passionate Politics. Emotions and Social Movements, USA, University of Chicago Press.
  33. Grant Linda (1993), Sexing the Millennium. A Political History of the Sexual Revolution, New York, HarperCollins.
  34. Hekma Gert, Giami Alain (a cura di) (2014), Sexual Revolutions, New York, Palgrave Macmillan.
  35. Herzog Dagmar (2011), Sexuality in Europe. A Twentieth-Century History, New York, Cambridge University Press.
  36. Jaspers James M. (2011), Emotions and Social movements: Twenty Years of Theory and Research, “Annual Review of Sociology”, n. 37, pp. 285-303
  37. Jeffreys Sheila (1990), Anticlimax. A feminist perspective on sexual revolution, New York, New York University Press.
  38. Koscianska Angieszka (2016), Sex on Equal Terms? Polish Sexuology on Women's Emancipation and “Good Sex” from the 1970s to the Present, “Sexualities”, vol. 19, pp. 236-256.
  39. Laws Sophie (1990), Issues of Blood. The Politics of Menstruation, Houndmills, MacMillan.
  40. Lodato Natalina (2013), Il caso Duepiù. Il giornale che rivoluzionò le relazioni e i sentimenti in Italia, Formigine (Mo), Infinito edizioni.
  41. Lóránd Zsófia, (2015) ‘A Politically Non-Dangerous Revolution is Not a Revolution’: Critical Readings of the Concept of Sexual Revolution by Yugoslav Feminists in the 1970s, “European Review of History: Revue européenne d’histoire”, vol. 22/1, pp. 120-137.
  42. Lussana Fiamma (2012), Il movimento femminista in Italia. Esperienze, storie, memorie, Carocci, Roma.
  43. Marks Lara V. (2001), Sexual chemistry. A history of the contraceptive pill, New Haven/London, Yale University Press.
  44. McCracken Ellen (1993), Decoding Women's Magazines. From Mademoiselle to Ms., Houndmills, MacMillan.
  45. McLellan Josie (2011), Love in the Time of Communism: Intimacy and Sexuality in the GDR, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
  46. Mead Margaret (1975), Male and Female. A Study of the Sexes in a Changing World, USA, Morrow.
  47. Mieli Mario (2002), Elementi di critica omosessuale, Milano, Feltrinelli.
  48. Morris Penelope (2006), The Harem Exposed: Gabriella Parca’s Le italiane si confessano, in Penelope Morris (a cura di), Women in Italy, 1945-1960. An Interdisciplinary Study, New York, Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 109-130.
  49. Morris Penelope e al. (2012), Introduction: Italy and the Emotions, “Modern Italy”, vol. 17, n. 2, pp. 151-156. DOI:10.1080/13532944.2012.669210
  50. Morris Penelope (2018), Problems and Prescriptions. Motherhood and Mammismo in Postwar Italian Advice Columns and Fiction, in Penelope Morris, Perry Willson (a cura di), La mamma. Interrogating a National Stereotype, New York, Palgrave, pp. 77-104.
  51. Paoletti Joe B. (2015), Sex and Unisex. Fashion, Feminism and the Sexual Revolution, Bloomington, Indiana University Press.
  52. Papadogiannis Nikolaos (2011), Confronting “Imperalism” and “Loneliness”. Sexual and Gender Relations among Young Communists in Greece, 1974-1981, “Journal of Modern Greek Studies”, vol. 29, pp. 219-250. DOI:10.1353/mgs.2011.0025
  53. Percovich Luciana (2005), La coscienza nel corpo. Donne, salute e medicina negli anni Settanta, Milano, FrancoAngeli.
  54. Perinelli Massimo (2012), «Second Bite of the Apple». The Sexual Freedom League and Revolutionary Sex in 1960s United States, “Genesis”, XI/1-2, pp. 41-66.
  55. Perks Robert, Thomson Alistair (a cura di) (1998), The Oral History Reader, Routledge, Londra e New York.
  56. Plamper Jan (2005), The History of Emotions. An Introduction, Croydon, Oxford University Press.
  57. Portelli Alessandro (2007), Storie orali, Donzelli, Roma.
  58. Ribero Ada (1999), Una questione di libertà. Il femminismo degli anni Settanta, Torino, Rosenberg&Sellier.
  59. Rubin Lillian (1991), Erotic Wars. What Happened to the Sexual Revolution?, New York, Harper Perennial.
  60. Sandrucci Barbara (2005), Aufklärung al femminile. L'autocoscienza come pratica politica e formativa, Pisa, Edizioni ETS.
  61. Scheer Michael (2012), Are Emotions a Kind of Practice (and Is That Makes Them Have a History)? A Bourdieuian Approach to Understanding Emotions, “History and Theory”, n. 51, pp. 193-220.
  62. Sides Josh (2009), Erotic City. Sexual Revolutions and the Making of Modern San Francisco, Oxford, Oxford University Press.
  63. Simonetto Patricio (2017), Movimientos de liberación homosexual en América Latina. Aportes historiográficos desde una perspectiva comparada entre Argentina, Brasil, Chile, Colombia y México (1967- 1982), “Iberoamericana”, vol. 65, pp. 157-167.
  64. Socrate Francesca (2018), Sessantotto. Due generazioni, Roma-Bari, Laterza.
  65. Stearns Paul N., Stearns Carol Z. (1985), Emotionology. Claryfing the History of Emotions and Emotional Standards, “The American Historical Review”, vol. 90, n. 4, pp. 813-836. DOI:10.2307/1858841
  66. Thiébaut Elise (2018), Questo è il mio sangue. Manifesto contro il tabù delle mestruazioni, Torino, Einaudi.
  67. Thomas Keith (1959), The Double Standard, “Journal of the History of Ideas”, vol. 20, pp. 195-216.
  68. Ventrone Angelo (2019), “Vogliamo tutto”. Perché due generazioni hanno creduto nella rivoluzione, 1960-1988, Roma-Bari, Laterza.
  69. Ward Anna E. (2015), Sex and the Me Decade. Sex and Dating Advice Literature of the 1970s, “Women's Studies Quarterly”, vol. 43, pp. 120-136.
  70. Warner Michael (1991), Introduction: Fear of a Queer Planet, “Social Text”, n. 29, pp. 3-17.

Metrics

Metrics Loading ...