Gender, Family and Sexuality: The Private Sphere in Italy, 1860-1945

by Perry Willson, Perry Wilson (Editor), Association for the Study of Modern Ital

This lively collection of essays presents a range of innovative research on the history of the private sphere in Liberal and Fascist Italy, with a particular focus on sexuality, gender and race - all aspects which have received scarce attention in much of the existing historiography. It includes articles on foundlings and their mothers, the role of midwives, changing attitudes to sexuality, adultery trials, the Fascist persecution of homosexuals, debates about divorce and (going beyond Italy to its empire) the treatment of mixed race children and their mothers in Eritrea. Key themes of this collection include the contrasting attitudes of the Liberal and Fascist governments to the role of the state in the private sphere, the influence of the Church and the impact of new 'scientific' and medical approaches to maternity, sexuality and demography.

Genres: History

208 pages, Hardcover

First published September 18, 2004

Reviews

[Kraig Puccia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Playing on similar themes of virility, Ebner analyzes through his chapter, “The Persecution of Homosexual Men under Fascism 1926-1943”, how homosexual men were treated as security threats to the system and potentially undermined the fascist regime. The criminalization of homosexuality would have been a drastic departure from previous years as the legal code never made any mention of homosexuality at all, but it was still brutally repressed by the squadristi (Ebner, 141). The manner in which men were rooted out and the state had a surveillance system for tracking down and punishing homosexuals, whether through imprisonment, hospitalizations, or having them assigned to forced labor camps for fear of what their existence would mean for a hyper-masculine fascist society is closely linked to the perceived virility, and degeneration of civilization, that was mentioned in Bellassai’s writing. This was further exacerbated by the state rhetoric at the time, which made absurd assertions that Italy had somehow been spared by not having a homosexual population and there was no need to have the laws against them codified for this reason. Instead, persecutions against homosexual populations was largely informal and disguised by charging them with other crimes and was often masked using euphemisms, almost as if speaking of the subject outright was a problem itself.