This article examines the surrogacy debate that has developed within contemporary feminist and LGBT movements in Italy, following the approval of the law on civil unions at the beginning of 2016. This debate has been marked by a deep fracture between those who see in surrogate motherhood a chance to imagine new forms of social bonds and those who consider that women’s wombs and newborn children can never be the object of an economic ‘exchange’. I will first analyse the most controversial positions held by some feminists who have participated in the debate, which revolve around the centrality of the maternal figure. Then I will outline a brief history of the social construction of pregnancy, linking it to changes in the marketplace and the birth of biopolitics. Finally, with the help of Angela Putino’s philosophical thought I will advance a potentially different feminist approach to the issue of surrogate motherhood.
The article examines the Italian political sphere in order to highlight how populist discourses are, among other things, a reaction to feminist and transfeminist practices and theories. The article begins by examining the emergence of right-wing populist discourses and their link to the reproduction of a hegemonic masculinity and the patriarchal family. Then it analyses several discourses promoted by transfeminist movements -especially Non Una Di Meno [Not One Less] -focusing in particular on the emergence of the term "transfeminism" in Italy and its use in political practices. Ultimately, the article questions the possibility of building alliances and collective political subjects, starting from the challenge to the female subject brought about by transfeminism. The article claims that populist policies in defence of the traditional family do nothing but co-opt the language of liberation movements while demanding adherence to the status quo, and that transfeminist theories are the clearest response to these same populist politics. Indeed, feminism and transfeminism dispute the rhetoric of a unitary and coherent people, starting by their questioning universality in the name of partiality.
In the text, we will try to give an account of the experience of collaboration in a Public Ethics course in the degree course in Pedagogical Sciences at the University of Verona. The course in Public Ethics has had, as its main theme, the reflection on the distinction between public and private. We will begin with consider the national context and then the one of Verona, characterised on one side by a strong feminist presence, on the other from being inserted into a cultural environment with an equally strong presence of the Catholic and conservative. After investigating this peculiar coexistence, we would like to highlight our reactions and those of the students. In particular, we will focus on emerging resistances and on amazement in front of the issues and the history of feminism by many male and female students. Finally, we use the points that emerged during the course to rethink our position as feminists and as researchers.
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