italy Continuing Discussions – Early View Volume 12 (2026)

Nicoletta Marini-Maio August 10, 2026 Issue: g/s/i 12 (2026) Category: Contents, Editorials, Continuing Discussions

Nicoletta Marini-Maio, Journal Editor – Continuing Discussions Editor
Guido Capaccioli and Samantha Gillen – Managing Editors
Deion Dresser, Matthew Guyton-Docherty, Mattia Mossali, Samuel Sylvester – Assistant Editors

Early View Volume 12 (2026)

Articles for the Continuing Discussions section are published on a rolling basis. The following articles have been peer-reviewed and accepted for the Continuing Discussions section of Volume 12 (2026). They are in conversation with previous articles,

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~“Eh, no! La storia non è ancora finita”: AFAB-to-M Cross-Dressing and Gender Performativity in La bambina col falcone by Bianca Pitzorno

Anna Finozzi, Dalila Forni August 10, 2026 Issue: g/s/i 12 (2026) Category: Continuing Discussions

by Anna Finozzi, Dalila Forni

Given the scarcity of LGBTQ-inclusive children’s literature in Italy (Forni, Venzo, Biemmi), we propose examining established literary topoi that, when read through a queer, feminist, and intersectional lens, challenge traditional gender binaries. One of them is the assigned female at birth-to-male (AFAB-to-M) cross-dressing, a recurring motif in children’s fiction across cultural and historical contexts that “has … never been questioned or censured” but rather “simply been accepted” (Flanagan).

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~“The Kind of Girl Everyone Would Like to Be”: Neoliberalism and the Making of Successful Femininities in Upper-Secondary Italian Education

Maria Taddia August 10, 2026 Issue: g/s/i 12 (2026) Category: Continuing Discussions

by Maria Taddia

In supposedly post-feminist times, where high-achieving girlhood entails high expectations but is riddled with contradiction, this multiple site case study explores how Italian upper-secondary school female students construct their identities as high achievers. Fifteen semi-structured interviews with students from three Northern Italian upper-secondary institutions were carried out and analyzed. Research findings illustrate the prevalence of narratives constructing success as a multidimensional and contradicting position to occupy, thus emphasizing the influence of deceitful notions around neoliberal individualism and post-feminism.

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~Making an Italian Non-Binary Language: Understanding Speakers’ Motives and Behaviors

Ade Grossi August 10, 2026 Issue: g/s/i 12 (2026) Category: Continuing Discussions

by Ade Grossi

Institutionally approved Italian mandates binary gender inflectional markers, precluding speakers from communicating in a non-gendered manner. For many non-binary users this means not being able to adequately refer to themselves and their experiences. In the past few decades, both activists and scholars have been working on and promoting different grammatical strategies to move beyond binary gender communication. Nonetheless, the vast majority of Italian speakers are either unaware of or opposed to these advancements,

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~“Chillo è nu buono guaglione” di Pino Daniele: Verso un Sud intersezionale e queer

Francis Clemente August 10, 2026 Issue: g/s/i 12 (2026) Category: Continuing Discussions

by Francis Clemente

In his eponymous second album, released in 1979, Neapolitan musician and singer-songwriter Pino Daniele brought the femminiello to the forefront of the modern music scene for the first time with the track “Chillo è nu buono guaglione.” Inspired by a real-life figure from Naples’ historic centre, the song recounts the daily life of a femminiello, an individual deeply rooted in the Neapolitan territory who is biologically male but exhibits behaviors traditionally associated with the female gender,

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gender/sexuality/italy 11 (2025) – Table of Contents

December 22, 2025 Issue: g/s/i 11 (2025) Category: Contents, Editorials, Themed Section, Invited Perspectives, Open Contributions, Continuing Discussions, Reviews, Videos

Nicoletta Marini-Maio, Journal Editor, Continuing Discussions Editor
Paola Bonifazio, Invited Perspectives Editor
Ellen Nerenberg, Open Contributions Editor
Alice Parrinello, Guest Editor
Leonardo Cabrini, Erica Moretti, and Colleen Ryan, Reviews Editors
Guido Capaccioli, Lisa Dolasinki, and Samantha Gillen, Managing Editors
Beatrice Basile, Matthew Guyton-Docherty, Deion Dresser, Mattia Mossali, Francesca Passaseo, Nicolò Salmaso, and Katherine Travers, Assistant Editors
Sofia-Teresa Di Bacco, Student Assistant

Table of Contents
Journal Editorial

ALICE PARRINELLO,

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New Queer South. Journal Editorial

A. Parrinello, P. Bonifazio, N. Marini-Maio, E. Nerenberg December 22, 2025 Issue: g/s/i 11 (2025) Category: Contents, Editorials, Themed Section

Journal Editorial by Alice Parrinello (Guest Editor), Nicoletta Marini-Maio (General Editor, Continuing Discussions Editor), Ellen Nerenberg (Open Contributions Editor)

The editorial includes the Guest Editor’s and Editors’ introductions to their respective areas.

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1.Genere, sessualità e Meridione: Verso una mappatura politica e teorica del meridionalismo queer

Valentina Amenta December 22, 2025 Issue: g/s/i 11 (2025) Category: Themed Section

by Valentina Amenta

This article introduces Queer Meridionalist Thought as a theoretical and political framework for interrogating the colonial and cis-heteropatriarchal world-system. By critically re-signifying the 20th-century Southern Question discourse, this perspective seeks to reconceptualize Southern Italy through feminist and queer methodologies, situating itself within broader decolonial and postcolonial debates. The article outlines the core tenets of Queer Meridionalist Thought, mapping key scholarly contributions alongside the emergence of political and cultural actors in Italy.

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2.Tutto cambia affinché tutto cambi: Meridione, politica e nazione ne L’arte della gioia

Carla Panico December 22, 2025 Issue: g/s/i 11 (2025) Category: Themed Section

by Carla Panico

This paper examines Goliarda Sapienza’s L’arte della gioia as a decolonial intervention in the “colonial representations” of Southern Italy, which often frame the Mezzogiorno as politically immobile and fatally resistant to self-organization. Defined as the AntiGattopardo, the novel challenges these stereotypes by reimagining Southern identity through the body, desire, and dissent. Its protagonist, Modesta, embodies a refusal of normative gender roles tied to Italian nationalism and engages in forms of militancy that unsettle both the national narrative and the boundaries of citizenship.

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3.Naples, Sexual Diversity and Self-Orientalism: Femminielli as a Case Study

Marco Ruggieri December 22, 2025 Issue: g/s/i 11 (2025) Category: Themed Section

by Marco Ruggieri

This article examines the figure of the femminiello, a complex sexual identity rooted in the Naples area and now gradually disappearing. It challenges the common claim that femminielli have always been accepted within Neapolitan society—one often framed as liminal and in opposition to North-Western hegemony. The femminielli’s very existence has frequently been cited as proof of Southern Italy’s (Naples’ in particular) supposed innate inclusivity.

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