by Jules De Bellis

The femminielli are both gender non-conforming people and traditional entities of the city of Naples. They could be described as effeminate men who live and feel like women and who practise forms of sex labour, but not necessarily. The femminiello identity intersects the concepts of homosexuality, transvestism and transgenderism and contextually transcend their meaning. This paper analyses the coexistence of both sacred (Madonna) and profane (Whore) archetypes in the characterization of the Neapolitan femminielli. This article reconstructs how the femminielli participate in an intrinsically liminal nature: a marginal life between masculine and feminine, between the miraculous and the voluptuous, between the outside world and an identity that can only exist in the alley. The argument is conducted through a multidisciplinary approach that welcomes linguistic, anthropological, ethnographic and historical methodologies, essential for understanding the multifaceted nature of this wholly Neapolitan identity. In order to better grasp how two female archetypes could be adapted to a gender and sexual identity that cannot be inscribed within traditional binaries, both academic and autobiographical sources as well as criminal reports have been consulted. What emerges from this research is how the very nature of the femminielli is profoundly Neapolitan and indeed reflects the duality of the city itself, being both avant-garde and patriarchal. A question that remains unanswered is that of the longevity of this gender identity in an increasingly globalized future: will the femminielli be able to find their space between tradition and innovation?

DOI: https://doi.org/10.15781/4MT8-4J14