gender/sexuality/italy is an online annual, peer-reviewed journal that publishes research on gendered identities and the ways they intersect with and produce Italian politics, culture, and society.
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.
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.
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.
