Between a curse and a resource : the meanings of women’s racialised sexuality in contemporary Italy

Zambelli, Elena (2018) Between a curse and a resource : the meanings of women’s racialised sexuality in contemporary Italy. Modern Italy, 23 (2). pp. 159-172. ISSN 1353-2944

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Abstract

This article explores the racialisation of women’s sexuality in contemporary Italy at the intersection between the national imagination and transnational cultural and commodity flows. Starting from the experience of a young Italian woman whose work centres on the commodification of her sexual desirability and who is recurrently classified as ‘foreign’, it discusses the roots as well as effects of the racialised male gaze under which she negotiates her agency. In so doing, it examines the meanings of her failure to be recognised as an Italian citizen as she navigates between contempt and desire, stigma and praise, alienation and pleasure. On the one hand, the article traces the thread between her experience and the othering processes underpinning the construction of Italy as a nation state and an empire, and whose legacies persist in the country’s postcolonial present. On the other hand, the article explores women’s racialisation as a process which can magnify the social and economic value of their desirability in a context increasingly characterised by the sexualisation of culture and trade. Based on ethnographic research undertaken in 2012–2013, this article contributes to the emerging body of postcolonial scholarship and intersectional studies on women’s sexuality in contemporary Italy.

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
Modern Italy
Uncontrolled Keywords:
/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/3300/3316
Subjects:
?? sexualityracenationalismcolonialismrespectabilityerotic capitalcultural studiessociology and political scienceanthropologyhistory ??
ID Code:
160346
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
08 Oct 2021 14:50
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
15 Jul 2024 21:58