italian-studies: Scholarly discussions in any field of Italian studies
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From: Scholarly discussions in any field of Italian studies
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Charlotte Ross
Sent: Saturday, May 31, 2014 8:45 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [I-S] Non-sexist use of language
I am writing to this list with a few doubts that I've been mulling over
since attending the excellent AAIS conference in Zurich last weekend. I
participated in some of the Queer Studies caucus sessions, and attended
several of the Women's Studies caucus sessions, since these areas are where
my primary interests lie. I listened to some feminist scholars who were
(rightly I think) criticising the ways in which women in positions of
authority in Italy are still often linguistically erased: the phenomenon of
women politicians who are either referred to by others, or themselves choose
to be referred to as 'il ministro', for example. However I was surprised and
a little shocked to hear feminists take a negative view of the asterisk,
which has come to be used in Italian, by queer communities in particular, as
a way of moving beyond gender binaries in language. Clearly the asterisk is
not an ideal solution, since it cannot (as far as I know) be pronounced;
however, it is a way of marking opposition to gendered linguistic norms that
begins to address the challenges of developing a more flexible and inclusive
language. Opposition to the asterisk was challenged by questions from the
floor in the sessions that I attended. It seems to me that a feminist
position that discards the asterisk risks establishing a normative,
essentialist approach that divides feminist and queer scholars/individuals.
In my view, there are important conversations to be had about approaches to
linguistic erasure, but also about the relationships between feminist and
queer scholars (overlapping communities, surely), and feminist and queer
activists in Italy.
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In my experience during five years in Italy, my most feminist friends used
the asterisk in written communications but rejected the practice of creating
such new nouns as "la ministra." The thinking, which I personally find hard
to argue with, is simply this: The person who holds that office is a
ministro. Ministro is a masculine noun, but that's a matter of grammar and
is entirely separate from the person. (My sense is that the issue of
gendered nouns affects Italians' thinking a lot less than Anglophones, who
have a harder time imagining masculine milk and feminine alarm clocks, are
convinced it does.)
For these women (queer and not), creating words like "la ministra" or "la
presidente" might be like using "doctoress" for a woman doctor in English
instead of calling her a doctor. It reminds me of objections, years back, to
words like "chairwoman" because they maintained the same gender distinctions
and needlessly pointed out who was male and who was female. "Chairwoman"
didn't seem to last all that long, actually, and eventually gave way to a
nice, neutral "chair."
In any case, in this view, at least some Italian feminists it's seen as
belittling to create a "special" word instead of simply giving the office
holder her due and calling her by the same term men have always used. In
other words, though you may see it as "normative" and "erasure," I'm not at
all convinced that a lot of Italians see it that way. To the contrary.
It's complicated because no small number of professions in Italian do admit
feminine nouns: professoressa, avvocatessa, etc., and I'm not entirely sure
on what basis one would object to "ministra" but not "professoressa," though
I suppose a distinction could be made between the occupant of an official
post and a member of a profession. All I know is that feelings run high.
The asterisk is, in a sense, pronounced. For example, Car* amic*, if you had
to say it out loud, would still be "cari amici e care amiche." While English
struggles to find a decent singular neutral pronoun, Italian struggles with
plural collective nouns that dilute gender: If you're talking about 100
children, but only one of them is male, the group is still "bambini" (unless
you wanted to say, for precision, "bambini e bambine.")
FWIW,
W.
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Wendell Ricketts | ProvenWrite
http://ProvenWrite.com | [log in to unmask]
IlTuoLibro in Inglese | http://IlTuoLibro.wordpress.com
Skype: wricketts | facebook.com/ProvenwriteTranslations
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