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This book recounts the author's fieldwork among the trans and gender-variant communities in Naples. This is where a gender-variant figure, the femminiello, has found a safe environment within the city's historical poorest neighborhoods, the so-called “quartieri popolari”, which were and continue to be culturally and socially connoted. The femminielli, who can be read as “suspended” figures between the feminine and the masculine, provide the background for a discourse on the meanings that genders and sexualities have assumed in modern Naples. This is done with significant openings to theoretical reasoning that is both extraterritorial and multidisciplinary. Starting from the micro context, the aim of the book is to explore the breadth and complexity of the gender variant and trans experience, with particular reference to the changing meanings of the body, which are also tied to the collective images of beauty in contemporary times.

Le contadine e le lavoranti a domicilio che faticano senza sosta, la casalinga meravigliata del suo primo bagno in casa. Le militanti cattoliche, le comuniste, le fasciste e le femministe di varie tendenze. Le donne che trasportano bombe per liberare il proprio paese, quelle disposte a commettere un omicidio per salvare l'onore della figlia, quelle che rischiano la vita ricorrendo all'aborto clandestino e quelle pronte a morire per Mussolini. Le donne all'avanguardia nel campo del lavoro, dell'istruzione e della politica e quelle impegnate in iniziative sociali, su fronti opposti, dalle cattoliche alle socialiste. Le nuore tiranneggiate nelle famiglie mezzadrili e le vedove bianche. Le studentesse, le badanti immigrate e le ministre del governo. È con tutte loro che l'Italia è arrivata al Duemila, dopo aver superato un secolo intenso e difficile, quel Novecento in cui la metà femminile della popolazione è protagonista, al pari degli uomini, di profonde trasformazioni politiche, sociali, economiche, giuridiche e culturali. In questa prima biografia collettiva del Novecento delle italiane, Perry Willson esplora come la realtà femminile sia stata condizionata e abbia a sua volta plasmato eventi storici fondamentali, tra cui l'ascesa del fascismo, le due guerre mondiali, il'miracolo economico'e le agitazioni culturali e politiche degli anni Settanta. Un lungo periodo che ha visto grandi progressi e conquiste per le donne italiane, in un continuo intreccio di modernità e tradizione. Uno studio portentoso, brillante e istruttivo sulle straordinarie trasformazioni intervenute nella vita delle donne in Italia nel XX secolo. Vivace, acuto e di ampio respiro: una lettura davvero piacevole. Christopher Duggan

Offering queer analyses of paintings by Caravaggio and Puccini and films by Özpetek, Amelio, and Grimaldi, Champagne argues that Italian masculinity has often been articulated through melodrama. Wide in scope and multidisciplinary in approach, this much-needed study shows the vital role of affect for both Italian history and masculinity studies.

Part memoir and part social criticism, The Glass Closet addresses the issue of homophobia that still pervades corporations around the world and underscores the immense challenges faced by LGBT employees.In The Glass Closet, Lord John Browne, former CEO of BP, seeks to unsettle business leaders by exposing the culture of homophobia that remains rampant in corporations around the world, and which prevents employees from showing their authentic selves.Drawing on his own experiences, and those of prominent members of the LGBT community around the world, as well as insights from well-known business leaders and celebrities, Lord Browne illustrates why, despite the risks involved, self-disclosure is best for employees—and for the businesses that support them. Above all, The Glass Closet offers inspiration and support for those who too often worry that coming out will hinder their chances of professional success.

This lively collection of essays presents a range of innovative research on the history of the private sphere in Liberal and Fascist Italy, with a particular focus on sexuality, gender and race - all aspects which have received scarce attention in much of the existing historiography. It includes articles on foundlings and their mothers, the role of midwives, changing attitudes to sexuality, adultery trials, the Fascist persecution of homosexuals, debates about divorce and (going beyond Italy to its empire) the treatment of mixed race children and their mothers in Eritrea. Key themes of this collection include the contrasting attitudes of the Liberal and Fascist governments to the role of the state in the private sphere, the influence of the Church and the impact of new'scientific'and medical approaches to maternity, sexuality and demography.