• it VO
  • fr Français
  • en English
  • ar العربية
About us
  • In-depth
    • All
    • Features
    • Files
    • World
    Greece and the problems of altruistic surrogacy 2/3

    Surrogacy in Spain: A shady business favored by administrative permissiveness 3/3

    Greece and the problems of altruistic surrogacy 2/3

    Greece and the problems of altruistic surrogacy 2/3

    The transnational network of the surrogacy industry 1/3

    The transnational network of the surrogacy industry 1/3

    Arts: The women who are shifting the lines

    Arts: The women who are shifting the lines

    The jewelry of Palestinian artist Inas Dajani: When female genitalia inspire art

    The jewelry of Palestinian artist Inas Dajani: When female genitalia inspire art

    Trending Tags

    • Women artists
    • Ecofeminism
    • Women living from and on the streets
    • Women and bodies
    • Women and sports
    • Women and cinema
    • Ramadan series
    • Women and war
    • Women Living at the Margins
    • Press Freedom from the Perspective of Women Journalists
    • Period poverty
    • Gynecological violence
    • Women and prison
    • Safe spaces
    • Abortion and SRHR
    • Transgenderism
    • Women in rural areas
  • On the move
    Unequal belonging: Migration, identity, and the politics of citizenship in Italy

    Unequal belonging: Migration, identity, and the politics of citizenship in Italy

    Sexist discourse in the Greek public sphere: The targeting of leading women investigating a political tragedy

    Sexist discourse in the Greek public sphere: The targeting of leading women investigating a political tragedy

    A history of ecofeminism: At the origin were the witches

    A history of ecofeminism: At the origin were the witches

    Ecofeminism, an alternative to reenchant the world?

    Ecofeminism, an alternative to reenchant the world?

  • Portraits
    Kurdish journalist killed in Turkish drone strike in northeastern Syria

    Kurdish journalist killed in Turkish drone strike in northeastern Syria

    A Filmmaker’s Journey: Inside the Creative World of Margarita Bareikyte

    A Filmmaker’s Journey: Inside the Creative World of Margarita Bareikyte

    An interview with Tesh Sidi: Migrants in Parliament and inclusion by identity

    An interview with Tesh Sidi: Migrants in Parliament and inclusion by identity

    Interview with queer activist Marianne Chbat: “Our presence in academic settings is a militant act”

  • Creations
    • All
    • Reviews
    • Visual Arts
    Atlantics, a film by Mati Diop: Filming the embodied resistance of spirits

    Atlantics, a film by Mati Diop: Filming the embodied resistance of spirits

    All We Imagine as Light : three intertwined female stories

    All We Imagine as Light : three intertwined female stories

    Three Feminist Podcasts from the Southern Mediterranean

    Three Feminist Podcasts from the Southern Mediterranean

    Fotonica’s stereotype-free images

    Fotonica’s stereotype-free images

  • Opinion
    Messages from life under bombardment—Can a mother cope with losing her six children at once? (10)

    Messages from life under bombardment—Can a mother cope with losing her six children at once? (10)

    Messages from life under bombardment—No cake for my children on their birthdays (9)

    Messages from life under bombardment—No cake for my children on their birthdays (9)

    Messages from life under bombardment – No food or water in Gaza (8)

    Messages from life under bombardment – No food or water in Gaza (8)

    Goodbye Fatima, reporter of the ongoing Genocide in Gaza

    Goodbye Fatima, reporter of the ongoing Genocide in Gaza

  • Multimedia
    "I hope it doesn’t go viral: Journalism and sexist attacks in digital age". A video investigation by Çiçek Tahaoğlu

    "I hope it doesn’t go viral: Journalism and sexist attacks in digital age". A video investigation by Çiçek Tahaoğlu

    Period poverty in Montenegro

    Period poverty in Montenegro

    Period poverty in France (1)

    Period poverty in France (1)

    Period Poverty in Italy

    Period Poverty in Italy

  • Country context
No Result
View All Result
BLOGS
Medfeminiswiya
  • In-depth
    • All
    • Features
    • Files
    • World
    Greece and the problems of altruistic surrogacy 2/3

    Surrogacy in Spain: A shady business favored by administrative permissiveness 3/3

    Greece and the problems of altruistic surrogacy 2/3

    Greece and the problems of altruistic surrogacy 2/3

    The transnational network of the surrogacy industry 1/3

    The transnational network of the surrogacy industry 1/3

    Arts: The women who are shifting the lines

    Arts: The women who are shifting the lines

    The jewelry of Palestinian artist Inas Dajani: When female genitalia inspire art

    The jewelry of Palestinian artist Inas Dajani: When female genitalia inspire art

    Trending Tags

    • Women artists
    • Ecofeminism
    • Women living from and on the streets
    • Women and bodies
    • Women and sports
    • Women and cinema
    • Ramadan series
    • Women and war
    • Women Living at the Margins
    • Press Freedom from the Perspective of Women Journalists
    • Period poverty
    • Gynecological violence
    • Women and prison
    • Safe spaces
    • Abortion and SRHR
    • Transgenderism
    • Women in rural areas
  • On the move
    Unequal belonging: Migration, identity, and the politics of citizenship in Italy

    Unequal belonging: Migration, identity, and the politics of citizenship in Italy

    Sexist discourse in the Greek public sphere: The targeting of leading women investigating a political tragedy

    Sexist discourse in the Greek public sphere: The targeting of leading women investigating a political tragedy

    A history of ecofeminism: At the origin were the witches

    A history of ecofeminism: At the origin were the witches

    Ecofeminism, an alternative to reenchant the world?

    Ecofeminism, an alternative to reenchant the world?

  • Portraits
    Kurdish journalist killed in Turkish drone strike in northeastern Syria

    Kurdish journalist killed in Turkish drone strike in northeastern Syria

    A Filmmaker’s Journey: Inside the Creative World of Margarita Bareikyte

    A Filmmaker’s Journey: Inside the Creative World of Margarita Bareikyte

    An interview with Tesh Sidi: Migrants in Parliament and inclusion by identity

    An interview with Tesh Sidi: Migrants in Parliament and inclusion by identity

    Interview with queer activist Marianne Chbat: “Our presence in academic settings is a militant act”

  • Creations
    • All
    • Reviews
    • Visual Arts
    Atlantics, a film by Mati Diop: Filming the embodied resistance of spirits

    Atlantics, a film by Mati Diop: Filming the embodied resistance of spirits

    All We Imagine as Light : three intertwined female stories

    All We Imagine as Light : three intertwined female stories

    Three Feminist Podcasts from the Southern Mediterranean

    Three Feminist Podcasts from the Southern Mediterranean

    Fotonica’s stereotype-free images

    Fotonica’s stereotype-free images

  • Opinion
    Messages from life under bombardment—Can a mother cope with losing her six children at once? (10)

    Messages from life under bombardment—Can a mother cope with losing her six children at once? (10)

    Messages from life under bombardment—No cake for my children on their birthdays (9)

    Messages from life under bombardment—No cake for my children on their birthdays (9)

    Messages from life under bombardment – No food or water in Gaza (8)

    Messages from life under bombardment – No food or water in Gaza (8)

    Goodbye Fatima, reporter of the ongoing Genocide in Gaza

    Goodbye Fatima, reporter of the ongoing Genocide in Gaza

  • Multimedia
    "I hope it doesn’t go viral: Journalism and sexist attacks in digital age". A video investigation by Çiçek Tahaoğlu

    "I hope it doesn’t go viral: Journalism and sexist attacks in digital age". A video investigation by Çiçek Tahaoğlu

    Period poverty in Montenegro

    Period poverty in Montenegro

    Period poverty in France (1)

    Period poverty in France (1)

    Period Poverty in Italy

    Period Poverty in Italy

  • Country context
About us
Medfeminiswiya
About us

Back to the future: the contemporaneity of “Noi e il nostro corpo” (Our body, ourselves)

I am grateful to Vicky Franzinetti who, together with Filomena Rosiello, organized an online meeting of major importance. This brought together three of the twelve North American activists of the collective, which, in 1973 published one of the key texts of world feminism: “Our bodies, ourselves”.

Monica Lanfranco by Monica Lanfranco
1 September 2022
in Creations, Reviews
16 1
0
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

This post is also available in: Français (French) VO

Contrary to what one might think, the act of looking into the past does not always constitute a consoling plunge that risks cancelling contact with and adherence to contemporaneity. I have experienced this recently, when in 2021, I republished in Voi siete in gabbia, noi siamo il mondo- Il femminismo al G8 di Genova (“You are in a cage, we are the world – Feminism at the G8 of Genoa”), several documents of the feminist network of the time that gave birth, in June 2001, to the event PuntoG-Genova, genere, globalizzazione (“GPoint-Genoa, gender, globalisation”), a month before the demonstrations of the Genoa Social Forum of which the network was part.

In every book presentation, thematic meeting and discussion I have participated over the past year, there have always been people to stress how the analyses generated at different historical moments of feminism are still very relevant today. However, those who made this observation often looked at it from a negative perspective, concluding that after twenty years, we are still at square one.

I always reply that, on the contrary, I believe it is a blessing to recognize the topicality of these contents. It is indeed a demonstration - and we should be proud of it - of the way in which there is a strong link, coherence and resilience in feminist thought despite the passage of time, between founding concepts, which do not lose their strength, and reason. And this, despite the deleterious sirens of the “new”, this dangerous illusion according to which everything that presents itself as new, and apparently disturbing, is always synonymous with innovation and freedom.

On the contrary, it is fundamental to draw inspiration from the enormous reservoir of material and knowledge developed by previous generations of feminists and to draw upon and confront the contemporaneity of feminist thought and practice at different times.

That is why I am grateful to Vicky Franzinetti - translator and feminist activist from Turin – who, together with Filomena Rosiello, one of the three co-presidents of the Casa delle Donne in Milan, organized an online meeting of major importance. This brought together three of the twelve North American activists of the collective, which, in 1977, after a year’s work, published one of the key texts of world feminism: “Our bodies, ourselves”. (Downloadable here for those who do not have the printed text).

Norma Swenson, a splendid, in her nineties, Judy Norsigian and Jane Cottingham, both in their eighties, and founders of the Boston Women's Health Collective who authored the famous volume, spoke with Vicky and Filomena on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the book. Passed down from hand to hand, from woman to woman (often from mother to daughter) for several generations, this book is a precious and timeless heritage, an essential viaticum to begin the journey of consciousness, and therefore of freedom, within and with our own bodies.

The moving account of the three protagonists of this thrilling moment in the history of feminism restores the pragmatic and eminently political spirit of the text, in the introduction of which one can read considerations, which, intact, echo the experience that every generation of women remembers. Getting to know our body has radically changed our lives and ourselves. It is wonderful to study when what we feel emotionally and what we learn are two parallel closely related and intertwined experiences.

Sexuality, pleasure, desire, pregnancy, childbirth, abortion, menopause, rights and sisterhood are just some of the keywords on which the collective worked to consign to history the first feminist encyclopedic compendium on women's bodies.

With regard to topicality, here is a passage from the text -which was published in Italy in 1977 but was printed in the United States four years earlier- on the stereotype of the aging woman:

“The popular image portrays the postmenopausal woman as tired, intractable, irritable, shrewish, unattractive, unbearable (yes, her husband is right to seek out the company of another woman), irrationally depressed, terrified of the change in her (re)productive life. Our idea of menopause may have been influenced by an advertisement similar to the one that featured in a well-known medical journal, in which an obviously bored middle-aged man appears next to a dull, tired-looking woman. The type of medicine advertised fights "the symptoms of menopause that trouble him so much".

It is wonderful to study when what we feel emotionally and what we learn are two parallel closely related and intertwined experiences…

In the 1973 introduction, the members of the collective, all of whom are involved in various capacities in medical and psycho-sociological research, provide us with considerations which, even today, form the basis of all training and set the preliminary framework for support groups for women of all ages and conditions:

“Imagine a woman who is trying to do a job and have an equal and satisfying relationship with others, but in the meantime feels physically weak, because she has never tried to be strong; she uses all her energy trying to change her face, her figure, her hair, her smell to conform to an ideal model established by magazines, films and television. She feels disorientated and ashamed of the monthly blood flowing from some dark corner of her body each month; she experiences the processes inside her body as a mystery that only appears as a nuisance (an unwanted pregnancy or cervical cancer): she does not understand or enjoy sex and focuses her sexual energies in purposeless romantic fantasies, perpetuating and misusing her potential energy because she has been brought up to deny it. If we learn to understand, to accept, to be responsible for our physical identity then we can free ourselves from these injunctions and begin to use our uninhibited energies. Our self-image will have a stronger foundation; we will be better as friends, as lovers, and as people. We will have more self-confidence, more autonomy, more strength, we will be more complete.”

The online meeting is available in Italian and in English.
Monica Lanfranco

Monica Lanfranco

Monica Lanfranco is an Italian journalist, blogger, trainer and founder of the feminist quarterly “Marea” in 1994. She is the creator of the Radio Delle Donne podcast channel, has taught new media theory and technique at the University of Parma, and has been running the feminist training and seminar center, Altradimora, since 2008. Monica is also a book author, and her latest book, "Crescere uomini-le parole dei ragazzi su sessualità, pornografia, sessismo" (Growing up as a man: Teenagers' words about sexuality, pornography and sexism), was published by Erickson in 2019. Follow Monica’s work on her personal website: Monica Lanfranco, Radio Delle donne, Marea, Altradimora, Il Fatto Quotidiano.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

J'accepte les termes et conditions et la Politique de confidentialité .

Medfeminiswiya

Medfeminiswiya is a feminist network that brings together women journalists working in the fields of media and content production in the Mediterranean region.

Newsletter


    Follow us

    Browse topics


    • In-depth
    • Files
    • Features
    • On the move
    • Portraits
    • Opinion

    • Creations
    • Visual Arts
    • Reviews
    • Multimedia
    • Country Context
    • Blogs
    • About us
    • Our community
    • Our partners
    • Become a member
    • Editorial charter
    • Disclaimer

    © 2023 Medfeminiswiya - Mediterranean Network for Feminist Information

    • it VO
    • fr Français
    • en English
    • ar العربية
    • In-depth
    • On the move
    • Portraits
    • Creations
    • Opinion
    • Multimedia
    • Country context
    • Blogs
    No Result
    View All Result

    © 2023 Medfeminiswiya - Mediterranean Network for Feminist Information

    Welcome Back!

    Login to your account below

    Forgotten Password?

    Retrieve your password

    Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

    Log In

    Add New Playlist

    Ce site n'utilise pas de cookies. This website does not use cookies. هذا الموقع لا يستخدم ملفات تعريف الارتباط.