Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

The masculine mystique: antimodernism and virility in fascist Italy

2005; Routledge; Volume: 10; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/13545710500188338

1469-9583

Sandro Bellassai,

Italian Fascism and Post-war Society

Abstract This article examines the connections between the defense of a traditional concept of masculinity and the anti-modernist discourse which characterized the fascist regime. This nexus took shape in the campaign against urbanization and its concomitant exaltation of the peasant world, as well as in the critique of intellectuals and the anti-bourgeois campaign. Through a critique of the modern woman, fascism emphasized the hierarchical relationship between the sexes, which found its justification in the supposed immutability of the subaltern feminine role. Keywords: Fascismmasculinitymodernizationgender Notes The term antimodernism here conveys a complex combination of behaviors, representations and languages that express a more or less pronounced suspicion or even open hostility towards the social and cultural phenomena connected to the processes of modernization. In this sense the antimodernists par excellence were undoubtedly the men associated with the journal Il Selvaggio and the Strapaese movement; their identity as writers and artists, and their more or less hostile relations with other literary and philosophic circles have made fascist antimodernism a privileged object of research for literary and cultural history (Ben-Ghiat , Adamson ). The most attentive historians, however, have highlighted the verifiable superimpositions and contradictions in the various positions, considering the modernism – antimodernism polarity as a pair of relatively abstract extremes, or even as 'generic labels' not to be taken too literally: see Cannistraro (: 58). An important analysis on the relationship between antimodernism and fascist masculinity is provided by Wanrooij (: 379 – 439). For reasons of space I will not discuss here other important questions such as homophobia and the persecution of homosexuality. A more general (though concise) examination of masculinity during the fascist period is found in Bellassai (: 76 – 98). See also Passerini (: 99 – 109). For example, the young Italian men who at the turn of the century practiced mountaineering and organized group excursions that pre-emptorily excluded women were seeking relief from the distressing sensation of being 'no longer not so much men as robots laboriously pressed by the thousands of tentacles of marvelous machines'. Paolo Monelli, 'Tendopoli', Rivista mensile del Club Alpino Italiano, 10 (1914), cited in Papa (: 36). Mario Carli, L'italiano di Mussolini (1930) in Gazzola Stacchini (: 494 – 5). Italics in the original. On Carli, see Passerini (: 110 ff). For a contextualization of the fascist action squads within the postwar masculine crisis, see Wanrooij (: 210 ff). Mino Maccari, 'Squadrismo', Il Selvaggio 1(1), 13 July 1924: 1. Mino Maccari, 'Parla il Selvaggio – 4', Il Selvaggio, 1(12), 28 September 1924: 2. Zunino (: 309). For a fuller discussion of ruralism, see Isnenghi (). Soffici (: 22). On ruralist rhetoric, beginning with the 'Battle of grain' launched in 1925, see Falasca Zamponi (: 149 – 55). An important scholar of Mussolini's language has sustained that 'three registers of the Strapaese motif are present in Mussolini's speeches: there is the personal boast that he, too, is a son of the land, there is the allusion – through the praise of country people – of the differing behavior of city dwellers and factory workers; and there is the declaration that the level of authenticity of the Italian race is in direct relation to the rate of ruralism and fertility.' Simonini (: 116). Report of the federal secretary of Modena, 29 March 1935, cited in Colarizi (: 103). On the apocalyptic representation of the city in fascist rhetoric see also Horn (, ch. 5), 'The Sterile City' (for the relationship between urbanism and degeneration with particular regard to gender, see pp. 96 – 9). Regarding the USA, see Rotundo (: 258 – 9; 184 – 5 and 357, note 36). Cited in Gramsci (: 2128). Burzio's article on popular literature and in particular the Three Musketeers, was published in La Stampa on 22 October 1930 and reprinted in Italia letteraria 2(45), 9 November 1930: 706. G. Gamberini, 'Sistematizzare la fede', Il Popolo d'Italia, 4 April 1928, cited in La Rovere (: 61). Ellevì, 'Istituto familiare e femminismo', Gerarchia, 19(5), May 1939: 332. Il Selvaggio no. 1, 'Gazzettino', Il Selvaggio, 10(8), 30 November 1933: 58. Emphasis mine. See Marino (: 109 – 10). On the use of symbolism connected to youth in art between the two wars, see Malvano (). More broadly, on the importance of youthful rhetoric in fascist culture, see Passerini () and Ben-Ghiat (: 125 – 63). On the connection between youth and the therapy of virility in the '1914 generation', see Mosse (), in particular ch. 4, 'The young and the experience of the war.' Sugo-di-bosco, 'Il segreto per cuocere i ceci ovvero vogliamo settanta ras', Il Selvaggio, II(19), 25 May 1925: 1. Mario Carli, L'italiano di Mussolini (1930), in Gazzola Stacchini (: 493). Giuseppe De Luca, 'Il cristiano come un antiborghese', Frontespizio, February 1939, cited in Marino (: 153). See also Dau Novelli (: 25 – 52). Romano Romanelli, 'Considerazioni sul nostro Popolo', Il Selvaggio 4(13 – 14), 30 July 1929: 3. Bel Amì-Bellei, Le donne di tutte le età, n.p., cited in Cavallo and Iaccio (: 337 – 8). Paolo Ardali, La politica demografica di Mussolini, Casa Ed. "Mussolinia", Mantua, 1929, cited in Meldini (: 162). According to David Horn, 'the virility of the social body, like that of the individual male, was seen to depend crucially on women' (Horn : 65). The opposition to industrial civilization was not, however, exclusive to men: see Lombroso (: 241 – 3, 247 – 8). 'Of course the "type three" woman bears a significant responsibility in the recognized and universal decline of the birth rate. And how to blame her? Who called the woman to her present-day economic dynamism? Man. Who induced and persuades her to train and prepare herself on a terrain that is certainly not the most appropriate – according to Nature and tradition – for the delicacy of her organism and sensitivity? Man … . And so how to pretend that the woman work, earn, provide for herself, love, marry and also bear children? Not to fear. Man does not have any such pretence; on the contrary, he adapts fairly willingly to the sterility or semi-sterility desired by his companion, the more so in that the yields of her financial collaboration can continue longer. This is perhaps the epicenter of the grand demographic drama that is tormenting the white race' (Notari : 63). 'Still speaking of examples, certainly one of the most nauseating phenomena regarding the declining birth rate is that of the well-off classes – the high and fat bourgeoisie – who, as an article in Popolo d'Italia notes, "they show us their buildings and luxurious apartments, empty of children and populated with dogs and bitches".' 'Stato fascista e famiglia fascista', Critica fascista, 15(8), 15 February 1937: 113 (unsigned editorial). The article referred to in the Popolo d'Italia appeared on 30 January 1937. On the anti-bourgeois tones of the pro-birth rhetoric, see Wanrooij (: 48). Manlio Pompei, 'La Famiglia e il Fascismo: un'inchiesta da fare', Critica fascista, 9(9), 1 May 1933: 164. Benito Mussolini, 'Macchina e donna', Il Popolo d'Italia, 31 August 1934, cited in Macciocchi (: 145). Mario Palazzi, 'Autorità dell'uomo', Critica fascista, 9(10), 15 May 1933: 183.