Adriana Cavarero e Olivia Guaraldo, “Donna si nasce (e qualche volta lo si diventa)” (2024)
Mondadori
Simone de Beauvoir famously stated that “one is not born, but rather becomes, a woman,” suggesting that female identity is merely the product of a social construct rooted in patriarchy. But is the concept of woman truly nothing more than a patriarchal cultural construct? Can women’s liberation really only occur through the erasure of sexual difference? Increasingly strong forces seem to be moving in this direction. Inclusive language champions fluidity and stigmatizes those who affirm that there are two sexes, male and female. A new language is spreading, in which genders multiply while the fact of sexual difference is considered dangerous and discriminatory. In progressive cultural circles, universities, festivals, and publishing, the term “woman” is now often replaced with “person with a uterus,” thereby erasing the central subject of feminism, which has been instrumental in achieving rights and freedoms. The debate on sex and gender is murky and politicized, lacking clarity and polarized between LGBTQIA+ demands and traditionalist Catholic forces. Philosophers Adriana Cavarero and Olivia Guaraldo assert the importance of women’s difference—first and foremost the fact of being the sex that generates—and the need for feminism to represent this not as an obstacle, a cause of subordination and inferiority, but as a strength, a fundamental element for achieving genuine freedom. Their analysis tackles, with sharp insight and without concessions, some of the most pressing issues of our time: from the use of the schwa to gender theories, the debate on surrogacy and reproductive freedom, to the harsh reality of male violence against women.