By all means (social media, email) we tried to talk to Alessandro Zan, first signatory of the bill on homobi-transphobia, misogyny and abilism already approved in the House and awaiting consideration in the Senate. We invited him to take part in a Zoom debate to present our reasons and hear his. We offered him interviews to be published in the daily press. Zan never gave the slightest hint of a response. and this is rather serious for an elected parliamentarian who, in order to legislate properly, would be required to check his convictions on such an important issue by listening to what his fellow citizens have to say: Ignoring women, not giving importance to what they have to say, is the first misogynist contempt, and it is worrying that this contempt is manifested precisely by those who - unilaterally - have decided that 'their' law is also a garrison against misogyny. Zan has chosen to confront only those who assure him a priori that they will not oppose him, by organising a grand tour with influencers, singers, PlayBoy sex-columnists and showbiz personalities who, as we have seen, do not really know the text of the bill.
There has been no response so far from the Democratic Party, and in particular from the women of that party, repeatedly and as a matter of priority, despite the fact that the new secretary Enrico Letta has indicated openness and listening as an essential feature of 'his' PD. This is the letter that a young radical feminist wanted to address to Alessandro Zan and the Democratic Party.
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I would like to make an appeal to those who are currently supporting #ddlZan by organising live broadcasts and petitions on social media. Above all, I would like to send this message to Alessandro Zan of the Democratic Party, the rapporteur of the bill.
I followed your live with Fedez and I found a lot of dishonesty on your part because although you are right to stress the importance of this bill and you are right to say that there is a lot of fake news circulating, neglected to mention the fact that not all the criticism of this bill came from the Italian sovereignist right or from homophobic political parties. She said, and I quote, "those who don't want this law still think that homosexual and transgender people are wrong and should be corrected.. But this is not true and she knows it.
There is a part of Italy that has been asking to be heard for months, a part of Italy made up mainly of women, of feminists, They are asking Alessandro Zan and, more generally, the Democratic Party to listen to them and to share a debate on the criticisms and changes that we, as women, would like to make to the bill. According to you, this is a law that should also protect women, so it seems the least we can do is agree to start a discussion with us. And yet, when we - together with Marina Terragni - asked to be heard, we asked for the opportunity to have a public debate with Alessandro Zan, we were ignored.
I am a member of RadFem Italia, an association of feminist women working in the field of radical feminism and fighting against the oppression of patriarchy and to destroy misogyny, which is incredibly normalised in Italy - just think of the numbers of daily feminicides. But I also find myself in the ideals of many other Italian feminist associations such as ArciLesbica or UDI - Unione Donne in Italia. I have met so many women who feel threatened at the moment by what could happen if the Zan dossier is approved as it stands..
We are not the Italian sovereignist and homophobic right, We are not Giorgia Meloni, Simone Pillon or Matteo Salvini. We are women who daily fight for other women, for those who have no voice, and We demand that they listen to us too, or at least try to create a civilised debate. There are several points that we think should be changed in the bill, but mainly, we are concerned with the concept of gender identity. We have been saying for months that the concept behind the ideology of gender identity is incredibly harmful to women, yet we continue to be ignored.
In the Zan bill, gender identity is defined as ".perceived and manifested self-identification in relation to gender, even if not corresponding to sex, regardless of having completed a transition process".. This assumes that being a woman does not depend on belonging to a sex but is relegated to a feeling, to 'feeling woman'. But to assert that the woman is a conception other than her biological contingency minimises the billions of women victims of machismo, misogyny and patriarchy in the worldWe are in the year 2021 and, to this day, there are still selective abortions against girls, excision of the clitoris, prostitution, sexualisation and objectification of the female body, corrective rape, child brides, discrimination at work because of motherhood, and so on.
No one knows what 'gender identity' these raped, violated, infibulated, aborted and murdered women or girls identified with; their only sin was that they were born with the female genital organ. It is on this purely biological basis that, for millennia, women have been and still are considered inferior. The woman is not the one who feels like a woman because she conforms to the stereotypes created by society - stereotypes that are especially harmful to us women. in a patriarchal society such as Italy. It is not a woman who wears lipstick, who wears a skirt, who plays with Barbie dolls or who feels like a woman because she enjoys doing these things. These are sexist stereotypes, gender stereotypes.
Within these dynamics of gender stereotypes, women are subjugated by the role imposed on them. Biological sex does not impose obligations or roles on usThose roles are painted around sex and to get rid of them you have to recognise them for the patriarchal tools they are. There is no brain, hobby, passion, colour, sexual orientation, character trait that is inherently feminine or masculine. These are constructs that are passed down from birth, they are tacit social agreements. So inserting the legal validity of a term such as 'gender identity' sets a precedent and is harmful to women because gender - unlike sex - is a socio-cultural concept, a construct that refers to the set of norms imposed from outside, by stereotypes.
In a society without gender stereotypes and cultural boxes given to one's sex, there would be no need to identify with another sex or a hypothetical gender identity because society would be equal towards women and men without attributing gender stereotypes to any sex. We ask that these considerations, and many others, be taken into account and that we be given space for a constructive debate that takes into account what women have to say about this dossier.This is without wishing to undermine the sacrosanct rights that this bill aims to protect, i.e. to combat homophobia, transphobia, ableism and misogyny. Please listen to us.
Angela Tacchini
