Paper short abstract:

This paper explores how gender may become the bearer of multiple political meanings within single moments of protest, revealing a shift away from the politics of identity towards a more mixed, cross-group politics. However, it also highlights how this process is invariably fraught with conflict.

Paper long abstract:

The notion of gender has been one of the foremost examples of a politics based on the idea of specific identities. Historically, it has been the call to action of "women". However, such notion has increasingly become the steppingstone of activist coalitions that bring together not only feminist movements, but also gay, lesbian and antiracist ones. This paper analyses the problematic use of gender made by two such coalitions in Palermo, Italy. It looks in particular at the processes of alliance building that were behind the organisation of two street protests. One was the local event linked to a national day of protest against the degrading imagery of women spread by Berlusconi and his media empire. The other was the local Gay Pride march. The events in question were characterised by an ample participation that brought together individuals from a broad activist and political spectrum, but also by arguments over the notion of gender among the actors involved in their organisation. What perspectives on such notion do these arguments reveal? Are the conflicts generated by constructs of identity and difference? Or are new, common interests emerging that allow the building of unexpected coalitions? In the context of a mixed, non-separatist politics, are alliances always contingent or can they foster processes of association that go against identities and cut across differences? This paper highlights how gender may become the bearer of multiple and conflicting meanings for social movements, and be transformed by such process.