From revolution to liberation. Feminist consciousness-raising and sexuality in the 1970s

Abstract

This article examines the "sexual revolution" of the 1960s and 1970s in Italy from the perspective of emotional history. Drawing mainly on unpublished oral sources and advice columns in women's magazines, it assesses the contribution of the feminist method of consciousness-raising to the reception of and reaction to the so-called sexual revolution. Focusing on the ‘long 1968' as it unfolded in Italy, I analyse how the new models of an apparently freer sexuality were appropriated and adapted to the emotional counter-community created by feminists practising consciousness-raising towards what would later be defined as sexual liberation, and I discuss the openings and limits that this approach has entailed.