Irene Villa’s La minaccia color lavanda is a groundbreaking exploration of how feminist and queer theoretical traditions investigate lesbian trans-affirmative thought and lesbian sexual desire. Through an interconnected analysis of foundational texts from Italian feminism, along with French and anglophone lesbian feminism, Villa charts the philosophical and political debates surrounding the emergence of lesbianism in the 1970s, the sex wars of the 1980s, and the evolution of queer theory as both a challenge to feminism’s internal conflicts and a response to neoliberal social conservatism.
Villa employs history as both an interpretative framework and a reparative lens to understand the historical formation of theoretical visions about lesbians and the various expressions of their sexuality. Drawing upon Esther Newton – the prominent butch theorist in American queer studies whose preface graces the book – Villa highlights the impact of historical and political lesbian erasure, reconstructing this narrative with painstaking scholarly precision and butch pride. As Newton describes the term ‘lesbian’ as an ageist rejection that finds no reclamation in the present generation, Villa recovers this rejection, scrutinises its reappropriation (i.e., the pride of being a ‘lavender menace’ that lends the book its title), and speculates about the future.
While her case studies from Carla Lonzi, Monique Wittig, Adrienne Rich, and Teresa De Lauretis partially align her work with significant earlier publications (e.g., Elena Biagini’s monumental history of Italian lesbian collectives), what is wholly original to Villa’s volume is her use of a comparative approach to uncover overlooked archival connections and tensions, to introduce previously untranslated texts into Italian feminist and queer discourse. She meticulously analyses the interventions of three important yet almost unknown authors in Italy: working-class butch Joan Nestle, femme and sex worker Amber Hollibaugh, and Chicanx butch author and poet Cherríe Moraga.
Villa guides the reader through the exploration of lesbian desire, eroticism, and sexuality, reclaiming the path paved by Liana Borghi in redefining queer within feminist discourse. The seismic shifts caused by the feminist sex wars of the 1980s gave rise to stark landscapes for dialogue and analysis of all forms of counter-straight sexuality and eroticism. The authors Villa discusses sought erotic and sexual liberation for all women and beyond the category of woman; an aim that, according to Villa, feminism later abandoned due to its essentialism. However, these narratives do not merely chronicle or expose the emergence and consolidation of ‘a theory that dares not speak its name’ (p. 21): they also present a rich corpus of readings, political exchanges, and key historical turning points. Villa repeatedly calls for their recovery, sharing an abundance of bibliographic and archival references organised for students and researchers like herself.
The theoretical backbone of La minaccia color lavanda is built on a lesbianism interpreted as a precursor to anglophone queer theory and as critical of the feminism of difference in French and Italian contexts. This suggests the potential for transforming the narratives we construct about why queer studies have struggled to emerge in Italy. While familial traditionalism and conservative rhetoric have certainly impacted the contemporary reception of queer debates, Villa’s historical-philosophical analysis also identifies reasons for this shift within feminist discourse itself. Particularly relevant, here, is the first chapter, which opens with an analysis of the historical relationship between lesbian visibility, the women’s movement, and feminism.
The book’s second chapter dedicates itself to the theories, practices, and poetics of feminist lesbianism. In this extensive examination of texts and their translations into Italian, Villa pays special attention to Adrienne Rich’s theorisation of the lesbian continuum, the critique of separatism by Black lesbians favouring identity politics as a coalition against racism and capitalism, and finally, Monique Wittig’s work. The sections where Villa reconstructs Wittig’s intellectual and political journey and her linguistic and literary experiments are especially valuable. Wittig’s work, which articulates a gender-lesbian politics, has increasingly gained space in English-language academic debates.
In the Italian context, Wittig has held a central position in lesbian political thought, perhaps comparable only to Butler, whose work is the focus of the third and final chapter of the book. In chapter three, the author shifts her attention to the emergence of queer movements in the United States and the contributions of lesbian subcultures. While the theoretical developments produced by lesbians at the end of the 1980s sex wars may not be explicitly addressed in the Italian context, they subtly inform the development of queer theory and activism in the 1990s. The conclusion of chapter three offers a profound exploration of lesbian desire, not just as a reclamation of lesbian sexuality but also to contest binary structures, escape oppressive heterosexist frameworks, and foster the emergence of nonbinary gender articulations and connections between lesbian and trans realities.
Villa concludes the book with a deeply personal and politically timely reflection, bringing her work into conversation with current debates: ‘When some feminists and historic lesbian activists today denounce the disappearance of sexual difference, what motivates them may not solely be fear and/or hostility towards queer and trans lives … but rather the decline of a political practice of solidarity’ (p. 179). What distinguishes La minaccia color lavanda is its multifaceted, forward-looking dialogue on gender, feminism, and sexuality. The book serves as a bridge over past conflicts, opening new horizons for research and political coalition-building between pro-sex feminism and queer theory. Villa’s work demonstrates that understanding queer theory – and lesbian politics in particular – requires exploring the intersections of social, class, and sexual realities. In doing so, Villa offers a valuable perspective and a practical model for Italian queer studies, feminist scholarship, and queer history. Her book presents a unique intersection of these fields, serving as a resource for scholars, students, and educators. Villa not only reclaims space for lesbian politics and desire within queer studies but also lays the groundwork for further inquiries into the vast, underexplored terrain of comparative studies on historical and political queer experiences from a transnational perspective.
