Personalising feminism: gender, myth, and the making of alternative femininities in the Italian far right

Abstract This article examines the activism of far-right women who, beginning in the late 1970s, produced the magazine Eowyn . It reconstructs the foundational principles of far-right feminist thought in Italy, which these women self-identified as personalising feminism, situating this framework within the broader currents of contemporary feminist discourse and its cultural referents. The essay further explores the reception of Eowyn by Marxist feminists and far-right male actors, illuminating the tensions and dialogues that shaped the movement. A distinct feminist typology emerges – one that neither repudiates an organicist conception of society nor reduces women’s history to narratives of oppression, while remaining sensitive to the risks of the massification and masculinisation of the female figure. This approach advocates for women’s equal opportunities while offering a sustained critique of a society and state perceived as retrograde, highlighting the complex intersections of gender, ideology, and political culture in late twentieth-century Italy.