GIs and ‘Segnorine’: an Entangled History of Post-war Sex Work (1943-1954)

Project Information

Sex War-k

Grant agreement ID: 843361

DOI

10.3030/843361

Project closed

EC signature date 27 March 2019

Start date 1 December 2019

End date 30 March 2023

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 269 002,56

EU contribution

€ 269 002,56

Coordinated by

UNIVERSITA DI PISA
Italy

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - Sex War-k (GIs and ‘Segnorine’: an Entangled History of Post-war Sex Work (1943-1954))

Reporting period: 2021-12-01 to 2022-11-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Sex War-k aims to conduct a systematic investigation into illegal sex work in a European country during the Allied occupation. Focusing on the relationships between American soldiers (GIs) and Italian illegal prostitutes (the so-called 'segnorine') in 1943-1954, the research action analyses the experience of these women as an icon of the encounters and cultural interconnections between American and Italian societies during the post-WW2 transition.
These are the essential questions addressed by the project:

- The intersection of gender and racism as a key factor in the pivotal years of post-Fascist democracy;
- The transatlantic circulation of ideas and models, with a focus on the intersection of colonial and segregationist stereotypes;
- Imaginary borders and national characters. How did Americans look at Italians and Italian women? How did Italians look at their (black) liberators?

Prostitution in wartime occupied countries has been studied mainly from a biopolitical perspective. Few studies have considered the history of 'irregular' sex workers as a substantial part of the post-war reworking of national identities. Despite its specificity, the Italian case has been little considered. My analysis adopts a new perspective, consolidating a conceptual framework of prostitution as a mirror of the contradictions of democratic reconstruction. The media clamour, the political debate and even the mob violence related to the relations between the segnorine and the black GIs are a perfect key to understanding the aporias of the new order.

The project has three main objectives:
(1) to understand some historical roots of discrimination in post-war democracies;
(2) to explain how policies on prostitution (mixing control, tolerance and repression) gave new impetus to racist-sexist tropes, derogatory stereotypes and national hostility;
(3) to examine the influence of the Cold War in structuring this mainstream narrative of deviance.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The work comprised an extensive study of Italian and American press sources and archival documentation. Different materials have been combined: military sources; public documentation; memoirs; newspapers and magazines; literature; visual media. This was associated to training activities, as well as to communication and dissemination through publications and public events which have been advertised through the project website http://sexwark.cfs.unipi.it/. Three major research results have been achieved:

(a) Revisiting well-established historiographical patterns. The project called into question the regulation/abolition debate on prostitution, as well as the victimisation paradigm, by focusing on how illegal sex work contributed to post-war recovery and national imagination.

(b) Intertwining of gender, race, and crime. Analysis showed that sexist discrimination and racism (combining anti-black and anti-Southern clichés) were intertwined during the Allied occupation. An interplay between gender, race and criminality emerged. The marginalisation of specific groups of people – the women of ill repute from Southern Italy and their African American lovers – was crucial to rebuilding the respectability of post-war Italian democracy and leaving behind the sins of Fascism.

(c) Investigating the complex encounter between Italian and American cultures under the 'shadow of defeat'. The icon of the 'segnorina' highlights the contradictory exchange between American and Italian cultures, often linked to a stereotypical criticism of the consumerist model.

One can mention the organisation of the following conferences/workshops:

- “Sex Work and Crime: National and Transnational Perspectives”, University of Pisa (UNIPI)/Fordham University, 4-18 May 2021;
- “Il colore della Repubblica: “Figli della guerra” e razzismo nell’Italia postfascista”, UNIPI, 15 December 2022;
- “The Trouble with Trafficking: Abolitionist Framings and the Specter of Slavery”, UNIPI, 17 May 2023;
- “La prostituta come cattiva italiana: genere, razza e onore nazionale (XIX-XX sec.)”, panel, Cantieri di storia XII, SISSCO, 13 September 2023 (forthcoming).


In addition, the results of Sex War-k were disseminated through the following conferences, workshops, and other events:

- “Genere, sessualità, migrazioni”, L’Orientale University of Naples (Italy), 19 December 2019;
- Two online lectures within the course of Storia contemporanea, UNIPI, 11-12 June 2020;
- Columbia University Seminar in Modern Italian Studies, “Segnorine: Nation, Gender, and Crime in the Recasting of Post-WWII Italy”, 11 March 2022;
- “Segnorine: Sex Work and National Honor in Post-Fascist Italy”, UNIPI/Fordham, 27 April 2022.


The project's contents were also presented in media, and outreach fora, e.g.

- “Segnorine. La prostituzione clandestina nella Livorno liberata”, ISTORECO Livorno, 30 July 2020: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ql_hKZPcl1g;
- “Prostitution and Anti-Black Racism in the Post-Fascist Transition”, 30 March 2022: http://www.centrastudies.org/?p=1042;
- “A conversation on Tombolo, Black Paradise and Without Pity” (with G. della Maggiore), 2022 “Lezioni di Cinema” Festival, Livorno, 8 October 2022;
- Outreach lecture, Film Festival “Diversamente", Vicopisano (Pisa), 12 March 2023;
- “Tombolo: storia e memoria di un mito politico”, 30 March 2023, https://www.toscananovecento.it/.


Articles/book chapters:

- Seguire gli alleati: prostituzione e migrazioni femminili nell’Italia occupata”, in F. Amato (ed.), Genere, sesso, migrazione. Percorsi transdisciplinari (Roma: DeriveApprodi, 2021), pp. 75-89;
- Book review of Annalisa Cegna, Natascia Mattucci, Alessio Ponzio (eds.), La prostituzione nell’Italia contemporanea, in Italia Contemporanea 53/295 (2021), pp. 302-303;
- Book review of Marzio Barbagli, Comprare piacere, in Il Mestiere di Storico 13/2 (2021), p. 98;
- Book review of Anna Pattuzzi, Il piacere e la colpa, in Modernism 8 (2022), pp. 367-369.

In preparation:

- "Local/National/Transnational: Revisiting the History of Prostitution, Sex Work, and Crime in Modern and Contemporary Age”, journal article;
- “Segnorine: Nation, Gender, and Crime in the Recasting of Post-WWII Italy”, journal article.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Sex War-k went beyond the state of the art and had a scientific and social impact in four main ways: (1) it carried out a first transnational analysis on the topic of illegal sex work during the Allied occupation in Italy; (2) it contributed to a comprehensive reconsideration of the previous historiography on prostitution in the light of the cultural turn, linking different scales of analysis (local/national/global) and highlighting the intersection between race and gender identities; (3) it had broader social implications, putting into historical perspective the way in which gender, national and racial identities structured the reworking of post-WW2 Italy (and Europe more generally); (4) it allowed us to problematise racisms in the plural.
The expected outcomes, including the long-term impact and next steps, are the publication of a book in 2024 (working title: “La nazione disonorata: genere, razza e criminalità nell’occupazione alleata (1944-1947)”, and the extension of the research to the history of common criminality in post-war Italy. This topic will be addressed by examining the discourse on criminals and criminality as one of the public arenas in which to stage the “respectable” character of the new post-fascist democracy.

Alberto Lattuada, Senza pietà [Without Pity], 1948. Movie poster.

Urano Sarti, Livorno città… aperta. Romanzo in vernacolo livornese, 1950.