«Io posso formar questa donna a modo mio»: male self-fashioning and the imageries of Pygmalion and Zeuxis in the Italian querelle des femmes

Resumen

This essay examines the Italian querelle des femmes through the prism of two well-known legends of the Western tradition, those of Pygmalion and Zeuxis. Paradigmatically capturing the male desire for creativity, the regulation of female body through the male gaze and narcissistic love of the male self, these legends can help us better understand some aspects of the debate about women primarily from the perspective of masculinity. The essay suggests that the querelle des femmes was after all a site of male self-fashioning that was articulating through the othering of women and the plebeians, and the strengthening of homosocial bonds among men of the political and intellectual elite. Creativity, companionship, and rivalry became crucial constituents of a male imagery that emerged in tandem with new forms of courtly sociability and the aristocratization of the Italian peninsula.