Re-signifying the female body in the neo-patriarchy: childfree agency and the lunadigàs project

Abstract

In the era of neo‑patriarchy, women’s bodies continue to be inscribed within normative and symbolic frameworks that define their value, functions, and possibilities. From early childhood, girls and women are socialized to conceive of their bodies as naturally oriented toward care and reproduction, while public discourses on declining birth rates reinforce the idea of motherhood as a civic and identity‑based duty. Within this context, the childfree choice emerges as a practice of resignification of the female body that challenges reproductive normativity and the assumption of motherhood as a natural destiny. This article offers a pedagogical reflection grounded in a case study of the Lunadigàs project, the first collective initiative in Italy to collect, archive, and publicly disseminate narratives of women who identify with the choice not to have children. The contribution explores the educational, symbolic, and counter‑normative potential of these narratives, highlighting their capacity to question dominant processes of gender socialization and to open up alternative imaginaries of female agency and embodied subjectivity.