La differenza sessuale : autonomia simbolica del femminile o trappola identitaria?

This article aims to outline key moments in feminist thought, from the First Wave through the Second Wave and its later theoretical developments in sexual difference feminism. It then problematizes the reception of this tradition by subsequent approaches that, by misreading its theoretical and political radicalism, reduce it to an 'identitybased'or 'essentialist'position. The essay argues that such reductive views reflect patriarchal biases, according to which difference is understood solely as a social construct produced by discursive regimes and power hierarchies. Against this view, sexual difference feminism affirms sexual difference as central to thinking the human in its embodied condition. This perspective rejects abstract, disembodied models of subjectivity and calls for a rethinking of women' s freedom grounded in an irreducible, yet still undertheorized, sexual difference. [Publisher's text]