« Io sono mia ! » D’Aspirina à Erbacce, la généalogie d’une revue humoristique éco-féministe

Abstract

This article aims to highlight the development of a historical Italian feminist journal: Aspirina, now Erbacce. The article is based on two focuses of analysis: the first aims to describe the path that led to the launch of Aspirina in the historic “Libreria delle Donne di Milano” in 1987. The second uses three sections of the journal as an example to explain Erbacce’s new ecofeminist approach. After 26 years of publication in print format, the journal moved online in 2013, and in 2018, Aspirina began its transformation into Erbacce. In this same period of controversy with Aspirina, the Bayer group was in the process of concluding its merger with Monsanto. In an act of resistance and in response to the merger of a pharmaceutical company with a multinational producer of pesticides and GMO seeds, Aspirina took the name Erbacce. Form di vita resistenti ai diserbanti (Weeds. Herbicide-resistant life forms). The journal’s interests shifted to ecofeminist topics. Even before it became a necessity for assertion, Erbacce’s resistance became essential for its survival. Erbacce is open to relationships between humans, plants and animals—living beings—from a relationship perspective that necessarily involves the other as another species.

Keywords

• ecofeminism
• satire
• neo-rurality
• animal languages
• Living beings
• feminism