THE ITALIAN SO-CALLED INCLUSIVE GENDER. A SHORT HISTORY OF A MYTH

This paper aims to broadly outline the history of the so-called inclusive gender. This practice concerns linguistic representation and semiotic interpretation and is extremely frequent within communicative contexts characterized by the presence of both male and female individuals. The absence of critical reactions from contemporary Italian people to such an ancient modality of linguistic gender use and the sense of distress instinctively expressed by people -- regardless of their gender -- often shown towards those who try to explain the implications of an inclusive reference represent more than a clue to the existence of something beyond language, something involving the typical structure of a well-known but never explicated Myth. For this reason, it could be useful to investigate the non-visible roots of such a category and its development across the linguistic history of the Latin diasystem, as well as the Italian one.