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Italy represents a particular case in the panorama of Southern Europe; it is going through a very crucial moment when issues of sexual politics are at the forefront of the political and societal debate. Against the backdrop of the plurality of ways in which individuals arrange their intimate lives, the increased visibility in the public and political sphere of LGBT issues, and the de-traditionalisation of gendered relations, we are witnessing a strong, at times violent heterosexist/conservative backlash. Against this background LGB individuals organise their intimate lives, make reproductive choices and develop strategies to protect themselves and their most vulnerable next of kin. Drawing on qualitative interviews with gay and lesbian couples in Italy this chapter aims to investigate the intersection between the context and the ways in which individuals in same-sex relationships organise their intimate lives. It highlights the impact of the law and the socio-cultural context on the intimate choices of individuals, but also contribute to the growing body of literature that complicates the assimilation/disruption dyad and caution against the translatability of notions of heteronormativity and homonormativity.

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Mediatization became a central concept in media and communication studies in the early 2000s. Mediatization calls for a critical engagement with the changes invested in media and their role in high modern societies, and the effects of those changes. Such a process is understood to have profound gendered consequences. Particularly crucial are the reflections around the empowering/disempowering effects of the pervasive presence of media in our lives and, in particular, on their role in both reproducing and disrupting hegemonic understanding of gender and sexuality. This entry focuses especially on the mediatization of politics and its role in perpetuating discourses that tend to marginalize and minoritize those who do not conform to a deeply gendered and racialized ideal of power. It then examines how the emancipatory and transformative power of social media is deeply intertwined with practices that reproduce conservative gender politics.

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