Model of Masculinity Under Fascist Italy - The Exalted Virility By Mussolini: A Fascist Anti-modernism - Anti-intellectualism

Anti-intellectualism

Intellectuals were seen as a threat by the Fascist regime because they advocated for a masculinity which was associated with the bourgeoisie. More importantly, the values upheld by the intellectual class were in direct opposition to the values advocated by the fascist government, which were the exaltation of: action, impulsivity, and youth. Youth was amongst the many ambiguous terms employed by the fascist government to manipulate the public's perception of hegemonic masculinity. It was ambiguous in that the term was often used to refer to the promising potentialities of current, present-day youth, as well as the youthful Roman soldiers, gleaming with their sharp mind and shining armor, eons ago. This narrative passage provides the stance on intellectualism very clearly:

"What is intellectualism? It is important to avoid misunderstandings in this regard. Intellectualism is a sort of infertile intelligence, an intelligence without virtility. Intellectualism is a disease of the intelligence .... Intellectualism is a pathological International, like the hymn of the sexually inverted or the anarchists who are that way because nature was cruel to them .... Their function is in fact feminine, but in the worst sense, for it is a femininity that will never be material."

As such as the intellectualism as defined by the fascists, as a pathology of masculinity.