6.1 Listen to the song “Genere” by the Italian band Gente and answer the following questions.

1. Focus on the first verse (00:00–00:18) and transcribe the lyrics that you hear.

2. In English or Spanish, explain the meaning of the first verse.

6.2 Visit the SWI swissinfo.ch website and read the article, "Maschio o femmina, omo o etero: quando le categorie vanno in frantumi," by Katy Romy e Stefania Summermatter. The following questions may be of interest for further discussion.

1. Based on the title of the article, what do you think is happening to the categorie di genere in Switzerland.

2. What does LGBTIQ mean?

3. What new terms are being used to describe individuals who do not adhere to the traditional categories of sexuality?

4. Who is Caroline Dayer?

5. According to Caroline Dayer, what is a distinctive trait of homophobia?

6.3 Visit the La lingua italiana website:

On the website above, you will find a list of nouns that appear to undergo a change in gender (e.g., il baleno/la balena), but actually mean two different things. These occurrences are called falsi cambi di genere grammaticale. These falsi cambi are sometimes used in jokes or silly poems, as they allow people to play with words that have similar sounds but different meanings. Here is an example:

Una bella sera passò una nave

Una bella sera passò una nave
e in un baleno dal mare
sbucò una mostruosa balena
che vide su uno scoglio una sirena
che si mangiava la polpa di un polpo.
Le disse la sirena con tono gentile:
“Vuole favorire?”
Ma sulla nave da uno spigolo
un marinaio lanciò una spigola
la lanciò come una lancia
e la balena se la mise in pancia.
La nave fece una virata
e la balena l’affondò con una bella risata.
Poi regalò alla sirena
un bellissimo velo
fatto con la vela della nave affondata.

Can you find the nouns in the poem that represent falsi cambi di genere grammaticale? Of the nouns listed on the website above, which ones would be funny to use in a joke?

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