ABSTRACT
Women compete for the floor on an equal footing with men in the arena of Kalymnian conversation. The women's "Rock War" took place in 1935 when Kalymnos was under Italian occupation. It is a powerful example of women's collective action, which was successful in achieving immediate goals and in questioning persistent gender categories and ideologies. Its status is therefore ambiguous: as an example of Kalymnian resistance to the Italians, it has been "cast in stone" in the writings of male historians. Women compete for the floor on an equal footing with men in the arena of Kalymnian conversation. Excursions to the beach in summer are, from all accounts, a longstanding Kalymnian tradition, though many people remember earlier times when men and women were expected to bathe at separate beaches. The speaker's greatest praise was for Papa Tsougranis, whom he referred to as a Kalymnian Papa Flessas.
