The FT had a very interesting article on the death of Italian feminism. I share Adrian Michaels’ frustration with the explicitly sexual (and sexist) imagery dominating Italian television and publicity. However, in his comparison with Britain and the US, he seems to paint a too stark picture of Italy as ‘the land that feminism forgot’. After all, I remember a similar frustration and surprise at the relatively ordinary ‘nakedness’ of young women in Britain going out clubbing, when I first moved here nearly ten years ago. I'm afraid sexism is alive and well across the globe. The dire state of Italian publicity has more to do with its clients not seeking creativity than Italians being comfortable with it. Nevertheless, it is true that the situation in Italy is indeed worse; however it is primarily due to structural rather than cultural reasons. There are, of course, cultural differences, such as an understanding of sexual explicitness as rebellion to Catholic predominance and therefore as a liberating tool. There is also a more open attitude to sex than in Anglican/Protestant cultures, hence censorship being less rigid. Regrettably, across the western world, the sixties’ revolution liberalised sex instead of liberating it from its male-centredness and its objectifying nature.
However, Italian publicity is saturated with naked women for the same reason why economic structural reforms are extremely difficult. Italy is a country still steeped in corporatism, dominated by the vested interest of a myriad of groups. Italian politics and economy are in crisis due to their subservience to groups of power, traditionally dominated by (older) men with strong political links to ensure influence. Such groups hold the key to personal and corporate success. They are boys’ clubs making the rules on who is on television, in politics and in the academia, to name a few. So far they have excluded women, young talent and innovation. It is a deeply felt crisis resented by all. When I visit Italy, I see men and women just as embarrassed and angry at the ubiquitous display of female flesh on billboards and television as they are at the tight grip with which Italy’s elders are strangulating the country.
nakeditaly
16 July 2007
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4 comments:
Hey I just read the article on FT! If there is so much resent in Italy over the display of flesh, why isn't anything being done? Being a liberal, democratic, West European country, aren't there organizations or groups of people to rally against the trend?
Because it's politicised. Berlusconi owns (or his companies own) the three main TV channels aside from the state channels, any attack on them it's perceived as a poliltical attack. They've been interesting court cases recently and maybe the FT should have paid attention to the subtleties of Italian politics. Whilst I by and large agree with the comments made in the article, the analysis was too simplistic and lacked understanding of Italian politics and society.
I don't know. As a metter of principle I don't think that sex censorship has too much value, so I don't feel too much the problem, even if I have always find quite silly the need to use always a naked woman to sell cars or phones that has quite nothing to do with the female body, I always thought it is a really low pseudo-psychological trick...
Anyway what really worries me is that most of Italian children when asked "what do you want to do when you will be adult?" answered the "show-girl" (is it a good translation of "velina"?) if they were female or "the soccer player" if they were male... discouraging...
I think religion has more to do with feminism being discouraged than anything else
Women should be mothers good daughters, daughter in laws and wives and thats it
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