ItalianWomen in Media
For the women of Italy, I will refer to the change in “representation” of women on Italian television, in the sense of both the affirmation of new sexist ideologies and the lack of political representation. Where there is a huge gap between the images of women provided by both state and private TV channels and their real capabilities and competences that has been created. The media's portrayal and women’s social roles seem to come into collision, but perhaps the ideology of stereotyped images and collective imaginaries “speak the truth”. Italian women have become increasingly free but at the same time less equal as far as their rights are concerned. The paternalistic idea of women’s emancipation as mothers and workers that appeared in the 1950s and 1960s, developed into an ever increasing eroticizing of the female body during the 1990s. In between there were struggles for civil rights, liberation processes, women’s increased access to the labor market and to education, but also the development of neo-libertarianism as well as the crisis of the welfare state, which increasingly reduced previously established social guarantees and provisions. Television too followed this path, evolving from a form of social paternalism to a global economic patriarchate with neo-populist features.
This example is not simply aimed at emphasizing obvious deficiencies in political and cultural representation, due to the lack of women within the governance of the media, nor at stressing the hiatus between reality and media portrayal, but It is rather a matter of symbolic violence where images now overwhelm even voices, leading to the possibility for women involved to express themselves, in their own names and voice, or for those they represent. This is a paradoxical situation, in which the basic freedoms women enjoy appear to decrease precisely in the public portrayal and in the spreading of sexist stereotypes. Women continue to be pictured by others using eroticizing images, restricting their freedom to portray as best they can their own realities, expectations, potentials and talents. Therefore, they cannot recognize themselves in the images “others” provide of their factual condition.
One of the main reasons for this change in the media's portrayal of women comes from Silvio Berlusconi, the Prime Minister of Italy, who has transformed Italian TV for more than 20 years and has had a major impact on the storytelling of women in the media during his three terms in office. But even if he were to be impeached tomorrow, Berlusconi would leave a lasting legacy after what he has done with his TV shows. "Berlusconi changed the culture of Italy before he changed the politics of it," says Alexander Stille, author of The Sack of Rome, a book on Berlusconi's power tactics. "He introduced a culture of luxury and sex, one entirely different from the traditions of austerity promoted by Catholicism and the communists. His control of commercial television meant that he is the only politician in the world who helped create and shape his own electorate before it elected him."
At the heart of Berlusconi's culture is the velina, or showgirl, who is served up to Italians every day, like pasta. Historically, the term "velina" referred to the press releases sent by the Ministry of Culture to newspapers in Fascist Italy. These releases reported facts, and most often the government's interpretation of facts, to the newspapers. In the years that followed the term became a common one in political jargon, used to identify official and not so official communications between the offices of political parties and those of newspapers and TV news stations. The definition of veline began to change when Antonio Ricci started using the term for the showgirls that assisted the hosts of his satirical newscast Striscia la Notizia. Little did Ricci know, that by doing so he was going to change the face of Italian TV forever. From the day the program first aired in 1988 Italians took notice of the beautiful assistants and it came to pass that being selected as a velina was quite prestigious and a great way to jump-start an acting career or make a name for yourself in the public eye. After Striscia la Notizia, many TV shows began employing attractive, scantily clad assistants that engaged in sexy dance moves. In fact, this phenomenon of having sexy girls on any number of shows has come to be seen as something quintessentially Italian. Some veline merely stand mute while male presenters talk and some even give on-air lap dances to chat-show guests. Others play the funny little games producers devise, posing as table legs, or braving cold showers in tight dresses. Some simply strip, which was shown on Mediaset's homepage that featured a clip of a blonde clad in a black garbage bag, slowly lowering it to reveal her breasts. There's no denying the status of the showgirl in Berlusconi's Italy. "We used to get 10 or 15 applications a week," notes Gabriele Bertone, an agent at a Milan talent agency. "Now we get hundreds." A recent poll among young girls in Milan showed their top choice of profession was to be a velina. To help these young women achieve their dreams Antonio Ricci, who originally coined the velina term, decided to cash in on his invention. Ricci created a show, aptly named Veline, which is a reality show/beauty pageant where contestants compete to be the new veline on Striscia la Notizia. Although many years have passed since 1988, Striscia la Notizia is still a popular daily offering on Italian TV, while the veline are other "velines" are more popular than ever and have a constant presence on almost every entertainment TV show in Italy.
Here is a link to a video called:
Il Corpo delle Donne (“Women’s Bodies”) produced by Lorella Zanardo
http://www.ilcorpodelledonne.net/?page_id=91
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Y42hqlTmM00#! (Youtube version)
This example is not simply aimed at emphasizing obvious deficiencies in political and cultural representation, due to the lack of women within the governance of the media, nor at stressing the hiatus between reality and media portrayal, but It is rather a matter of symbolic violence where images now overwhelm even voices, leading to the possibility for women involved to express themselves, in their own names and voice, or for those they represent. This is a paradoxical situation, in which the basic freedoms women enjoy appear to decrease precisely in the public portrayal and in the spreading of sexist stereotypes. Women continue to be pictured by others using eroticizing images, restricting their freedom to portray as best they can their own realities, expectations, potentials and talents. Therefore, they cannot recognize themselves in the images “others” provide of their factual condition.
One of the main reasons for this change in the media's portrayal of women comes from Silvio Berlusconi, the Prime Minister of Italy, who has transformed Italian TV for more than 20 years and has had a major impact on the storytelling of women in the media during his three terms in office. But even if he were to be impeached tomorrow, Berlusconi would leave a lasting legacy after what he has done with his TV shows. "Berlusconi changed the culture of Italy before he changed the politics of it," says Alexander Stille, author of The Sack of Rome, a book on Berlusconi's power tactics. "He introduced a culture of luxury and sex, one entirely different from the traditions of austerity promoted by Catholicism and the communists. His control of commercial television meant that he is the only politician in the world who helped create and shape his own electorate before it elected him."
At the heart of Berlusconi's culture is the velina, or showgirl, who is served up to Italians every day, like pasta. Historically, the term "velina" referred to the press releases sent by the Ministry of Culture to newspapers in Fascist Italy. These releases reported facts, and most often the government's interpretation of facts, to the newspapers. In the years that followed the term became a common one in political jargon, used to identify official and not so official communications between the offices of political parties and those of newspapers and TV news stations. The definition of veline began to change when Antonio Ricci started using the term for the showgirls that assisted the hosts of his satirical newscast Striscia la Notizia. Little did Ricci know, that by doing so he was going to change the face of Italian TV forever. From the day the program first aired in 1988 Italians took notice of the beautiful assistants and it came to pass that being selected as a velina was quite prestigious and a great way to jump-start an acting career or make a name for yourself in the public eye. After Striscia la Notizia, many TV shows began employing attractive, scantily clad assistants that engaged in sexy dance moves. In fact, this phenomenon of having sexy girls on any number of shows has come to be seen as something quintessentially Italian. Some veline merely stand mute while male presenters talk and some even give on-air lap dances to chat-show guests. Others play the funny little games producers devise, posing as table legs, or braving cold showers in tight dresses. Some simply strip, which was shown on Mediaset's homepage that featured a clip of a blonde clad in a black garbage bag, slowly lowering it to reveal her breasts. There's no denying the status of the showgirl in Berlusconi's Italy. "We used to get 10 or 15 applications a week," notes Gabriele Bertone, an agent at a Milan talent agency. "Now we get hundreds." A recent poll among young girls in Milan showed their top choice of profession was to be a velina. To help these young women achieve their dreams Antonio Ricci, who originally coined the velina term, decided to cash in on his invention. Ricci created a show, aptly named Veline, which is a reality show/beauty pageant where contestants compete to be the new veline on Striscia la Notizia. Although many years have passed since 1988, Striscia la Notizia is still a popular daily offering on Italian TV, while the veline are other "velines" are more popular than ever and have a constant presence on almost every entertainment TV show in Italy.
Here is a link to a video called:
Il Corpo delle Donne (“Women’s Bodies”) produced by Lorella Zanardo
http://www.ilcorpodelledonne.net/?page_id=91
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Y42hqlTmM00#! (Youtube version)