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Televised bodies: Berlusconi and the body of italian women
- Source: Journal of Italian Cinema & Media Studies, Volume 1, Issue 1, Sep 2012, p. 87 - 102
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- 14 Sep 2012
Abstract
This article describes the trajectory of Italian women in the age of Berlusconismo, as they moved from silence to being vocal in the streets. Within the horizon of the unique Italian media landscape, almost all previously controlled by former Prime Minister Berlusconi, I examine the circularity of gender politics on Berlusconi's television networks and the broader gender gap in Italy, framing the condition of Italian women between Berlusconi's sexcapades and the general socio-economic conditions of contemporary Italy as documented in the 44th Censis Report (Centro Studi Investimenti Sociali). After describing the initial climate of acquiescence towards gender inequality in Italy, the article explores Lorella Zanardo's documentary Il corpo delle donne/The Body of Women (2009), investigating the Italian media's treatment of women as merely sexual bodies. Symptomatic of the porno-graphication of the public sphere and typical of 'a postfeminist sensibility' diffused all over the western world, these mediatic aspects are also uniquely Italian because of Berlusconi's media control and his attempt to apply the exploitation of beauty to the realm of politics. Finally, the article focuses on the success of the 13 February 2011 protests and of the appeal of the women's organization Di Nuovo as the possible beginning of a new women's movement in Italy.