Italy and women's body

Italy is home to beautiful peintures and sculptures, countless scientific discoveries came out from Italian minds, the creativity of Italian people is renowned and museums all over the world are studded with Italian masterpieces. So what’s happening to the Belpaese cultural scene?

I’ve been living outside Italy for four years now, in London for two, I’ve travelled throughout Europe and South America and, although I deem other societies by no means faultless, I have never found in any country such a poor mainstream culture.

Without going as far as Michelangelo’s times, only watching tv shows broadcast in the ‘60s in the Italian tv, it’s possible to appreciate the difference between then and now. Today’s shows are embarrassing: dancers can’t dance, singers are mediocre, shows are not challenging or educative, anchormen (and women) only work if surrounded by semi-naked young girls who, by accepting to be humiliated the way they are, show zero self-esteem.

One of the most astonishing aspects of today’s Italian culture is that a talented person must be physically attractive, otherwise they have no chance to emerge and carry on with the future they have studied for. Yes, studied, because unfortunately this principle seems to apply to tv shows as well as the Parliament, recently become house of any sort of showgirl.

This, far from ensuring high quality programmes, is undermining Italian cultural vivacity and society, and is aimed at causing general mental laziness. This video introduces very well the topic of how women’s body is used to attract audience.

I don’t want to give the wrong impression that this is Italy today: this is mainstream, national media in Italy today. I have lived in Rome for seven years and, while the tv (public and private) was already leading towards the current widespread ignorance, all throughout the city there were many exhibitions, independent theatre pieces, challenging open-air shows and concerts going on.

The main difference with national tv is that these kinds of artistic expressions require mental vivacity, active participation, going out and socialising, using all senses instead of passively staring at the nothing the tv gives us today.