Until ten or fifteen years ago, in Italy we were talking about it gender violence and from murder of women in the media, online, but also at school, university and at home, things were much more difficult than now. The word “femicide” was not yet as widespread as it is today, and even in the mainstream media: as the Accademia della Crusca attests, it is only since 2010 that newspapers have begun to use it with increasing frequency.
Let’s be clear: discussing these topics is not easy today, because they still exist “divisive”, as they say, this ends up fueling anger and sparking discussions and arguments that are not always civil, but end in profanity and verbal violence. But we talk about it, we discuss it, and this is clearly a good thing, considering that in Italy violence against women shows no signs of decreasing and, although the number of murders continues to decline, the number of fatalities is still increasing. women killed by their husbands or partners (current, past or prospective), but also of fathers, brothers and other male relatives, has remained almost the same for more than thirty years. All official data confirms this (no matter what those who remain in denial about this issue think): see for example this Istat table.
Over time, my position on the topic has changed. In fact, for years, on this blog, on my personal blog and on my social channels, as well as in the university classrooms where I teach, I have advocated the importance of words and from public complaints of so much violence and so much killing. In fact, the guilty thing is to let the horror sit idly by. Certain. But.
But something was wrong. In the fifteen years that the debate has developed in the media, femicide, lesbian and trans-cide are counted more precisely, namely the celebration of independence day. International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women they are increasing everywhere. However.
Yet women continue to experience violence in various ways and levels, in all locations and roles. And at the height of this violence, they continue to do this died at the hands of menconsidering that in Italy a femicide occurs approximately every three days, and sometimes more frequently. For years.
What does this mean? First of all, talking about violence against women and murder of women is certainly better than remaining silent, but – what is even more obvious – that’s not enough. In fact, the problem lies elsewhere. It’s in violent society and in chauvinist and macho culturewhich in Italy is widespread and resistant. This lies in the very low level of sensitivity and attention to gender equality in the family, at work, anywhere. This lies in the lack of sexual and emotional education in schools. It’s ineconomy Italywho always hires women – again! – below the European average. And if you, a woman, live with an abusive husband, partner, or father who supports you, while you don’t have a job or living alone is not enough, how can you escape oppression?
But the problem also lies in the way we talk about it. First of all, talking about violence in a violent way, with verbal attacks, insults, and arguments, will only make things worse general arrogance from which extreme cases also arise. And talking about it too much insisted, terrifyingAlmost obsessiveas is the case with incidents of rape or murder of women today, it ends normalize this phenomenon and, what’s worse, turn it into a trendthe original media genres, This makes a large part of society increasingly indifferent, but it risks attracting and inflaming, precisely because of the characteristics of morbidity that I mentioned, men who are already more vulnerable to violence.
Psychological and social research has highlightedemulation effect connected to media exposure suicide. It is called the “Werther effect” because it refers to the fact that after Goethe’s novel was published in 1774, there was a wave of love suicides in Europe. The phenomenon is more or less explained as follows: it is assumed that, for every person who commits suicide, there are dozens of people who for various reasons are thinking about it; for them, the news acts as a catalyst, not only because “if he did it, I can do it too”, but because the media constructs a heroic image of the act. Now, to avoid competition, the media must carry out consolidation practices maintain the confidentiality of the news suicide cases, publish only in certain cases e with wisdom.
Unfortunately, there have been few voices who, over the years, have spoken about the possible effects of competition on media exposure to the rape and murder of women. Yes, I am one of these people and, although many years ago I did not think much about it, today I hope that soon someone will do this. collective reflectionin the media and elsewhere.
