In Italy, but we can say in the whole world, unfortunately, gender equality does not exist.
Inequalities between men and women in the workplace, economic, social and cultural fields they die hard.
But where does this disparity originate and how is it reproduced?
Simple: through gender stereotypes The media and society in general distort people's behavior and shape it from a very young age.
To begin with, let's give a definition of stereotype: a preconceived, generalized and simplistic opinion about people or groups, which is not based on a personal evaluation of individual cases but is repeated mechanically about people, events or situations and is the result of a previous process of overgeneralization and oversimplification, or the result of a false deductive operation.
In practice, a cliché that is applied uncritically and automatically. Yet, each individual is unique and cannot be reduced to a set of stereotyped characteristics!
I realize that to an unwary eye stereotypes may seem trivial but this is not the case. To understand what is behind a stereotype you need to have the desire to inform yourself and educate yourself.
Generalizations can be about any aspect of life such as race, age, sexual orientation, religion, physical appearance, profession, etc.
Clearly such prejudices can be positive or negative, but in both cases they are oversimplifications of reality that do not take into account individual diversity within a group.
Every day we are bombarded by television programs and advertisements that arrive directly on our devices and that transmit messages that can intensely reinforce discrimination between men and women.
In particular, these are excessive and simplified generalizations that attribute to men and women typical characteristics and behaviors based on their gender and this happens especially when they present one of the two sexes as dominant.
Often the male sex appears more courageous, intelligent, smart, capable of expressing ideas, strong… “the man who never has to ask“, remember?
Then in real life men sometimes appear to us as weak, fragile subjects, incapable of overcoming the end of a love relationship!
The woman, on the other hand, is described as needing protection and incapable of living an autonomous life, weak, emotional, caring, physically beautiful but dependent on others, passive.
Thinking of women as skilled at housework or childcare and of men as responsible for work outside the home often leads to women having fewer job opportunities and earning less than men. This is why for some time now some Italian and multinational companies have been organizing anti-stereotype courses that help to establish better relationships between colleagues and improve personal relationships outside the workplace.
Companies that support women's work could, thanks to this, have a positive image, an excellent reputation.
And we know well that reputation is everything for a company.
Law 162/2021 introduced important innovations in terms of equal opportunities between men and women in the workplace, introduced the certification of gender equality, which companies will be able to obtain by being entitled to reward mechanisms such as relief on social security contributions paid by the employer not exceeding 1% of the amount due and a maximum of 50 thousand euros, and a score for the granting of State aid to co-finance investments supported by companies.
In 2019, a research by the consulting firm Catalyst analyzed the financial performance of 1,650 companies in 20 different countries and found that companies with the most women in leadership positions achieved a profitability of 10.1% compared to 7.4% for companies with the least number of women in leadership positions. In addition, companies with the most women in leadership positions also showed greater operational efficiency, a greater focus on diversity and inclusion, and a greater ability to attract and retain talent. This may be due to the fact that women tend to have a greater interest in diversity and inclusion issues and tend to create a more collaborative and inclusive work environment.
The psychological hammering of stereotypes begins with cartoons that on the one hand entertain children, on the other, very subtly instill misleading content.
Moreover, totally distinguishing between men and women according to a binary logic, such as the one we have always been taught since we were little, is equivalent to discriminating against those who do not identify exactly with that sex.
In most people, biological sex and gender identity coincide, in others they do not.
Transsexual people feel they belong to a gender different from the one to which their physical characteristics would assign them, to the point of undertaking a painful process of reassignment of their biological sex following a jurisdictional decision by the competent Court once the so-called gender dysphoria has been ascertained.
Even the news focuses on the sexual orientation of the subject, especially in crimes against people.
It is necessary to combat the stereotypes and prejudices that affect women by placing them, the victims, under the magnifying glass of public judgement and not the abusive, violent man.
And this is also true when it comes to murder.
Many advertising companies have decided to address this issue and this brings numerous advantages in terms of raising awareness and educating about gender diversity as well as overcoming superstructural cages deriving from a heteronormative society by definition.
Over the years, the forms of sexism on TV have changed shape and become more subtle but equally harmful to the visibility of women in the public sphere. Communication had an essential role in the past, just remember how many people learned Italian thanks to Rai programs, while today it aims to act on people's behavior.
There is therefore a strong correlation between everyday actions and sexist advertising.
The growing diffusion of objectified female models in many Italian TV programs is directly proportional to the episodes of sexual harassment and violence against women.
Among Italian adolescents there is still a strong gender stereotype, and with it the belief in the existence of gender roles that provide for the primacy of men in top positions and that of women in the burdens of family care and assistance. But this differentiation, especially in the very young, takes on greater relevance in emotional relationships.
This is why today, from many quarters, and in light of recent news events, there are calls for the introduction of affective and sexual education in schools as a compulsory subject. The aim would be to educate people to respect differences and to understand that there should not be a prevalence of one sex over the other.
The problem is that despite the mass media spreading a sexually evolved image of the young generations, on the contrary, the sexual doubts typical of adolescence are widespread in all social classes. Overcoming embarrassments and modesty that coexist between teachers and students is not easy.
Young people try to get information about sexuality from the most disparate sources, including porn, which is absolutely harmful to the education of the younger generations who think they have to reproduce what they see, not understanding that this is not reality, that these are actors who have previously given their consent for certain activities.
This is why women are seen as objects to be used and subjugated at will.
Moreover, the questionable cultural level of the channels that continue to propose showgirls does not contribute to personal growth.
I remember years ago there was a woman who remained crouched under a table during the entire broadcast. What meaning can such a degrading vision have? It all seems very mortifying to me for women.
Also years ago, a well-known chain of stores, offered “models” in the window. I honestly do not understand the sense of those choices.
It is clear, however, that if the cultural models are the influencers, the showgirls and the tronisti, in the social educational circuit something has gone wrong.
The omnipresence of stereotypes in all areas of life is also found within families.
In reality, it all starts with families.
In recent days a Sicilian teacher clearly said, in a post published on social media, that today's parents have failed. I share this thought, even if obviously it cannot be generalized.
Parents have the obligation to supervise their children and, even if it means arguing with them, they have the duty to control their activities. Above all, in my opinion, they have the obligation to set a good example.
But the discussion continues on a broader scale.
The football championship will start soon and with it numerous television broadcasts. Here, even in the sports field, especially in small television networks, it will be easy to find a journalist, with a prominent position surrounded by a woman, with marginal relevance dressed in a way that is not appropriate for participating in a broadcast.
The paradox is that although many television programs talk about stereotypes on an almost daily basis, in practical application the necessary cultural change still seems very far away and as long as in our country we continue to propose the current models of gender identification, that is, the woman who understands little and is only beautiful, and in any case better off staying at home with a caring function and the man, in any case a superior subject, who must face all the primary needs of the family and who must be the one most inclined to success and career, as long as this is the type of cultural model proposed we will never have equality.
Last July, the news broke that two RAI commentators had been suspended for sexist and racist comments, which I will not report because they are deplorable. There have been countless controversies and indignant comments from the public. And this is a positive fact.
We need to realize that those bar jokes from the man in the street are unacceptable, in 2023, even at the bar, let alone on live TV!
And this happened during the 2023 World Aquatics Championships on a national network.
In 2023 we still see few female experts in various talk shows, as if professionalism were only male, when instead, the presence of capable women, not as women, but as capable, could only bring benefits.
For example, greater attention to gender issues with more inclusive language. Instead, when it comes to interviewing a person who is competent in a subject developed in some news, men are preferably chosen. And this also happens when the topic is purely feminine, such as abortion for example.
Men who beautifully discuss something they have never experienced and will never experience.
I believe that this happens because even today in the top positions, at the top of a certain sector we find men and it is to those, at the top, that they turn and then for a question of habit, given that in the past there were few women experts in some sector.
Returning to the issue of scantily clad women on shows, I would like to say that I am personally not against using one's physicality, everyone does what they believe and probably shows what they think is best. Unfortunately, however, this is the sad aspect of the story, if you only show certain parts of your body, evidently you don't think you have much else. And this means always and only presenting yourself as an object!
It is clear that we must be free to do what we want but we must also be aware that this is still a form of communication.
In that moment you are saying who you are and what you want to be noticed for.
Therefore, be careful about the messages that are being proposed, especially towards the younger generations, and especially by some categories of subjects extremely exposed to the media because they are very powerful messages and as long as they pass we will continue to count the dead.
Of course, this does not mean depriving women of the freedom to wear a miniskirt. The problem is what kind of business card you want to show because it is inevitable that in some way it also qualifies the type of message that others receive and, consequently, they adapt to that type of image that you want to give of yourself.
This is not a criticism of women, but of the system that proposes that image.
In any case, I would like to see more talking and better dressed women on TV.
If a certain type of clothing were to be imposed for work, however, it would be necessary to begin denouncing the constraint and insisting on appropriate clothing.
It is necessary to enhance the image of women, present positive models of women who have important roles.
Let's not forget that we have a Woman as Prime Minister and a Woman as President of the Constitutional Court and many who carry out professions that, according to stereotypes, are purely male activities. Therefore, the image of the woman of the past that is proposed on TV is absolutely out of place and only a few people of the female gender recognize themselves in that stereotype. Using stereotypes is not a way of expressing reality!
The importance of television is due to the fact that it conveys messages more easily because it uses images, films, music, words and written texts, while on other channels there are only some of these elements. However, stereotypes are present everywhere.
I must admit, however, that not all the blame lies with TV.
First of all, the violent male, the male who does not respect women, is a male who has not received any kind of education from his parents or has witnessed certain attitudes in his own family.
Very often the executioners had the exact same model that they put into play. Or they had mothers who treated them like some kind of sultans, wonderful creatures that you couldn't say no to and who over-cared for them, in some ways.
It is not necessarily true that they have any childhood traumas behind them, sometimes they have been exposed to violent family models but other times they have simply witnessed a strongly hierarchical and patriarchal family system where the mother was the one who cooked, washed, ironed, looked after and never said no to anything, she suffered in silence and had even given up working outside the home and where there was a father who had a clear position of power within this type of model.
The theme of stereotypes is important and emerges forcefully among teenagers who begin to have an aggressive, arrogant and violent boyfriend who wants to decide which phone calls they can make, which friends they can hang out with and so on.
At that age, you are not able to recognize a wrong element right away, let's consider that even adults struggle to recognize certain types of violence.
Try asking a young girl what she does if her boyfriend stops her from going out while he goes out peacefully with his friends…
The girl will almost certainly reply that if he behaves that way it means he is in love.
"If he expects me to stay at home it means he cares about me".
This is what one of my little clients answered me.
Here. So this is serious.
This type of mentality on the part of girls aged 15-16-17, even younger, sometimes evidently demonstrates that they have learned that type of model at home.
This way of reasoning is not correct in the slightest.
It is clear that if at 16 they are already ready to accept an inequality of power and opportunities between them and their partner at twenty, it will surely happen that most of those girls will abandon their dreams, their career aspirations because someone, sooner or later, of the male sex will tell them that it is useless and it could be their father, their brother or their boyfriend.
Many are so fragile and so lacking in self-confidence that they indulge in such requests and that is the end. They will be unhappy women who sooner or later will lose patience, will leave their partner but in the meantime will no longer have the possibility of fulfilling themselves as they would have liked.
So mothers have an important role to play in making their daughters feel confident about what they can become in life; indeed, they must bring out their inclinations and support them, they must teach them to recognize bad love, toxic relationships.
However, it is clear that they must have first experienced a healthy relationship at home otherwise it will be very difficult.
The key element must be respect between people, dialogue, healthy confrontation. Even harsh but healthy.
Because this is the problem, there are people who do not accept an equal dialogue and therefore their opinion, by definition, must still be the best, the right, the most important.
I don't think you can be comfortable in a relationship with someone who starts from this assumption.
However, even the models we see in advertising are often terrifying. And they should not be underestimated because they continually invade our lives: we find them on our phones, on social media, on street posters and they directly influence the way we perceive reality and shape our way of thinking, living and acting.
Over time, the female image has gone from the housewife to the erotic and submissive woman. Very often, however, these are advertisements that distort reality or are misleading.
For example, advertisements that portray women as the only consumers of household products fail to take into account reality: many men help their partners around the house.
And again, advertisements for anti-cellulite or anti-wrinkle creams are entrusted to very young girls who do not yet have that type of problem.
Women are expected to always be fit, slim, young and attractive but the same request does not seem to be made of men. And this can lead to insecurities and eating disorders. There is no product, for the home or intended for a male target, that does not have an erotic or mischievous female figure.
There are many examples: from the woman in her underwear called to do painting work to the one who provocatively invites you to take off everything except your watch.
Furthermore, as if all of the above were not enough, in this type of advertising, the woman is fragmented, dehumanized and represented through only one part of her body, to which a phrase or image of sexual nature is associated, with the aim of advertising the product. In short, as if together with the object for sale one were also buying a part of the female body.
Embarrassing and squalid to say the least.
In every advertisement it seems that the woman is there to lure the poor man who doesn't understand anything and lets himself be fooled and distracted by parts of the female body.
Well, I think that those who study these advertisements have a really low opinion of men. I, on the other hand, am convinced that men of value, which I believe are the majority, are annoyed by such mockery.
However, objectifying the female body in this way also has a deleterious effect on self-esteem. Women, from a very young age, feel obliged to achieve unrealistic results. We see bodies considered conforming by society and we do not feel safe to live freely ours with all the little defects that make us stand out from the crowd.
In reality this also happens with men. In advertisements you certainly don't see men with bellies, obviously it wouldn't be a nice sight, only that males, unlike females, don't create any problems for themselves. In this they should be imitated.
Then there is the image of the submissive woman.
A few years ago, a major brand, famous all over the world, advertised its brand with a horrifying image: a half-naked woman pinned to the ground by an alpha male and surrounded by other men in domineering attitudes.
Needless to say, it was heavily criticized and, in addition to being in very bad taste, it conveys a dangerous message: man can take whatever he wants.
A violent, indecent, vulgar and repugnant communication.
However, we have a tool to report offensive, misleading, violent or vulgar advertising, you can access the site of the Institute of Advertising Self-Discipline and fill out a specific form. This body is private and is composed of companies and agencies that deal with advertising.
The organization has a Jury that has the task of verifying and judging the different campaigns and has the power to have them withdrawn. In particular, messages considered sexist or offensive are the cause of the cancellation of the spots.
The checks concern all media, including billboards, and for this reason there are agreements with the Department of Equal Opportunities and with the Municipalities that provide for the possibility of undertaking common and more widespread actions to combat the spread of discriminatory campaigns.
As mentioned, we also find advertising on our streets, giant billboards featuring half-naked women who in the past have also been the cause of accidents.
So much so that the “problem” of sexism and vulgarity has also been addressed in the highway code.
To theart. 23 of the Highway Codea we read:
“Any form of advertising on the roads and on vehicles whose content proposes sexist or violent messages, offensive gender stereotypes or messages that undermine respect for individual freedoms, civil and political rights, religious beliefs or ethnic origin or that are discriminatory with reference to sexual orientation, gender identity or physical and mental abilities is prohibited”.
If we really want to change, let's start by changing the canons of the models we propose because that's where change happens. Messages should respect the dignity of the person in all forms and expressions and avoid any form of discrimination, including gender.
Certainly some companies are fighting against gender stereotypes but as we know there is still a long way to go.
Even today, patriarchal culture is prevalent and this can be seen in numerous news stories.
People often try to find “biological” reasons for men's aggression towards women, arguments usually attributable to testosterone, which they would like to pass off as a factor of greater propensity for male aggression compared to female aggression.
In reality, this belief has turned out to be a myth. Not only is there no evidence of a real and close correlation with greater aggression in men, but even if it were so, it is not clear why such aggression should be directed towards women. The news still tells us today of fathers who claim to decide the lives of their daughters at least until they give them up to another man: the husband.
At first, surveillance is carried out by the brothers, as in the terrible case of Maria Paola Gaglione, killed, according to the prosecution, by her brother who “wanted to teach her a lesson”, “put her back in line”, because her relationship with a trans was unacceptable for the family.
It also happens that a man is easily called “doctor” when he may not even have a degree and a professional woman is addressed as “madam”. This also happens to victims of violent crimes. The man with his degree as well as his surname and the woman with only her first name, as if to downplay her status as an adult and autonomous person.
The prejudices that underlie the social representation of gender violence are embedded in journalistic and legal narratives. The ways in which gender violence is treated affect our perception of the matter.
Wrong language has the power to diminish violence, thus risking to also weaken the ability of women who experience it to identify the problem. The blaming of victims, now the order of the day, we can even read it in the newspapers.
When talking about the girls, it is emphasized that they were drunk, when talking about the executioner, he is defined as "a gentle giant", a "good family man" and so on.
There are double standards. If the victim is drunk "she was asking for it"while if the executioner is drunk" poor thing he was under the influence of alcohol and did not understand what he was doing" therefore he must be forgiven and understood. All this is unacceptable. And it is unacceptable especially if such misrepresentation occurs by journalists who should limit themselves to reporting the facts without judgments and prejudices and to indicate where, how and to whom the victims should turn.
Today, however, the story that is told normalizes or mitigates male violence against women within a relationship, does not define the perpetrator as such, does not define the victim as such, does not clarify that certain behaviors are unacceptable and that they are serious crimes. We are interested in how the victim dressed, how many relationships she had, whether she was faithful, things that have nothing to do with the crimes the defendant is accused of.
The information, therefore, is not correct. Indeed, we can say it is misleading especially when it refers to sudden outbursts, which in practice almost never occur, and to unhealthy loves (but that filth is not actually love!).
These stories cast suspicion on victims and favor the perpetrators not only in the press but also in the courtrooms exposing women to secondary and tertiary victimization. Tertiary victimization defines the frustration felt by the victim of any crime in the face of failure to obtain justice, failure to convict the perpetrator, or eventual failure to receive financial compensation.
My final reflection is that women, many times, are still victims today. Even if compared to the past they are stronger and react.
The hope that a civil society can have is to finally free ourselves even from the phenomenon of the "glass ceiling", which today resists as a great conquest of women. Gender inferiority is an ancient idea, a story that begins in Greece with the myth of Pandora and reaches us.
We must be aware of the past, without being too overwhelmed by mythological suggestions and social conventions, and instead cast a glance that illuminates us towards a better future in which everyone can "be" and finally feel free.
For this to happen, there must be a cultural revolution downstream that must be started from early childhood within the family and school institutions, through the fight against bullying, gender stereotypes and the binary logic that imposes certain roles on Women and Men and I hope that in the future there will no longer be a need to talk about gender equality.
Attorney Maria Furfaro
