Yesterday, scrolling my Facebook homepage, I was reflecting on the meaning of being a woman in Italy in 2020. Women’s body is still at the core of the symbolic violence perpetrated by the masculine domain, and with the spread of the Social Media we can easily assist and record the troubling number of gender-directed insults and stereotypes.
On Twitter, Facebook and Instagram episodes of hate speech are commonplace.
If you are a woman who has gained visibility in the mainstream mass media channels you are constantly judged and insulted because of your appearance:
the Ministry of Agriculture, Teresa Bellanova, is constantly offended because of her body or her colourful dress; Carola Rackete, the captain of the NGO “Sea Watch”, was severely insulted with sex-related comments; the release of Silvia Romano, an Italian aid worker that was kidnapped in Africa in 2018, opened the dam to a deluge of insults on social media. The list could go on for pages.
What connects all these stories as a fil rouge is the eternal misogyny which characterizes the Italian political discourse and institutions: women need to satisfy the prescriptions and the expectations assigned to their gender, otherwise they will be continuously offended with sexual (and sexist) insults.
In order to broaden and deepen the subject, I have decided to speak with my close friend Veronica, who is studying Communication and Public Policy in Turin and has conducted a research on “slut-shaming”. She decided to share her words on this blog, trying to raise awareness about this topic.
Can you briefly define “slut-shaming”? Why did you decide to study the phenomenon?
According to academic literature, slut-shaming is the practice of criticizing people, especially women and girls, who are perceived to violate expectations of behaviour and appearance regarding issues related to sexuality. The term is used to reclaim the word “slut” and empower women and girls to have agency over their own sexuality.
For example, a case of usual “slut-shaming” is when a girl is sexually stigmatized because of her dressing or her behaviour. In this case, men try to make feel you dirty and “bad”, offending you with words related to the sexual sphere. For example: “bitch”, “cunt”, “sult” or “whore”.
I have decided to study the phenomenon because in Italy is still unknown, but a lot of women are involved. As you said in the introduction, female public figures are constantly insulted with sexist comment, and I feel personally offended by those attacks.
What did you do exactly?
As you can see in the PDF-file attached, me and my colleagues were aware of the Italian legislation deficiencies in the field of hate speech, particularly the gender-related one. Having said that, we wanted to understand how widespread the knowledge of this phenomenon was.
To this end, we did a content analysis on Facebook and Twitter and we carried out a small survey in our city, Turin. To conclude, we had an interview with our Professor of “Women and new technology”, and we tried to present our conclusions.
What are the results of your research?
According to the survey, the phenomenon was not known with the term “slut-shaming” but was quite widespread on Facebook and Twitter. On these Social Media, we found the daily use of sex-related insults, especially regarding women that were involved in the protection of human rights or that seem more tolerant towards migration and anti-racist.
The number of sexual insults is impressive, even if the content of the post has nothing to do with sexuality. As reported by Amnesty International, women in politics receive more than twice as many attacks as their colleagues, and more than one out four attacks is sexist. The main results of our research are in line with the Amnesty International Report and it shows the necessity of a revision of the legislative system.
How would you act? What are your main expectations for the future?
I am quite pessimist regarding the future, and I feel particularly touched by the results of our research. In Italy, conservative parties are currently the main influencer of public opinion and they are the first supporters of female subordination.
However, I would like to underline that I am not condemning the use of Twitter or Facebook. They are just the public face of our society. On the contrary, Social Media can be useful to share stories and break the silence, creating a profound sense of community on the example of the #metoo movement.