La storia delle donne

La storia delle donne or the "history of women" in any country is a remarkable thing. This is especially so when they rise up (to reference my previous post) and overcome their societal preconceptions. Since March is Women's History Month, I figured that I would keep the ball rolling.

Now women flying airplanes in World War II in Italy is a highly doubtful occurrence, how many actually fly planes in Italy today would be something that I would be interested in doing more research on. I came across this article by the Associated Press entitled, Female WWII aviators honored with gold medal, and was compelled to read more. First of all, I had never heard of women during that era do such a thing. This immediately made me proud of these women for having such strength and for our country for not doubting them. It made me sad, however, to read that some of these women were of course in their late eighties and early ninetys, therefore not being able to share the Congressional Gold Medal with their comrades. This story also upset me because the women were the last to get an honor, as biased as that sounds and is. The Women Airforce Service Pilots or WASPS as they are called, are something for our country to be proud of in spite of the disregard for females that the U.S. has shown in times past.

Completely un-relative to this story, but having everything to do with a country coming together in spite of it's differences is Italy's freshly formed "Purple People". As silly as their  name sounds, they are every bit as serious as the small band of female leaders that gathered together to boycott the G8 summit because of Berlusconi's presence. Il Popolo Viola as they are called have banded together against Berlusconi's government, rumored through Facebook, to put an end to a government that "is not doing its job". The purple color, they say, is only because no other political group uses that color. I think it is very smart of them, it will attract attention to their cause, if people didn't know about them already.
 

I can't think of two better occurrences, in my two favorite countries, that could've made this Women's History Month any better. As long they remain anti-violent, I hope they succeed in finding a better leader. As for the WASPs....YOU GO GIRLS!

Grazie,

Nancy

Feminist Theory, Italian Style

When I’m not in class or studying for my classes, I like to educate myself about the world around me. National news can get boring sometimes. International news is even more within our reach than ever before because of the Internet, therefore making our world a lot smaller. Recently much of the other parts of the globe have been featured on my local news stations because of all of the horrible tragedies occurring in Haiti and in Chile. Believe me they are worth every ounce of media coverage and we should offer them as much aid as we can.

Instead of all of the terrible things going on in the world, I prefer to find things that Americans can relate to—it’s the American Studies minor in me. So, once I get to my point you’ll know that this blog was just bubbling to be written since I read the actual news article. In fact it wasn’t a hard news article at all; it was a New York Times Op/Ed. It was August, so I must’ve been on campus for one reason or another and picked up my free copy because of Penn State’s newspaper readership program. At any rate, I eventually flipped to the Op/Ed section and it immediately grabbed my attention because of two things that it mentioned: Italy and Women Rising Up. The actual article is titled Italian Women Rise Up by Chiara Volpato. Chiara, I learned, is one of the major female leaders for that part of the world and also is a social psychology professor at the University of Milan-Bicocca.

In my opinion, she hits the nail right on the head. Her editorial discusses not only Italy’s Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi-- who’s known for making sarcastic remarks and comments about women that only a chauvinistic, patriarchal society could love—but also the “glass ceiling” that is ever present in Italy today. Prime Minister Berlusconi has held his position three times in Italy’s history, but his influence on the Italian people through the mass media has been present since the 1980s. He founded his first media venture after college in Milan.  It grew from there to entire networks and cable channels. Berlusconi’s television line up reflects on his personality, showcasing beautiful, Italian women who want to become “showgirls”.  When I say showcasing, this is all that they do. Very rarely do the women get to say anything as they are being judged on their looks. Berlusconi has placed a few of these showgirls into public office, including Mara Carfagna, Italy’s Equal Opportunity’s Minister.

While Carfagna is doing a lot of good, making Berlusconi look good, his mouth continually gets him into trouble.  Berlusconi is quoted in a BBC article as saying, “the left has no taste, even when it comes to women.” This is coming from a man in his seventies trying to talk smack against his rival political party. The BBC also reports that he has had to apologize publicly, as per his wife, for “flirting” with other women. This is who they have lead their country? Well, America did vote for Bill Clinton, Monica Lewinsky scandal and all.

Enough about him. Let’s get back to the glass ceiling that Italy has but is conceivably lower than America’s. American women have fought for their rights and have come a long way. This is not to say that Italian women don’t have the same rights, but they are immersed in an “old-school way of thinking” culture that has immeasurable double standards. The Catholic Church and the Vatican have a heavy presence in Italy, almost as much as the government. Simultaneously, there still lives the patriarchal culture where “men rule” so to speak. Women work, to cite Volpato’s article, but they also are expected to be the sole keepers of the home. Birthrate in Italy is down because of the fact that men get more leisure time than women do—all the more better for Berlusconi’s bank accounts. Italy even ranks 79 on the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Index.

So, whether or not Italy wants to come clean about it, their society is slowly secreting anti-feminism. Women like Chiara are out there who want Italian women to aspire to be more than how their Prime Minister spends his free time.  They have even rallied against these types of behaviors along with her by boycotting the G8 Summit. It is unfortunate that their voice isn’t quite as loud as American women when it comes to standing up for their rights. Many newspapers don’t let any talk of such things get published. There are a few exceptions, including la Repubblica, but it’s very few and far between.

Sure, you may be thinking this is just reminiscent of American society and the attitude of the media that sex sells. You are right, but this attitude also comes from the dark and ugly days of when America too let patriarchal views dominate their world. There is nothing wrong with males wanting to be the head of their households or good fathers even, but when it’s taken too far and women are degraded, we have a problem.

Grazie,

Nancy

THON ❖

So, since the past two weeks of my life have been consumed by THON, it was only fitting that I dedicate this blog post to the cause. What does this have to do with being Italian-American you may ask? Everything. Cancer is a disease that can affect anybody, in fact it is something that has affected my family personally. Watching all of the Four Diamonds kids who are being helped by THON brought tears to my eyes--there are way too many of them! Here's to one day finding a cure for cancer in all of it's forms and here's to Penn State's Panhellenic/IFC Dance Marathon (THON) for raising $7.8 million FTK❖!

Grazie,

Nancy ❖

 

Brandywine THON Dancer Martina Gill (right) and I (left) early Sunday morning.

 

Brandywine THON Dancer Sean O'Connor and Lion's Eye Editor-In-Chief Christina Felizzi (Sean is a Sport's Editor for the Lion's Eye; Sean, Christina, and I write for the Lion's Eye PSU Brandywine's student ran newspaper).

 

Penn State Brandywine's finest cheering on their dancers from the stands.

 
 

The 2010 THON Stage.

 
 

More of Penn State Brandywine's finest wearing their official "color war" THON t-shirts.

 
 

Brandywine students doing the THON Four Diamonds symbol.

 
 

Candid shot of Brandywine students in the stands.

 

THON Dancers Sean O'Connor and Martina Gill pose with SGA Treasurer Rahel Teklegiorgis.

 
 

  

THON Dancers pose with PS Brandywine SGA President Brittney Walker.

 

Dancer, Sean O'Connor, and the Lion.

Learning the THON Line Dance (video)

It's not easy being green

 Kermit knew what he was talking about when he sang his infamous song on the Muppet Show. So you may be wondering if I’m smoking any illegal substances or you may just be wondering what this has to do with Italians…well I’m getting to that point. What I mean is that “it’s not easy being the minority” in any country.

History is currently repeating itself (as it typically does) but just in another variance in Italy right now. Illegal African Immigrants are flocking to Italy for jobs picking fruit and other crops just so they can provide for their families. What is casting a murky shadow on this “job filling” is that some native Italians cannot find work, but even worse than that is most of the crops are owned by mafia or people affiliated with them.

This past January, riots broke out in my mother’s native region of Calabria over what else, racism. It only takes a few ignorant humans or one match to start the fire.  According to a Time online article, Africans were shot at with pellet guns thus launching outrage among the immigrant community. Most of these communities, by the way, are temporary. These are slums not unlike the tent cities being erected in Haiti currently because their homes were destroyed. The living conditions are very similar as well.

These people, or a majority of them, are honest and hard-working just trying to find work so they can provide for their families. Many of them are being suckered into providing the mafia in which they are dealing with a good sum of their wages or are required to pay a fee to them because they are giving them work.  The Pope, who has a major presence in Italy, even asked the citizens to go easy on illegal immigrants as they are humans too. Italy is quickly out-doing Britain on its amount of immigrants to the country but it still remains a good portion of native born Italians.

This is where the problem lies. With all the encouragement in the world from Italy’s Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi (who I’m sure I will bash in another blog entry), anti-immigration isn’t a new thing being pushed among their society.  Many Italians have compared it to the Native Americans being forced off of their reservations here in America, but this clearly is an over-exaggeration.

So, without me naming names, have you noticed any similarities here? Oh, say to America and its illegal Mexican immigrants.  For years, we have said that “they take away our jobs”, “they’re dangerous”, or “it’s just not legal”. So why don’t we make it legal? Is there anything really wrong with people from underdeveloped and possibly even corrupt countries going to another country for work? This work also being usually labor intensive and not popular among the country’s native citizens but is something that they don’t mind doing. This then produces a stigma, made up of racist remarks, branding people who are already struggling consequently making life even harder for them.

I’m not an expert on immigration laws or the like. I do know this: racism doesn’t make the situation any better. Thinking you’re better than somebody else because of where you’re from, what social class you belong to, or because of your culture is ignorance. I was raised to believe that we can all coexist as long as we keep open minds and hearts. Everybody should have an equal opportunity at everything in life because we are all people. What do you think?

Grazie,

Nancy