Installation

transfer printing, acrylic on wood

cm 20 x 40(cadauno); 40 x 1700 (70 elements)

2021

Our society, which has always been predominantly macho, has forced women to live accepting prejudices and intolerances that have led to the denial of an equality that is a primary right in any society that calls itself civilized. This has radicalized the concept of women deprived of identity and subordinate to men. This long tradition in our society has also contaminated the field of communication. Communication has long used images of women that did not support change and on the one hand placed the aesthetic side in the foreground with its canons celebrating a certain kind of outer beauty, reducing the female figure to an object of male desire. On the other hand, it has contributed to the relegation of women to marginal "social roles" mainly related to family life, thus consolidating many stereotypes. A Censis survey shows that 53 percent of women on television have no voice, 43 percent are associated with topics such as fashion, sex, entertainment and beauty, and only 2 percent have a role in the social and professional world. The figure of women and especially, communication about women has changed over the years, fortunately. Year after year there has emerged a desire to change, to break out of stereotypes in order to find one's own identity and space within a society that is open and able to offer the same possibilities to women and men. Today there is finally an attempt to enhance the skills and abilities of the female gender, which have been marginalized for too long. We have come to the representation of the female gender more broadly and less limited within preset patterns. Female audiences can now identify with different representations, to which correspond different types of femininity. There are positive signs: society is moving away from stereotypes and trying to convey different values. In this change, cosmetic brands are emerging that promote "body positivity"; a way to break traditional beauty standards by valuing diversity among female bodies. This type of communication helps women appreciate themselves as they are and look free from the nightmare of social acceptance. Despite women's emancipation and the important change in women's social role, today more represented and with different shades finally appear to be the protagonist of their own choices, but some stereotypes are still ingrained. The deep-rooted prejudice, inherent in the culture, is very hard to eliminate totally. This seems paradoxical in an age where innovation is the order of the day. Woman is still too often seen as a body or an object of pleasure, lacking brains and interests, the role that has been attributed to her over the years within the media world, is proof of this. The author of the video, gives women a new and more complete image, freed from stereotypes. In her critique, she also addresses women themselves, showing how crucial their social and cultural weight is in our country. It is pointed out in the video that women, too, often, in order to feel "righteous," convince themselves that they must adhere to the expectations dictated by the stereotypes of our still very macho society. Nowadays, therefore, we are faced with multiple representations of women. Some are aimed at breaking with the preconceptions of the past, while others, however, are still too often debased, due to a strong cultural tradition that brings back a fairly limited social vision. In fact, the commodification of women's bodies by mass media, advertising, and television programs is still too widespread. Communication and society are one a reflection of the other. Today, communication, thanks to the birth of the web, can experiment with languages, ways of raising awareness and involvement that were unthinkable just a few years ago. Fighting these stereotypes starting from the world of communication could reflect a change within our society as well.