Bizarre reality shows and rainbow quotas
Among the daily horrors who feel about Russia, about a month ago, a scandal that for a few hours has shifted the attention of our - legitimate - indignation regarding the war towards something different for a few hours. The culprit of this momentary change of target was a reality show entitled Azomai unequivocal: I'm not gay. It is a game in which, camouflaged between a mass of very viril young heterosexual males, a gay hides. And it must be found. The piece, at this point, could end: the absurdity of the challenge is such that it would not be worth even worth talking about it (and in fact not many newspapers have done it), however we believe that some reflections can derive from here.
The scandal, if it has been there, had a very mild echo, if not among a good slice of the LGBTQ+community. This is partly due to the fact that the Ukrainian conflict has soon returned to impose itself on the media scene, and in part because in Europe we know well the very open homophobic positions of Russia, so much so that they will not even be surprised. And perhaps it does not even affect that the reality show was conceived and conducted by a Russian parliamentarian, Vitaly Milonov, already known for his bitter extremism in the field. We are not surprised, because the horrors that can commit Russia are so wide that an innocent game - it is not, we know it well - far passes in the background; But above all we console ourselves from the top of our cultural superiority because it does not happen here. He can not.
It is true. Partly. There is no doubt that our sensitivity has changed well in recent years, and that our opening towards everything that is not CIS/straight is gradually growing, but it is at the same time true that until a few years ago there were programs in our television (almost) equally horrible. Until a few years ago, the ultra-machist, male chauvinist and sexist culture entered daily in our lounges in the early evening, or at dinner time, through that infinite series of productions that exhibited as chopped dolls of semi-naked and nameless girls, leaving them Love to smile at the screen while the presenter on duty, male, waited for the right time to make the umpteenth joke with a sexual background, complete with laughter of the public and families. Slowly, however, thanks to the new sensitivity acquired, we tried to leave us certain models behind, but replacing them with what? To well observe today's schedule, especially of certain channels, it seems that the problem was only stemmed. To avoid falling badly in some inevitable criticism, the cunning producers began to strategically place some mirrors for the larks here and there, enough to have the back sheltered in case of attacks. So the old man The pupa and the nerd, reality show in which a very beautiful and necessarily stupid girl sought the attention of the ugly but naturally intelligent male, has now been transformed into The pupa and the nerd and vice versa, as if in that advertis there was the solution to all the implicit problems of gender discrimination that the program had. In the same way, recently Valletti men begin to be seen next to the usual girls: so now they are both genres who smile at the camera and show their beautiful physique with some wink. Not that now the girl is recognized some qualities, but at least there is a man on his side to save everyone from a frightening accusation of sexism. Then the jokes continue to receive them, it doesn't matter. It is as if the need had suddenly felt on television blue quota, the need for men in roles in which women were generally placed and discriminated against. And the same, if not worse, applies to the homosexual community. In that case it seems that the gay quotas - Rainbow quotas, perhaps? - more and more programs are inevitable, because in this way the inclusiveness is demonstrated in the choice of the protagonists. But they must be more than obvious homosexuals, stereotyped to the maximum degree, because the audience at home must be noticed that that people are gay, and who knows, perhaps in the deprived of his living room, laugh at the eccentricity of that character. They must be dressed in a kitsch way, they must speak as the most poor of the imitations of a homosexual, and often - but perhaps this is purely our impression - they must be men. Lesbians do not have all this space, or in any case they are not so revealed. Who knows, evidently they don't take a look, they are not surprising. Blessed.
It is not clear whether all this is a clumsy attempt of inclusiveness or only a content to make anyone who has protested against sexism in recent years - and not only - present on our television. What is certain, however, is that the reality show we I'm not gay It could never and then never (and then never) exist; And of this we can console ourselves. Because basically we are good straight white males. And viceversa.
Enrico Ponzio
