Pseudonationalism.
It is now the second year that in Russia, on the equivalent of Rai 1, they make a show spoken in Italian with Russian subtitles. And I must say that if we talk about the quality of the production and the ability of the actors to speak Italian (or at least to recite it), we are really at a very high level.
The usual tirade against "stereotypes" and against the racism that Italians would suffer punctually starts. All this is part of the comedy of Italian nationalism, which is only a provincialism enriched by sports fans. The basic idea is that since this would be a stereotype of Italian TV, then there is racism in portraying Italians the way the show portrays them.
One could argue a lot, wanting to fly higher. The first objection is that the broadcast does not mock the Italians, but the Italian TV of the 1980s. The second objection is that in Russia there is a very strong censorship, and the only way to criticize the Russian trend is to criticize that of another country: but if we dig a little, we find that this "Italian man":
What would be the male stereotype of an Italian man (note the hair and the necklace) is manizha, the Russian singer of Eurovision. Which for us was an unscaled and incomprehensible song, but in Moscow there were petitions in parliament to silence that whore who accused Russia of machismo and to ban the song on Russian territory. In the show he touched the asses of the Miss Italia contestants and other nice things.
In short, since he could not tell the Russian parliament that they are a pile of male chauvinists, he teased them in another way. He gave them what they wanted. With dubious results.
There's a lot of politics on that show, but it's designed to pass the censor filter simply because the censor doesn't understand it.
But as I say, this is flying high compared to the reactions of the Italian press. Because the problem is very different.
FIRST POINT: who the fuck have you sent up to now to represent Italy abroad?
When the Måneskins won Eurovision , a lot of people at work told me they were amazed. For them, Italy was Sanremo, Toto Cotugno, Pupo, Albano & Romina and Nino d'Angelo (you know that some expats did not want to believe they were divorced when I told them, and that they continued to give concerts, filling the stadiums, where they hold hands and love each other so much?), and people who define “stereotypes” a lot?
Good. So, my simple question is this:
What the fuck are you expecting, when for decades your cultural ambassadors have been Toto Cotugno, Albano and Romina, Nino D'angelo and Pupo?
But limiting oneself to the search for responsibilities and the disarming neglect with which embassies and consulates do NOT organize cultural events (and do not help to do so) would still be superficial. The question is a must, of course, but it is not really conclusive. After all, these are market phenomena: if those singers were strong it is because they were loved by the troglodyte who had escaped the misery of the 1950s and 60s, which still constitutes the hard core of Italian expats.
Nonetheless, the question you should ask yourself. Especially because there is a genre, the “italo disco”, which is highly listened to outside Italy, of which almost nothing is known in Italy. It contains mostly disco music (thankfully), and DJs seem to love it. Have you ever heard it?
But that's not the REAL question. The real question is: if I say that the elephant is big and fat and has a long nose, am I doing a stereotype or a documentary? And then you have to have a long memory, and ask yourself what commercial TV was like in the 80s.
Let's do a double blind test:
Tell me one thing: is it really so easy to distinguish REAL Italian TV from that of “stereotypes”?
The reason why you are mumbling bullshit about "stereotypes"? Is that
If you say that an elephant is big and has a very long nose, you are not using a stereotype.
The truth is that the Italian TV of the 80s was like that, for the simple reason that in the 80s the WHOLE COUNTRY was like that.
Does it bother you to have backcombed your hair with TNT? Don't you want to remember that American quarterback jacket with shoulder pads? Don't you like the idea of putting the wares on display in order to have the right to giggle like a fool? Have you burned all your "transgressive" photographs?
Your cocks. But you were like that. We were like that. And the TV mirrored it. Shooting at miniskirts done from below, senseless necklines, stupid jokes, senseless New Years?
Say no?
Do we want to talk about it?
It is useless for you to harm yourself with “sli stereotypes”.
Only you preferred to forget it.
Then put back the indignation, the national team shirt and the flag of Mexico that you bought thinking it was Italian.
Nobody is stereotyping.
They did an Italian broadcast from the 1980s to close the year.
And they did it very well.