"Campanians are dodgers and Lombards are snobs": Clichés within Italy

Reading Sara's post I realized that there are many national stereotypes about Italy, but we have also many regional clichés. It is fun to identify them.

Here you find some examples:
Ligurians are said to be tight with money.
Lombards are considered pretentious, cold, efficient, hard-working, snobs and money-obsessed.
Campanians are seen as lazy people, dodgers, noisy, friendly and good in making pizza.
Piedmonteses are supposed to be “double-faced”, kind and polite but insincere, as the italian proverb (Piemontesi falsi e cortesi) says.
Romagnoles are considered collectivist and combative people.
People from Latium are said to be uncultured, unrefined and loud.
Sardinians are seen as stubborn shepherds.
Sicilians are supposed to be members of the mafia and very jealous. They are known also to be “omertosi”: when they witness a crime, they tell to the police that they didn't see or hear anything.
Tuscans are considered ironic and expansive.
Umbrians are seen as reserved. 
People from Veneto are defined hard-working, lush and separatist.
People from Trentino are considered all Germans.

Generally Southerners are considered lazy and warm people, while Northerners are seen as hard-working and cold. 

Maybe there is something true in these sentences but almost all are wrong generalization and they can produce discrimination. 
The members of the Italian separatist party, “Lega Nord”, often use stereotypes against Southerners to divide Italian people. Their aim is to convince public opinion that North need to be separated from South, the “black hole of wealth” as they call it. 
The racism against Southerners dates back to the end of  the 19th century, when an Italian positivist, Cesare Lombroso, formulated the theory of the racial inferiority of Southerners. It was an easy and foolish way of explaining historical and economical differences between North and South, but it had great influence on the public opinion. 
These prejudices are so deep rooted that we still hear people saying that Southerners are lazy, criminal and backward.

Angela Pulliero

Let's take off your sunglasses !!

Stereotypes, this is a word we frequently use in our blog. We are telling stories about many kind of stereotypes to make you understand the use mass media make of them, but we haven’t yet posted something that can make you comprehend how people feel when they are stereotyped by someone and I believe this video is a good example of it.

In the moment we start stereotyping someone we immediately hide the personality of that person.  We begin to cover him/her with adjectives (in our mind), this process makes us interpreting every word she/he says, action he/she makes  with our interpretations of the way of doing things without really understand the meaning they give to the word or the action they are doing. I think it is like looking at the landscape in a sunny day using sunglasses, you use them to protect your eyes from the sun radiations and by doing this you can’t see the really color of the landscape because you have the filtration of the lens; at the same way when you use stereotypes you are subjected to the filtration of you own opinions and you use them to protect yourself by the unknown word you have to face. Through this process we prevent the person from showing us his/her personality preventing ourselves from something important at the same time.

The following video is an example of how the world is stereotyped. It is made by some students for a school project, they made no scientific research but used their previous knowledge to do it. This video is made in a humorous way without any intention of offending someone. It is a good opportunity to start thinking about the way we use to classify countries and people. 

What do you thing when you hear German, Italian, Cines or Palestinian? Let’s change the way you look at the world, blot out the adjective you use to describe people! Let’s take off the sunglasses and look at the world with its own colors!

Silvia Bettiol

Immigrants and Crime

In every national newspaper we find a lot of article talking about crime committed by immigrants. The journalist emphasizes the nationality of the criminal, so the population has the perception that immigrants committed much more crimes. Much of the debate regarding immigration is driven by hysteria, facts are secondary.

“Although we have a long tradition of blaming immigrants for crime (and other social ills), the facts show that – all else being equal – unauthorized immigrants commit crimes at rates far lower than natives. In fact, immigration lowers violent crime.

For example, as the immigrant population of the United States boomed during the 1990s, violent crime across the country plummeted, including in big-city immigrant gateways like Los Angeles and New York.”

In every society, where the problem of immigration is cherished, the immigrants are the cause of all the problems of the Nation. This happens, probably because, the newspaper underlines the fact that the criminal is immigrant with title like: “Nigerian immigrant committed a bloody murder” or “Rumenian illegal immigrant committed a holdup”. Obviosly the illegal immigrants are often charged by national population of all crimes committed. The national population is often afraid by immigrants, even though this immigrants are honest people.  

And you, what do you think?

Immigration: No Correlation with Crime

Crime and Imigrants

Does Illegal Immigration Lead to More Crime

Public Study: Illegal ImmigrationsCommit Less More Crime Than Americans

Valeria Aleksneko

The Italian stereotypes

First impressions are not always the best. They are nevertheless sometimes the only judgment we may have on an individual or a person. 

For example when we think of Northen countries, there are some initial images that come into our minds. We imagine big mountains, small villages with an old woman wearing a shawll and snow all the time. That may sound a bit funny or strange, but it is what our mind conjures up. 

Where do these first images come from? In our contemporary societies, they often come from television, newspapers, books and adverts in the streets. 

The media is everywhere and this contributes on a large scale to build these prejudices we might have about individuals or about people. 

These prejudices are often based on false images.

What do you think about this?

Being Italian

Sara Berton 

Arabic World

“Perhaps no region of the world is more subject to stereotypes than the Middle East. Being a woman from that region, I have encountered these stereotypes on many occasions. While I was a teen, my family lived in Europe for a few years where I was often asked question reflecting these stereotypes. Do all Turkish women wear the headscarf? Um, obviously not. Do you ride camels? I have never seen one in my life outside of a zoo.

At one dinner party, I witnessed my mother get interrogated on whether she was just dressing in a modern way because she was now in Europe. She kept trying to explain that she had changed nothing in her wardrobe. “But, can you actually wear a one-piece bathing suit to swim in a beach,” one of her obnoxious interrogators persisted, unable to believe she might be telling the truth. “Well, now that I am a bit older, I do wear the top as well,” she deadpanned. Ah, the joys of messing with stereotypes.”

It is a single story of one Turkish girl, which illustrates all type of stereotypes about Arab World. The oldest traditional stereotypes associated with the Arabic countries are derived from Arabian Nights and include flying carpets, dreamy palaces, people climbing on an erect rope and djinns. Since 9/11, people from Middle Eastern countries are often stereotyped as fanatical Muslims out for blood, hijacking planes, making anti-Semitic comments, slaughtering sheep in the kitchen, making too many children, conducting suicide bombings, being aggressively offended by blasphemies or planning terrorist activities. Arabic immigrants in all European countries are a frequent target in racist Western propaganda. You just need to see the detention without trial of eight foreigners in England in 2004, that was incompatible with European human rights law.

Valeria Aleksenko

Let's Mess with Stereotypes: Is Social Media Finally There?

Strong, powerful, tough and respected: stereotypes in defining masculinity

The social construction of femininity is discussed in many studies, but also men are subjected to the pressure of dominant models. Masculinity is clearly defined by media. A “real man” have to be strong, good at sports, brave and absolutely heterosexual. Meanwhile he shouldn't be sensitive and express his feelings. Further, he should distance himself from any behavior considered feminine.

Images of perfect male bodies

The media influence the definition of ourselves and what is ideal. The media, especially advertising, depict perfect male bodies: muscle, defined, perfect in proportions. Men in adverts seem as statues rather than persons. When I looked for an example, I wondered at the easiness to find it. My research lasted about 20 seconds: I thought to a brand of wear and I keyed in YouTube “Calvin Klein man advert” and that's done! A perfect example in my opinion:

These images produce a psychological pressure on men. One consequence is the increase in cases of anorexia nervosa in young men. NHS (National Health Service) in UK found a 66% growth of hospitalized men for eating disorders over the last ten years.

Men difficulty admit to be ill, because anorexia is considered a women's problem and it would be a sign of weakness.

Children indoctrination

Men are exposed to social models of masculinity from childhood. Society and parents often teach them to become “real men”. They are used to hide feelings and weaknesses, to not to cry, because they don't have to be as a “sissy”. The model is the superhero, also in toys and movies. For instance, Disney perpetuates stereotypes of what is masculinity e what is femininity in almost all the movies:

Masculinity, media and violence

A portrayal of men as dominant and powerful in advertising can provoke violent behaviors. There are adverts, such as the Dolce &Gabbana's one, that glamorize violence, group sex and male dominance.

Recently Jackson Katz realized an interesting documentary on the social construction of masculinity and violence. His aim is to enlight and provoke students to consider their own participation in the culture of contemporary masculinity.

Here the full version:

Angela Pulliero

Turbanaphobia

Today I want o to speak about the Sikh.

The Sikh are a religious group, most of them come from India. It’s quite easy to recognize them because they use to wear a turban. This has always been a problem for them because they have been discriminated because they were wearing it. In the documentary - Turbanaphobia - The Sikh Turban - is explored the western perceptions of the Sikh turban through the eyes of a Sikh born in England. I have just seen the trailer but what the protagonist says is that turban give him a sense of “honor”, “pride” and “dignity” but also a sense of “frustration”, “low self confidence” and “low self esteem”.

The documentary analyzes the problem of the turban stereotypes.

I think that often people judge things associating them with their previous knowledge. When people see a person wearing a turban they don’t think he or she is coming from India but more often they think he or she is coming from a Muslim country. Some of the Sikh interviewed in the documentary claim that some time English people (the documentary is set in England) think they are coming from Arab states because of the brown color of their skin and of their turban. Often people are not feeling comfortable in front of someone who is wearing a turban, maybe because in the recent years  we got many negative images that associate turban with Taliban or Arab extremists, or because it represent something different , difficult to accept in our culture. I don’t have the answer; people have to find their own answers inside their minds.

Speaking about Sikh there is in important misunderstanding that I’d like to explain. Everybody think that the religious symbol is the turban, but this is wrong. The religious symbol that is hidden by the turban are their hairs, they wear the turban to hide their hairs because they are symbol of holiness in India. According to their religion hairs in general are considered important, all over their bodies. Sikh have five religious symbols. You can find more information about this in the page below if you are interested to get information related to this religion whose precepts and symbols are still unknown for us.

The world is changing rapidly, we get in contact with new cultures, new religious groups and new way of lives almost every day, according to this is very important to train our minds in order to become more open and willing to accept these differences without building negatives images of the unknown world we have in front of us.

Silvia Bettiol

Converting followers into voters

In early 2007, Barack Obama was a little-known senator running for president against Democratic nominee and household name, Hilary Clinton. But on November 4, 2008, Obama, was the first African American to win the election against Republican candidate, John McCain, becoming the 44th president of the United States.

We can say that a major success factor for Obama’s victory was how Obama’s campaign used social media and technology as an integral part of its strategy, to raise money and more importantly, to develop a groundswell of empowered volunteers who felt they could make a difference.

In 1960, Americans turned on their tv to watch a presidential debate for the first time. They saw Richard Nixon, awkward and sweaty. To his right was John F. Kennedy Jr, calm, tanned, deliberate, standing out in his dark suit. There wasn't much question about who won the first televised debate that night. In an election in which nearly every vote counted, media power shifted public opinion.

We are now in the era of Twitter. The proof is in Twitter's big role in shaping the coverage and the winners and losers of this month's presidential debates.

Sixty percent of social media users responding to a survey in October 2011 said that they expect candidates to have a social media presence. 

For almost 40 percent, information found on social media will help determine their voting choices as much as traditional media sources like TV or newspapers.

On Twitter:
Obama
The White House
Romney

Sara Berton

Stereotypes and wars

In every war the Government utilized stereotypes for create the consent of public opinion. During the colonial experience the Africans are seen like wild and uncivilized, a barbaric race and the European like civilized person. In Italy, during the campaign in Libya and Ethiopia, an expansionist policy was justified by using stereotypes and by arguing that Italians are different from other colonizer. The Italians was shown by propaganda, like more generous, more human, more broadminded and more open-minded than other European. Genuinely the Italian colonialism, both liberal and fascist, utilized repressive measures, create one of the most cruel prisons, exploit and tolerate slavery, bomb and burn villages, effectuate mass deportation.

 During the First World War in France and in other European countries the German soldiers are seen like evil and this belief have been supported by manifests that show the barbarities of their acts. These manifests create a large consensus and help to create in public opinion a distorted image of German soldiers.

During the Second World War, On December 7th 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. US citizens feared another attack and war hysteria seized the country.

State representatives put pressure on President Roosevelt to take action against those of Japanese descent living in the US.

On February 19th 1942 Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066. Under the terms of the Order, some 120,000 people of Japanese descent living in the US were removed from their homes and placed in internment camps. The US justified their action by claiming that there was a danger of those of Japanese descent spying for the Japanese. However more than two thirds of those interned were American citizens and half of them were children. None had ever shown disloyalty to the nation. In some cases family members were separated and put in different camps. During the entire war only ten people were convicted of spying for Japan and these were all Caucasian.

Life in the camps was hard. Internees had only been allowed to bring with then a few possessions. In many cases they had been given just 48 hours to evacuate their homes. Consequently they were easy prey for fortune hunters who offered them far less than the market prices for the goods they could not take with them.

"It was really cruel and harsh. To pack and evacuate in forty-eight hours was an impossibility. Seeing mothers completely bewildered with children crying from want and peddlers taking advantage and offering prices next to robbery made me feel like murdering those responsible without the slightest compunction in my heart." Joseph Yoshisuke Kurihara speaking of the Terminal Island evacuation. 

They were housed in barracks and had to use communal areas for washing, laundry and eating. It was an emotional time for all. "I remember the soldiers marching us to the Army tank and I looked at their rifles and I was just terrified because I could see this long knife at the end . . . I thought I was imagining it as an adult much later . . . I thought it couldn't have been bayonets because we were just little kids."  from "Children of the Camps"

Following WWII it was no easy task for Japanese American to find their spot back in society. Many Americans still harbored inner sentiment of the Japanese remembering Pearl Harbor and the fear of Japanese spies. Despite this, by the 1960’s Japanese Americans had gained many Americans respect with their economic prosperity. This is when the common stereotype of the Japanese businessman began to take hold. Japanese Americans were seen as, "successful citizens" and good assimilators into white American society. But as time transpired the stereotype took the form of the quiet, efficient, high-powered Japanese corporate business worker. However, as recently as 1994 a San Francisco radio station had to fire a local DJ for racist anti-Asian American remarks. Such actions in areas highly populated by Asian Americans shows that there is still ground to be gained.

Valeria Aleksenko

Gender stereotypes in mass media

Gender roles: question of natural differences or cultural constructs?

Mass Media both reflect and shape society: which images of women and men TV, advertising, press bring out? How gender stereotypes influence people's life?

Stereotypes create fixed and reductive images of a social group. These images usually represents women:

• as domestic providers or sexual objects
• with a beautiful and young body, often very thin
• holding traditional female roles, such as mother and wife
• practicing jobs as subordinates

Stereotypes reproduced by Mass Media have real consequences. They reinforce a patriarchal culture deep-rooted in many countries and they stand in the way of equal opportunities.

In Italy, for examples, data show how stereotypes can shape a society: the percentage of unemployed women are greater then the percentage of unemployed men, women are less paid then men with the same job, women are a “phantom-presence” in politics and they difficultly hold a position of responsibility at work. Instead women are supposed to do housework, raise children and take care of the oldest members of the family, much more than their partners.

The Word Economic Forum has measured the gender gap in 135 countries considering economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, political empowerment. Italy is collocated on the 80th position, after countries of the third word, as Vietnam, Kenya and Uruguay.
We have to think how stereotypes influence all spheres of our life, conditioning our choices. Women, are we really free? 

Angela Pulliero