Pass notes no 2,927: Women of Italy

14 Feb 2011



Age: Varied.



Appearance: Angry and in a piazza near you.



Really? How so? Hundreds of thousands of them rallied in Rome, many more in other Italian towns and even elsewhere in Europe, including London and Zurich, on Sunday to protest against Berlusconi\'s behaviour and call for his resignation.



That\'s notizia magnifica! But you gotta ask: what took them so long? You mean, elsewhere the female electorate might have taken umbrage after the first, say, half a dozen allegations that the leader of their country consorted with escorts and prostitutes, instead of waiting until he was threatened with indictment on charges of underage sex and abuse of his position to cover up his part in the buying and selling of childflesh?



Yes. Or even the electorate generally. Or even at their president\'s ownership of a television network showing wall-to-wall veline, long before the sex scandals came to light. Wall-to-wall veline? I think I\'ve got that in my kitchen. Is green linoleum sexist? I didn\'t know.



Veline are the scantily-clad young models who carve out careers holding up scorecards and posing on Berlusconi\'s quiz shows. And sports shows. And news shows. Any kind of show, really. Oh, yes, of course, sorry, gotcha. Well, Italian women\'s tolerance for sexism and misogyny is relatively high, but it turns out that even they have their limits. And the international attention garnered by tales of bunga-bunga parties and underage prostitution . . .



On top of the usual accusations of bribes and corruption, along with no-confidence votes miraculously survived . . . You may take those as read . . . has succeeded in pushing them to the edge and into the piazzas in protest.



Any good placards? I do like a good placard. \"If not now, when?\" was the protest\'s unifying and unquestionably apt slogan. \"Italy is not a brothel\" probably won the top banner award. How effective they\'ll be remains to be seen.



Do say: \"Arrivederci, whatever- the-Italian-is-for-you-alleged-fat- corrupt-perve.\"



Don\'t say: \"Cowabunga-bunga, dude! Let\'s party!\"

bruary 2011
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