“Words are important,” said Nanni Moretti in a well-known 1989 film.
And they are even more so when you take part in activism and/or are working in the information field, I might add.
Such, and perhaps even obvious, observation came to my mind some time ago after reading a number of headlines, and then the articles, which to define as sad, offensive and even trivial is an understatement.
It all started with a crime case whose roads led on the trail of a suspicious gay murder, and it then continued with a kind of unstoppable epidemic of unworthy titles that we still can’t seem to find a cure for. Ok, I hear you say that it’s all about capturing more “clicks”.
How sad though, I would add, especially if to do so are websites or online communities that are meant to be playing a teaching role.
Oh yes, because words are also, or perhaps I should say especially, key elements of activism, as these are a mirror of the actions which are then on a newspaper’s front page. Let’s go back to the gay murder we briefly discussed above. Leaving aside for a moment the obvious absurdity of the thing (can you think of reading about heterosexual murders? Yes exactly, never), the title confirms, followed up by the main body of the article, a stereotype that is not only stupid, but also dangerous, which binds the LGBT community to a criminal context, not even subtly implying that the alleged murderer was not acting as, in fact, a criminal, but as a homosexual person.
A similar situation then occurred with Charlie Sheen when, after years of extortion and repercussions, he decided to declare to the world that he is HIV positive. Among the various headlines such as “Charlie Sheen has AIDS” to keywords that – no, really, are not trying to imply anything – like “Charlie Sheen”, “AIDS”, “Porn star”, I was just expecting that the purple “progress” banner of the Nineties would pop up on my computer screen.
As it should be, outrage skyrocketed in those days and many cybernauts allied to create a dense network of counter responses and awareness campaigns. These reactions truly made me happy and I was actually glad to see such solidarity and sharing a certain vision of activism, until I then started to notice a trend that I’ve decided to call “fascivist” (no, I really don’t have a lot of imagination), and that’s where I got angry.
The apex of this “fascivism” trend was reached in December when, to my unknown, I went against surrogacy. I actually didn’t know that I was against this practice, however I now know I am. How is it possible, you ask? To have the answer to this question you should just look up on Google “feminists surrogacy” or, if you want to be even more entertained, “feminists against surrogacy”. Apparently they are against a lot of things. Even against bad girls.
As my witty brand new term shows, these titles make people assume that all feminists are against surrogacy. And not only. Generalizing and minimizing the value of a historical movement that is not only made up of different thought currents, but also by different strands of the same movement, they group this whole category in a single faction, denigrating all of those who are part of it (big surprise! Many men also call themselves feminist!), and implicitly blame the whole movement as the cause of all the evils that hinder the Italian social development. Dare I then point out the number of articles that pop up on Google when the words “feminists” and “homophobic” are used one next to the other (and I’m not just talking about newspapers that are part of the community that fights against the Fearsome Gender Ideology, who is more than happy to use those two words together).
The historical period in which we are living in is, as easily noticeable, very delicate and to frustrate long decennial struggles because of “fascivism” titles (I’m beginning to like it, sorry) is, and I will never get tired of repeating it, offensive and dangerous.
Another “fascivism” trend is also, in the same way, dangerous: that of the “free” outing. I still have this vivid image in my mind of the avant-garde title that, “ironically”, was surprised by the fact that Roberto Bolle is gay. Now, yes, Roberto Bolle is homosexual and has done his coming out on a French newspaper, but no one should take it for granted nor should think that it should be lawful, if not even fun, to declare that Roberto Bolle is gay because well, all ballet dancers are gay, right?
There you go, this trend of having to officially come out to the public has really got out of hand and is harming those websites that make activism their aim. Ok, I’m also aware that it would be great and it would help a lot of people have more “celebrities” declare to the world that they are gay, but I’m also aware that this outing is harmful and hateful, because it’s based on an accumulation of offensive stereotypes that are wrong and dated.
To make things worse, there is then the effect that I have always very nicely called “reflection in the mirror, if you move you’re ugly” in which the above publications or online communities defend themselves from behind a huge mirror of irony that will eventually accuse you, that you’ve got annoyed to yet another “no, but the X actress is of course a lesbian, look with whom she goes around”, that you don’t understand that it’s all ironic and funny.
Activism, as mentioned a few paragraphs ago, is made up of mostly words. And today, for a variety of historical, social and political reasons, we have to pay even more attention to these, because their strength has tripled, if not quintupled. To teach to be respectful is to teach to be tolerant (here in the sense of “acceptance of the next” and not of “patience”), and so long as we won’t take a step back being very very careful not only to the content but also to all the various adjectives, verbs and nouns (no, to use words from “shock” “hot” “murder” “against” to “lesbian” “gay” “feminist” together is never a good idea), any effort to bring equality to a national level will be in vain.
“He who speaks badly, thinks badly and lives badly. You have to find the right words: words are important!”
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However, just for the record, my mood has the been uplifted by this article: http://www.internazionale.it/opinione/chiara-lalli/2015/12/04/femministe-maternita-surrogata
