«Singing violent lyrics is not equivalent to femicide, but together we want to understand if these songs can contribute to creating a climate that fuels hostility towards women and how to stop this phenomenon». It is the undersecretary for Culture Gianmarco Mazzi who explains the spirit of the meeting with the title «Violent songs against women: what to do?» organized by the Ministry of Culture with Siae and the Verona Foundation which was held on Saturday in Verona. Record companies have released and continue to publish various songs that commodify women (“I command her with a joystick” to quote a lyric and not one of the most violent), which describe non-consensual sexual acts to the point of violence, abuse and feminicide. “We we collect a complaint from various associations on these issues, but without demonizing one musical genre rather than another – specifies Mazzi -. I am engaging in this battle because music has enormous social relevance: it is the first contact with culture, since we are little. The more social relevance increases, the more social responsibility must grow.”
Gasdia: «Cultural impoverishment»
The cause of brutal lyrics lacking any form of respect towards women, who are found in trap and rap (but not only), according to the superintendent of the Arena di Verona Foundation, Cecilia Gasdia, should be attributed to a general cultural impoverishment of young people “Growing up in a fast world that has indicated more shortcuts than ways, parked in front of the screen of a fictitious world.” Literature, from Greek tragedy onwards, passing through opera, is full of “obsessive, insecure and possessive little men” as Gasdia outlines them, “but we are witnessing a proliferation of songs where there isn’t a shred of poetry – comments Enrico Ruggeri -. Bob Dylan and Lou Reed also sang uncomfortable themes, but doing literature. These passages are repugnant shortcuts of people who are unable to express feelings: to do so you have to read and study.”
Love is not possession
The writer Davide Rondoni places emphasis on the difference between love and possession, recalling how much it was already discussed in the pages of the troubadours up to the cursed poets, «but the lyrics of these songs are now standard. They express discomfort, without anything artistic.” The only ones to criticize these authors without poetry are the rapper Luca Caiazzo, aka Lucariello, who warns «do not confuse the alarm bell (represented by the songs, ed) with the fire itself (i.e. the news cases, ed)” and Don Claudio Burgio, chaplain of the Beccaria juvenile prison in Milan, who contextualizes “the disadvantage with which some kids are born, like Baby Gang or Simba La Rue, within degraded contexts”. «The cultural degradation depends on the fact that money is worth more than everything – says Morgan bluntly -. If we increased the quality of the offer and stopped talking about profit, we could start talking about merit.”
No to censorship
Mogol, who in addition to being the author of songs that have written the history of Italian music, is very clear on the subject: «Whoever writes these songs is an idiot, but whoever spreads them is doubly an idiot». «Asking not to publish is censorship» counters Enzo Mazza, president of Fimi (Italian Music Industry Federation), appealing to the freedom of expression guaranteed by the Constitution. Yet, not everything that is written is produced and disseminated, and this is where Cristiana Capotondi focuses, putting forward the first proposal for a change of direction. «There are “n” reasons why various artists have not seen their works published: couldn’t phrases inciting violence be avoided as a selection criterion, given that we are experiencing a social emergency?».
Social emergency
The magistrate Valerio De Gioia, legal consultant of the parliamentary commission of inquiry into feminicide, also speaks of a social emergency, opening the chapter of incitement and apology for committing crimes, criminally punishable with imprisonment. “We must intervene to ensure that dignity is restored to women – he explains – because in addition to being misleading for young generations of men, it is equally dangerous for women, who can grow up perceiving that behavior as normal.” Among the concrete measures that could be taken, according to the Ministry of Culture, is the inclusion in entertainment code of a paragraph that excludes from public funds those who make violent contributions towards women, “it is not a question of censorship but of limiting the risks of a certain language”.
