Other than transgressive: today’s artists join the chorus, embracing mainstream causes
Any opinion is legitimate. Yet not all opinions are equally bold. Let's take two relatively recent cases as an example: the declaration against abortion made to Big Brother by Alfonso Signorini, which caused quite a bit of controversy, and the Maneskin 's endorsement of the Zan bill, rejected in the Senate by 32 votes for almost a month. does.
The editor of Who dared to criticize abortion during its broadcast, arousing indignant reactions. A journalist even invited Signorini not to talk about the "women's body". As if the issue of abortion concerned only the woman and not both parents. As if the father could not pronounce on a dramatic decision like that of having an abortion. But I don't want to get into this debate. Everyone can be for or against abortion as well as anything else. It is surprising, however, that some positions are easier to hold than others. If the Maneskins openly support the Zan bill, a thunderous applause starts. If, on the other hand, Signorini declares himself against abortion, then the media lynching is triggered.
The Maneskins were glorified by the press and their words ("This year Italy won in everything except civil rights") were taken at face value, not even if it was Oscar Wilde who said them in 1895 he was sentenced to two years of hard labor due to his sexual orientation. In the 19th century, many countries considered homosexuality a crime. Fortunately, today, at least in the advanced West, the situation is very different: the Italian legal system guarantees homosexuals the same rights as straight people. This is confirmed by article 2 of the Constitution: "The Republic recognizes and guarantees the inviolable rights of man, both as an individual and in the social formations where his personality takes place, and requires the fulfillment of the mandatory duties of political and economic solidarity and social. "
These "inviolable rights" also include the (sacrosanct) one to freely express one's sexuality. However, the mainstream vulgate tends to paint Italy as a backward country, where homosexuals are persecuted by their fellow citizens. A scenario very distant from reality. This does not mean denying the existence of some episodes of discrimination, which when they occur must be firmly condemned, but framing them in their statistical dimension.
I fly over the technical and legal distortions of the Zan bill, which this newspaper has meritoriously investigated in recent months. And I limit myself to making one consideration: beyond what they intend to appear, the Maneskins certainly do not shine for unconventionality. As Massimo Del Papa rightly noted right here on the Atlantic , their support for the Zan law does not make them heretics, much less “rock” . On the contrary: it places them within a media chorus that, on the wave of the Hollywood star system , pursues the fashions of the moment without confronting reality.
Artists, who mostly aspire to be "transgressive", should naturally be wary of simplifications and the dominant narrative, whatever it is. Because unpopular battles are the only ones worth fighting for. The battle of the Radical Party against the overcrowding of prisons is undoubtedly unpopular, an issue that the media talk about very little today. It was unpopular to defend the Mani Pulite defendants in the early 90s, when the people threw coins at Bettino Craxi in front of the Hotel Raphaël . It was unpopular to challenge the traditional family in America in the 1950s (certainly not in 2021). Instead of fighting against the cultural homologation of the politically correct , thus favoring the pluralism of ideas, today's intellectuals and artists embrace, with very few exceptions, easy causes. Happy them. We are discontented, indeed, very discontented. That we would have an immense need for voices "out of the chorus".
The post Other than transgressive: today's artists join the chorus, embracing mainstream causes appeared first on Atlantico Quotidiano .
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Atlantico Quotidiano at the URL http://www.atlanticoquotidiano.it/quotidiano/altro-che-trasgressivi-gli-artisti-di-oggi-si-uniscono-al-coro-sposando-le-cause-mainstream/ on Mon, 22 Nov 2021 03:47:00 +0000.