Women of the world, untie!

I went to see Videocracy last night at Hagabion and I really feel that it's raised more questions than were answered. So the situation is this: 80% of Italians rely on TV as their single news source. Italy ranked 77th in terms of freedom of the press. The masses are being subjugated by nubile woman in various states of undress parading on game shows.

I wish the documentary had given a more rounded view of Italy's media scene, I mean, where was the opposition? Surely it wouldn't have hurt to end on a positive note of some description? The spectators in the cinema (me included) were all aghast. I feel like a whole nation has been dragged in the mud. Not saying that the picture painted is not the case, but if a film were being made depicting France as a den of iniquity, I would be quite upset.

Late last night, I read the Wikipedia entry on Silvio Berlusconi which made for highly enternaining if very alarming reading. The man is a walking gaffe! I still don't really understand how he gets away with it, although it doesn't look like anybody can come down on him like a ton of bricks when he argues that he's just a full-blooded Italian who is interested in pretty women and football.
I thought that in this day and age, I wouldn't have to be confronted with such crass chauvinism by someone who thinks that just because I have a pair of ovaries I need to be talked down to and the only thing that matters is whether I am pretty or not.

I say the audience was aghast, and they were too, but I don't want to be deluded into thinking that Sweden is a paradise of gender equality. Relatively speaking it probably is, but having lived here for a bit I can say that there is still a long way to go in terms of gender conditioning. More on that subject another time