Retoriche della violenza. Il femminicidio raccontato nei media italiani

According to statistics by international organizations and Italian anti-violence centers, male violence is the first cause of death for women in Italy. One woman out of three experiences male violence, in various forms: harassment at work, rape, threat, or humiliation. However, considering the complexity of this phenomenon, how do Italian newspapers narrate feminicide? According to Gamberi, the angle (“cut”: taglio) by which newspapers narrate violence against women is never neuter. The point of view of the writer, the stories narrated, and the images that accompany these stories, they all respond to specific rhetorical constructions and narrative acts that, consequentially, define our imaginary. Starting from a research that analyzes the structures of language, style, and iconography of the “rhetoric of feminicide” in the Italian press, this article presents excerpts from Doppio Taglio, a show that reveals the angle (taglio) by which media describe how women are killed by their men. Some of the mechanisms that contribute to spread a distorted imaginary are: the victimization of women, the lack of male’s representation, the otherness of violence (as not belonging to Italian culture), and finally, the use of terms such as raptus and passion murder. Given the invisibility of their aggressors, removed from the scene and, therefore, deprived of responsibility, women are represented univocally as passive and defenseless victims. Such representations contribute to strengthen the eroticized and voyeuristic spectacle of women, seen solely as bodies within a strongly stereotyped vision of femininity.