Because Valditara is allergic to patriarchy (clue: “gender” has something to do with it)

Which one says could have been avoided. When you have in front of you a man whose daughter was killed by another man, a man who has never shouted or argued, who doesn’t even hate that feminicide, who is launching a civic initiative that we desperately need, being one of the very few countries in Europe to not have any type of sexual education at school. But no. There were political messages to send to the world, and to government allies.

While Gino Cecchettin, presenting the Foundation named after his daughter Giulia at Montecitorio– whose death he had learned exactly on 18 November 2023, one year ago – called for unity, which is strength, and everyone’s commitment, because «gender violence is not a private or isolated issue, it is a collective failure… Since when Julia died in Italy were killed other 120 womenunimaginable numbers”, from a video the Minister of Education Giuseppe Valditara he chose decidedly divisive words. There are two points that arouse indignation, not only among Giulia Cecchettin’s family (“Let’s say that there are shared values ​​and others that we will have to discuss”, said the father; “if instead of making propaganda we listened”, said the sister Elena). The first: having dismissed the fight against patriarchy as “ideological”.which among other things, underlines the minister, an expert in Roman law, “has no longer legally existed” since 1975. The second: having cited “illegal immigrants” as the cause of violence against womenwhile we are talking about a femicide committed by a young, white and wealthy Italian citizen.

What did the minister say?

1. THE QUESTION OF THE PATRIARCHYHe had started well: «The free and non-discriminated possibility of having various opportunities for personal and professional fulfillment is a fundamental objective of those who believe in the values ​​of the dignity of every person». But then the conversation takes a turn. «We have two paths before us: one is concrete and inspired by constitutional values, the other ideological», says Valditara.

«Generally, ideological paths never aim to solve problems, but to affirm a personal vision of the world. AND the ideological vision is that which would like to resolve the women’s issue by fighting against patriarchy». Since the Giulia Cecchettin Foundation will deal with emotional education in schools, precisely to undermine the disparity and stereotypes that undermine relationships between men and women, perhaps the right-wing government fears that – having opposed the topic of sexual and emotional education at school until today – they arrive in class “left” concepts, such as the fight against patriarchy. We therefore learn that the concept of “patriarchy” is a taboo for the government, better not to talk about it, and if we must, then it is a bizarre invention of the opposition. But do we really learn it now? Perhaps we do not remember that the MEPs from Lega, Fratelli d’Italia and Forza Italia abstained or voted against the ratification of the Istanbul Convention by the European Union in May 2023. The Convention is an international treaty against violence against women and domestic violence which identifies the roots of this violence in the structural inequality between men and women and in the so-called “gender roles”. Why doesn’t the right support it? Why every time we talk about “gender”, someone comes up talking about “gender theory”an ideology – non-existent – that should deny the biological differences between men and women. Talking about patriarchy means talking about the disparity between men and women and different power roles based on gender, and when “gender” is put at the center the right talks about the dreaded “gender theory”. Which should never enter Italian schools.

«Massimo Cacciari undoubtedly exaggerates when he says that the patriarchy died two hundred years ago», continues the minister, «but as a legal phenomenon it ended with the family law reform of 1975which replaced the family founded on hierarchy with the family founded on equality.” But if the family law reformed in 1975 placed husband and wife on the same level, this does not mean that the cultural phenomenon of patriarchy has ceased. Filippo Turetta, almost 50 years after 1975, confessed to the femicide of his ex-girlfriend Giulia Cecchettin and explained in a courtroom that he did it because he did not accept the idea of ​​being left. He killed her because “she was his”, a woman who was an object of possession. Isn’t this patriarchy?

From here on the minister’s reasoning is lost, and seems to contradict the previous part: «In our country there are still residues of chauvinism, of machismo, which must be fought and which lead to considering women as an object». Male chauvinism, machismo: patriarchal culture therefore, there are still men in power: are we saying the same thing? «Machismo manifests itself in many ways, with discrimination in the workplace, with so-called catcalling, with violence. Then there is the issue of feminicide, which is increasingly alarming: if it was once the fruit of a proprietary conception of the woman, the family, the wife, today it seems more the fruit of a narcissistic authority of the male who cannot tolerate the women”. But here’s the twist: it’s not a broader, structural cultural problem, it’s not patriarchy – the reasoning behind the Giulia Cecchettin Foundation – but the single narcissistic and misogynistic males who “can’t stand women”. The usual black sheep theory that must be addressed on a case-by-case basis and not in a more organic way.
Side note: if the violent ones are the men who “can’t tolerate” women, does this mean that the non-violent ones can “tolerate” them? «To put up with women? Seriously?

Launching a sort of appeal: «The scope of our Constitution, which does not allow discrimination based on sex, must be clear to every newcomer, to all those who want to live with us», the minister continued «we must not pretend not to see that the increase in the phenomena of sexual violence is also linked to forms of marginality and deviance in some way resulting from illegal immigration». Now: linking violence against women to the migration phenomenon is a right-wing stereotype that no one has tried to bring out anymore, after years of feminicides and domestic violence committed 9 times out of ten within Italian families. Yet Minister Valditara did it. It’s easy to disprove it by consulting some data. According to Istat, between 2010 and 2018, Italians accounted for 60% of those accused of sexual violence, 86% of stalking and 75% of family mistreatment. The network of Di.Re anti-violence centers which has data updated to 2022 confirms the data and traces only 26% of men of foreign origin who are perpetrators of violence.

Here too: why go into the fear of the different, the stereotype of the foreign rapist? Just as the femicide is a single person with a narcissistic disorder, in a world now free from patriarchy and gender stereotypes, he is probably also a foreigner who is not part of our culture. Italians good people and so on, the problem is moved elsewhere, so there is no need to do any soul-searching.

Gino Cecchettin had said: «We cannot afford to turn our gaze elsewhere». His daughter Elena wrote on Instagram, after the minister’s video: «I’m just saying that perhaps, if instead of making propaganda at the presentation of the foundation that bears the name of a girl killed by a white, Italian and “respectable” boy, yes if he listened, hundreds of women wouldn’t continue to die in our country every year.” The awareness instead that they will continue to die, as long as there are politicians who will continue to use them for their electoral campaign to guide us.