Roberta Marchetti February 13, 2023
The problem isn’t the gay kiss during prime time on Rai 1. Homosexuality is no longer taboo on the flagship’s schedules, nor on those of the other two state-run TV networks, where it’s been freely talked about in any time slot for a number of years. There are examples of excellent fiction that touch the subject with the seriousness it deserves, like “A Professor” to name the most recent. Shows and TV series in which the love between two men or two women must – finally – not be circumvented or censored, but also commercials in which the perfect “White Mill Family” that we have all been longing for for entire generations (with many disappointed expectations) was replaced by the rainbow. So the kiss between Fedez and Rosa Chemical in Sanremo is nothing new, much less revolutionary or thorny compared to what the public is used to seeing today. Then of course we’re still the land of controversy surrounding Peppa Pig’s two moms, but that’s another story.
Coming back to Sanremo, the real problem is the spectacle of the gay kiss and all that little drama that, instead of delivering an important message, as the two megalomaniac protagonists want us to believe, has the exact opposite effect. He mimics love – but also sex – and dusts the sad cliché of homosexuality with all feathers and circus, disrespectful to those who fought for rights and really do. Mimicking front-row sex at the Ariston doesn’t make you an activist, just a braggart who wants to show off by arguing with his wife, the final night’s hostess, that he’s stealing the show. In the end, if this celebration was to become the Ferragnez’s consecration as Italian royal family, the only certainty is that a marriage between two first ladies must be truly hellish and that taking them out of their comfort zone for a week, social media, is enough bring down the whole castle and prove that TV isn’t for her. Especially not for Fedez, who lacks the depth and professionalism, for example, to understand that what he’s doing would cost him considerable media pillory, utterly unable to handle the unpredictability of live television (admittedly and not given that the curtain organizes, a hypothesis that would not save him anyway), accustomed to videos and social posts that can be repeated or canceled at any time. And the crocodile tears – clearly visible in the audience shortly afterwards and on some stolen videos circulating on social networks – show that it wasn’t what he wanted. What he wanted, however, was probably to give free rein to his well-known egocentricity, in this case disguised as an advocate of free love and as an “artist”. The alibi “they are artists” – and they are therefore free to express themselves however they want – was very popular at this festival to justify any controversy, from Blanco destroying the scenography of flowers on stage to ( always) Fedez, who moderates the lyrics of the song during her and rips the photo of Deputy Minister Bignami. Well, without any personal comment on the artistic depth of the two characters in question – the first now cannibalized by social media and the second, who wanted to emphasize in an interview with Today in Sanremo that he is not a singer but a performer – we seriously have to thank them for spreading a message of freedom through their art? Because honestly, it seemed more like vulgar theater, more useful for ego-boosting than for the LGBT cause.
The gay community should be outraged by this pathetic skit instead of being proud of it, but scrolling through the various posts from Luxuria & co, all one can read is teasing and hatred of one particular political wing, suggesting that the Pique is worth more than the rest. But we must heed the “anything goes as long as we talk about it,” son, in this case, from years of invisibility and harassment and therefore understandable. Certainly there is still a need for clarification, unfortunately, but this is purely a personal show and treating the subject of homosexuality in these terms, or even worse, taking the liberty of ridiculing and trivializing it with a dressing room goliard, is a sensational own goal afterwards years of struggles.