We decided to elaborate our project for the International Day to End Violence against Women, focusing not on physical violence but on the psychological one, which usually seems to be less relevant. A perfect example of this thought is enclosed in the topic of body shaming, key point of our intervention.
Criticisms, judgments lead women to be insecure, who are judge for their hair, their clothes, their skin colour, their body and their face. We live in a world when it is more important how you appear than how you really are. People don't care if you're a journalist, they don't care if you have years of experience, people care about judging you for your looks. This is the reason why we have decided to give Giovanna Botteri and Mábel Lara as examples.
The first one is one of the main special correspondents in Rai (famous Italian TV channel), thanks to its services from countries such as Bosnia, Algeria, South Africa, Iran, Albania, Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq. With flowing grey hair, minimal make-up, and strong features, Giovanna Botteri has been a victim of body shaming by the authors of “Striscia la Notizia” and thanks to the voice of Michelle Hunziker. They joked about Giovanna's look, that someone consider to be “sloppy”, and there were talk of her styling, her careless appearance, messy hair and blouse. They said she always wears a black V-neck sweater, the same with which the journalist appears in almost every public appearance.
Mabel Lara, on the other hand, is a Colombian journalist, radio host and presenter. She is a symbol of struggle, change and personality in her country. Mábel has also shown her support to the Afro-Colombian group with publicity and television campaigns.
Since 2018 Mabel decided not to straighten her curly hair, this being an aesthetic decision that aligns with the struggle of the black community to make its natural beauty visible.
In conlcusion, when we ask ourselves “Why female journalists are judged for their aspect and not for their job performance?”, of course we don't have the answer, but we believe women should be free to be themselves, to wear what they want, to be proud of their aspect, their hair, skin color, their body and their roots.