In the last novel by a very loved author, an 8 -year -old girl and her dad reflect on gender stereotypes and equality
Viola is an 8 -year -old girl who loves blue color. A male color, according to some, and Viola does not understand the reason for these differences, which limit the possibilities of choice of both girls and boys. For example, just as society would like to impose to her to prefer the pink color – but things have not always gone in this way, and Viola will have the opportunity to find out – to one of his friends he would like to prevent the comic book from Dora the explorerbecause it would be “from females”.
Every now and then Viola is afraid of not being like the others would like it to be, and to disappoint their expectations by doing what you like most. Fortunately he has parents who know how to stay close to her and explain to her that there is nothing wrong with her attitudes and preferences, But the company sometimes tries to shape people according to a series of stereotypes that end up locking them in narrow boxeswho do not allow them to express themselves.
Viola is the protagonist of Viola and blue (Salani Editore), the latest novel by Matteo Bussola, cartoonist and writer, who He deals with themes such as parity and gender stereotypes and their impact on the lives of girls and boysaddressing small readers, but also to their educators and parents. The author shared with us some reflections on these important issues, on which he also wonders daily in his role as a parent.
The experience of paternity
“Being a father – he told us – was decisive for the writing of this book, as well as for others of the books I wrote. Especially, Being father of three daughters has changed my gaze on the worldallowing me to access another vision of the female, and it allowed me to reflect on the way in which the gaze of my daughters is formed on the world, on how they relate to reality and suffer their stereotypes ».
Color as a starting point
The author’s conversations with their daughters therefore provided some ideas for the novel. Among these, it is part The symbolism linked to color: «The favorite colors from my three daughters are purple, red and blue, not surprisingly those from which some of the considerations that characterize the reflections that Viola makes with his dad develop. As a designer of comics and architect, I have the natural tendency to write about what I see, to seek, with the writing, to approach the reality I perceive.
In this sense, the symbolism relating to the colors offers an immediate and clear attachment, which can also be caught by a child ». On the other hand, there is also another reason to start from the real: “I chose to bring elements of truth to the book also because I believe it is the only way to establish good communication with girls and boys, who are very sensitive to the truth, in fact they immediately understand when an adult tells them a lie”.
Question
For example, to deepen the speech on the colors, as purple does with the father who makes the painter, allows you to review what they seem to be granite certainties, but are, in reality, fragile and recent superstructures. Matteo Bussola continues: «Speaking with his father, Viola discovers, for example, that A custom that we would be led to consider very ancient, such as the association of female pink and blue for male, is actually a recent innovationwho began to spread around the 1940s.
As evidenced by historical and anthropological studies (you can, for example, deepen the speech with the beautiful essay Chromorama by Riccardo Falcinelli), for centuries the squad was, however, considered a color more suitable for male sex, while the shades of blue and blue more suited to the female one. Time has contributed to changing the ideas associated with these colors, with opposite stereotypes. It is proof that Everything is subject to changes And that all aspects of culture are subjected to continuous evolution.
Many of the things we take for granted are nothing but superstructures that you can get rid of when we understand that they no longer respond to our way of seeing things and representing us. This should lead us to be less intransigent and more available to welcome these changes ».
Stereotypes in textbooks and in everyday life
In the book by Matteo Bussola there is nod to the gender stereotypes also present in the textbooks, which Viola known with disappointment and whose negative influence has been highlighted by numerous studies (in Italy, for example, by the pioneering ones of Elena Gianini Belotti (1) to those of Irene Biemmi and Silvia Leonelli (2)). Also in this case, the starting point is taken from everyday life: “Unfortunately, it has happened to me that I notice in the textbook of one of my daughters of the stereotyped representations of the maternal and paternal figure and makes the fact that this does not happen in dated texts, but in those that are still in use in schools and recent editions today.
It is a further proof of the fact that the path to equality is still very long “, adds Bussola, which underlines:” Many stereotyped ideas, for example those that associate some tasks exclusively to the father or mother, emerge in all their strength as soon as the golden patina from the surface are scratched away, because they are still deeply rooted. And they also emerge, in spite of good intentions, in those families who consider themselves perfectly equal, because The culture in which you are immersed constitutes a humus that produces fruits as soon as the guard drops And when you feel safe. And it is in these cases that it is good to remember the importance of pronouncing more often words such as “thanks” and “excuse”, which contribute to improving all human relationships ».
Educating is also learning
In a very beautiful and very intense step is purple who, at a certain point, points out to his father his mistake, making him understand that even he is not entirely immune from the stereotypes that make him take for granted what his partner does for the family. «This is my favorite step – underlines the author – precisely because he has in the center The concept that the act of educating is based on reciprocity: Parents tend to think that only the children have to learn, but often the children transmit very important teachings, through their penetrating gaze that is able to grasp elements that escape adults ».
Free to be oneself
And as is based on a teaching-mutual learning, Education is also a search for freedomas Viola gradually understands. Bussola says: «I would like to pass the message that no one comes into the world to please others and to conform to the expectations of others. The task of girls and boys is simply to raise by remaining faithful to themselves. With a only apparently paradoxical expression, we could, indeed, say that it is natural and right that they translate the expectations of the parents And, in doing so, they manifest your real way of being, one’s personality, without allowing others to lock them up in cages or boxes. In doing so, each of them will be free to show their uniqueness ».
A virtuous circle
Without forgetting the fact that Within each family you can promote virtuous behavior that can offer a positive example for other families. Bussola underlines: «Often, to avoid abandoning ideas or cultural models to which we are used to, we are looking for easy alibi, which lead to perpetuating discriminatory behaviors.
We think of the commitment to the rights of rainbow families, which is often liquidated with statements that refer to the discrimination that the children raised in these families could suffer from a backward company. It is an absurd and delayer speech, which would be, if anything, reversed: each of us should start from not discriminating any family and no individual, thus pushing the others towards virtuous and inclusive behaviors. Every positive example helps to create a new culturein which all people and all families are free to carry out their life project ».
Why The path to equality needs everyone’s commitmentto allow all people to paint reality with their own colors, as well as purple with the blue that she likes so much.
