Translator: Michele Gianella Reviewer: Riccardo Sasso
I've always been messy,
and my father always yelled me for it.
My bedroom was so messy, you could never find anything:
dozens of sheets scattered on the desk
amongst school notes and musical scores.
My guitar was always on the bed, the clothes on the chair.
But in that clutter, I always found everything,
perhaps because I perfectly knew where my things were.
To be honest, I've always felt out of the ordinary, out of the norm,
even when I was growing up.
I was only eight years old when I first got my period.
My body changed, and with it the way society looked at me.
The process of my body's sexualization had officially begun.
In a woman's life, menstruation is specifically perceived this way:
when they come, you become a young lady,
and when they leave, your body is no longer sexualized.
Actually, the strange thing is
that I always felt more like a renter.
Let me clarify.
I've always had the feeling like my body didn't really belong to me
and that I had to take care of the others.
"Don't wear leggings,
they'll emphasize your big thighs!",
"Do not wear low-cut shirts, with that breast, you'd look coarse!",
"Don't wear too much makeup, you never know what people may think!",
"I highly recommend you not to wear anything that highlights your belly,
the looser the better, especially black - it's a thinner".
I quickly learned,
my body had to stick, to be socially accepted,
to a set of extremely detailed standards.
Because beauty is perceived as a moral value
that determines whether your body
is worthy of respect from others.
But what is beauty?
I can clearly establish what is the currently canon,
a bit as if it were law,
but I am unable to provide an analytical, objective description of beauty.
Probably, right now, you may also be asking yourself the same,
and I am convinced that most of you
are thinking of something completely abstract instead
of all those rules we try to follow every day
to meet that standard.
But do I really have to follow those rules?
How can I ever look like a supermodel?
I would definitely need longer legs,
be a few pounds lighter,
and who knows how many other things
that I am not aware of right now, thank goodness.
What if I consciously broke those rules?
If I chose to live in my own disorder,
what would happen then?
Society would try to put me back in my place
and force me into the golden patriarchal cage
all women are obliged to live in.
In fact, we are all victims
of what is called "aesthetic pressure".
Does our body really belong to us?
Do we really have the freedom to choose what's better for us?
No, we don't!
We must be first and foremost beautiful.
Beautiful in one way, of course,
your personal definitions are not allowed in this paradigm.
We may even be astronauts in space,
but if we don't meet the standards of beauty,
we, women, will never be good enough.
Society expects us to live as beautiful decor plants,
that take low maintenance.
Smart, but not too much,
attentive to aesthetics but without being too passionate about it,
otherwise, in an instant, we'd turn into geese
who can only think about makeup and hairdressing.
In recent years, natural beauty has become increasingly popular.
Online, there are countless tutorials
that teach us how to apply makeup to our faces
while adhering to the "make-up, no-make-up" principle.
A trend that's opposed to itself, if we think about it.
The makeup must not look artificial.
But to achieve this result
are used products that conceal the natural skin discoloration,
that cover darkish eye circles,
thicken the eyebrows but not too much,
and enhance the eyelashes which aren't naturally three meters long.
And with the right lights, shadows,
they lift the eyelids and cheekbones which are naturally drooping.
And after more than half an hour spent putting on makeup
to look like we're wearing none, but fresh as daisies,
we are ready to go out to perform our catwalk at the mall.
Where we'll probably buy more cosmetics.
In fact, the data tell us
that 80% of the cosmetics sold in the world
are bought by women.
But I wonder,
how many of these products that monthly enter our homes
are intended to make us more beautiful?
How much money and time do we spend each month
on beauticians, hairdressers, fashion, and make-up?
I'll tell you, I won't even give you the time to ponder.
More than needed.
Aesthetic pressure is not just a massive psychological burden
we constantly drag behind us as an uncomfortable, cumbersome accessory.
It is, in fact, a huge business
that acts according to gender rules.
Okay, this one was tough.
Let's play a game,
imagine a world
where suddenly, and I mean overnight,
all women stopped constantly thinking about their aesthetics
and stopped buying beauty products.
What kind of world would that be?
Close your eyes and imagine it, just for a second.
Done?
Most likely,
after the turnover collapse of many multinationals,
women would be more focused
and perhaps would even stop constantly comparing their bodies
to those of other women
whom they share a room with.
It happened to me very often when I was a little girl
and sometimes still happens to me today.
I was in school, sitting at my desk,
paying close attention to the lesson so I could study less at home,
when I suddenly realized, I had missed a part of the lecture
because my thoughts had wandered
to comparing my hair with that of my smooth, blond classmate.
The outcome?
A deep sense of inadequacy.
And I also missed a crucial part of the lesson
that I would then have to make up for sweating on the books at home.
Critical failure!
In fact, our fixation with beauty
diverts us from many aspects of our lives.
In the sexual sphere, women fail to enjoy the moment
busy as they are performing a pornographic beauty.
To get to work "put together",
we have to wake up long before our male colleagues
and style ourselves, put make-up on, dress much more uncomfortable clothes.
And a significant portion of what will be our salary -
which thanks to gender gap, as you may recall,
is statistically lower than male salary, thank you very much! -
will be spent on products
that support the very industry
that feeds and profits off our insecurities.
It is for this and countless other reasons
that I see aesthetic pressure
as one of our century's greatest injustices.
I dream of a world free from beauty standards.
I don't want to adhere to your unrealistic, glittery rules!
With my body,
I want to wreak havoc, occupy space, and claim my time.
Without having to endure a series of institutional discriminations
that only serve to classify the bodies
into A-list or B-list categories.
And it's inevitable for me to think of that little girl,
who at 15 played the guitar on the bed
in anm always messy room.
A thousand dreams in her mind and just as many fears.
The constant feeling of inadequacy that spoils the adolescence and life
of those living, like me, with the imposter syndrome.
I think of her and how much she suffered
for a perfectly legitimate body.
I think of all the anger she felt, and her urge to scream.
And then I think of me, still that same girl,
but I'm here today on this stage, creating disorder.
And in front of all of you, I give her voice.
(Applause)
My ultimate goal
would be to ward off even just one of you
from this obsession with beauty.
That's the only thing that would make me happy.
Because I am convinced
that, if suddenly, and I mean overnight,
all women stopped constantly thinking about their aesthetics,
maybe the world wouldn't be as ugly.
But we will definitively be freer.
Thank you!
(Applauses)