OPINIONI
Asia Argento and the Harvey Weinstein scandal: how the Italian and British press REACTED
Italian press, an opinion piece
By Ellie Hill
A couple of months ago, you may not have heard of Asia Argento. Born in Rome, she has acted, modelled, directed and sung over the span of her career, and yet, while famous in Italy, she has never been particularly prominent in the UK or other parts of the world. At the start of October, however, she became well known to the international press, highlighted as one of Harvey Weinstein’s alleged victims in Ronan Farrow’s New Yorker exposé on the movie executive. A victim of a repeat sexual offender, one would assume that she would (and should) garner encouragement and support from the public and the press. From the public (or part of it), she has. Following the allegations, a #MeToo hashtag surfaced, allowing men and women an online platform to share stories of their personal experiences of sexual harassment and assault. In Italy, the equivalent was #QuellaVoltaChe. Unfortunately, solidarity hasn’t been the only reaction that Argento has received. Instead, there has been vitriol and suspicion from those who found her 20-year delay in coming forward problematic. Accusations that she was happily paid off to keep quiet have been rife, with some even accusing Argento and other victims of using these encounters to further their careers. Most disturbing has been the reaction of the Italian press, whose attack on Argento and culture of ‘victim blaming’ have caused her to leave the country, due to feeling threatened and unsafe in her own home. The scandal has proven that this system of ‘victim blaming’ is alive and well, stoked by the press, and not limited to Italy, but recurrent in Britain, the US and beyond.
The press backlash against Argento has been extensive. In an interview, Italian journalist Mario Adinolfi said that Argento tried to ‘giustificare la prostituzione d'alto bordo’ while Vittorio Feltri, editor of the right-wing newspaper, Libero, stated in a radio interview:
‘[...] se l'hai data via consensualmente e sei maggiorenne, alla fine sei tu che gliela hai data. E non dovevi, perché non tutte la davano a questo signore. [...] Nessuno ti obbliga a diventare una grande attrice. Se tu la dai via per ottenere un vantaggio, è una forma di prostituzione.’
Renato Farina, for the same newspaper, wrote: ‘Prima [le donne] la danno poi frignano e