The statue representing the ‘Gleaner’ inaugurated yesterday in Sapri, in the province of Salerno, in the presence of local authorities and the leader of the 5 Star Movement, Giuseppe Conte, in the city for an electoral tour is arousing controversy and a bitter debate on social media. According to detractors, this is a sexist version of the worker in the fields, in charge of gleaning, at the center of the poem by Luigi Mercantini dedicated to the failed attempt at an anti-Bourbon insurrection in Cilento.
In particular, the skimpy and transparent dress stands out, revealing the shapes of the ‘Gleaner’. The bronze statue was made by the sculptor Emanuele Stifano. “If it had been for me – he writes on Fb – I would have made a completely naked figure, the same goes for the Palinuro of a few years ago and for the statues that I will make in the future, simply because I am a lover of the human body in general and I like to work on it . However, I think that it is useless to give explanations to those who absolutely want to see depravity or various things in it ».
“At the moment in Sapri no social or political party has criticized the work or distorted the concept of work created by the artist”. This was stated by the mayor of Sapri, Antonio Gentile. The new statue of the Spigolatrice di Sapri, he adds, “was made with skill and impeccable interpretation by the Cilentan artist Emanuele Stifano”.
The wrath of the Pd women of Palermo
“We feel the duty to take sides in a clear and categorical way for the demolition of this diseducating and misleading statue that trivializes women and thwarts any rally in favor of gender equality shouted from the political seats of every institution”. The Democratic Women Pd Palermo affirm this, explaining: “Once again we are asked to suffer the humiliation of seeing ourselves represented in the form of a sexualized body, devoid of a soul and linked to social and political issues in the face of a history which is quite another: the figure of the Gleaner of Sapri, conceived and poetized by Mercantini is reduced to a stereotype that nothing tells us about the anti-Bourbon revolution and that nothing tells us about the self-determination of a woman who chooses not to go to I work to take sides against the oppressor ». A woman who therefore “becomes the very symbol of self-determination, of the link with social and political issues and above all of the presence of women in the historical events of our country”. Once again, however, “we find ourselves coexisting with an antiquated and deeply sexist representation of a female figure and taking note of how much a municipal council, moreover in the presence of the former premier Giuseppe Conte, manages to ignore the social and political elaborations that for several years now have been put to the theme to change the perception of women as a sexual object with the aim and with a view to undermining that patriarchal culture which is nothing more than the root of every form of impartiality and gender violence “. For Democratic Women Pd Palermo “once again the opportunity has been lost to reverse the course, to send a positive signal and to demonstrate that politics is not disconnected from the elaborations as repeatedly accuse associations and collectives”.