Our name is our identity, which has a personal but also a social, public dimension. Sometimes a name can become heavy, unsustainable. After the abuses reported and discovered in the world of rhythmic gymnastics, the announcement of the national team that wants to avoid any identification with them. And so she chooses to be called (and be called) differently.
The request comes from the blue captain of gymnastics, Alessia Maurelli, who wrote a post on Instagram: «The era of the “Butterflies” born journalistically in August 2004 – he explains – dies after 18 years in November. The rupture is painful and irreversible, given above all the unsustainable weight of a direct and now unavoidable connection to violence and abuse in the media that does not reflect our own ideal of freedom. The current and future national rhythmic gymnastics team will never again recognize themselves with the nickname “Butterflies”».
Rhythmic gymnastics, beatings and denied food. Over 200 reports of abuse of young athletes: “Now a red code for sport”
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From a figurative point of view, the word “butterfly” indicates a “light and fickle person”. According to Treccani, it means “light woman, who easily passes from one love to another”. He regrets that this meaning prevails in the collective imagination, while on a symbolic level the butterfly instead evokes an image of rebirth, transformation, hope, courage and beauty. She also evokes her happiness in her poignant insubstantiality, which brings her closer to poetry. “What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the rest of the world calls a butterfly,” wrote the ancient Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu. But we are now in other times.