Thursday, November 22, 2007

Another Counter-Culture Import from US to Italy: Twelve-year-old Girls and No Holds Barred Sex

The ANNOTICO Report

 

Italy's former "bambini" have been unveiled in  "I’m Twelve, I’m a Cube Dancer, They Call Me Princess" the title of a book by Marida Lombardo Pijola, a journalist and mum, which has alarmed Italian  mums and dads. The book takes the lid off the world of afternoon clubs, leaving hordes of parents open-mouthed at some of the comments from young girls: "If you’re a cube dancer, you’re a woman. You’re not a little girl any more. You only go with the customers if you want to. And you can get paid for it". 

 

This is not fiction. It’s a phenomenon that arrived here very recently, as another import from the United States. In 2003, "Thirteen, 13 anni" hit Italy’s cinema screens. The shock film, set in Los Angeles, starred two 13-year-old girls living on the edge, in a world of promiscuous sex, drugs, cigarettes, alcohol, petty theft and thinly veiled lesbianism.

 

And yet it was just a movie, but look at the enormous negative effect that it has had on an entire generation. Just like the Sopranos is just TV,

while it didn't cause an entire generation to become mobsters, it influenced several generations as to how to view Italian Americans.

 

Twelve-year-old Girls and No Holds Barred Sex

 

Shock report from Society of Paediatrics on teenage sex, drinking and smoking

 

From The Corriere della Sera

Alessandra Arachi

November 22, 2007

 

ROME - The warning light is on and its dazzlingly bright. Some of the prostitutes walking the streets are children, put there by other children their own age to pay off gambling debts. Yesterday, the interior minister, Giuliano Amato, set a ball rolling that could provoke a landslide. Mr Amatos statement only scratches the surface but a moments reflection confirms that traditional childhood nowadays ends with primary school.

 

Once upon a time, there were little boys and little girls, who played with dolls. They were twelve or thirteen years old. The Italian Society of Paediatrics (SIP) used to ask them questions like: "What newspapers are there in your home?" "Do you use a computer?" "What made the biggest impression on you this year?" The most recent such survey dates from 2003 but it was no longer of much use, and certainly did not reflect reality. Now, the latest report for 2006, from the Society of Paediatrics chaired by Pasquale Di Pietro, is enough to send shivers down your spine. Especially today, when in Italy as elsewhere, we are celebrating Childrens Day. The sample comprised 1,251 children aged between twelve and fourteen.

 

Heres one of the surveys many questions: HHave you ever seen one of your friends drunk?" "Yes" said 37.4% of the sample. And 8.4% added, "Often". One of the other questions was "Has one of your friends ever smoked a joint?" And this time, almost one respondent in two - 44.3% - answered a resounding "yes". One more example: three adolescents in four openly confess to actions they themselves see as high-risk, including getting drunk, drinking spirits, taking drugs, going out at night on their own or having unprotected sex. Thats another thing. Italys former "bambini" now get plenty of sex.

 

Educational models
Gustavo Pietropolli Charmet, a developmental psychiatrist, is adamant: "Development stages are appearing early because of educational models. How can we put it? It was mums and dads that wanted it to happen. Theyve been busy changing the development model they themselves received. They have accelerated their childrens abilities to socialise. Theyve eliminated their sense of guilt, their sense of fear. You can see for yourself. Go into any second-year middle school class in Italy and youll soon realise that you just cant make these kids feel guilty or afraid to any extent".

 

Is that the case at the middle school in Gela, Sicily? "The students certainly know their own minds", says Ela Aliosta, the principal, who will be retiring soon. Signora Aliosta has spent forty years dealing with middle-schools students. She tells us: "Theyve changed. A lot. Physically, to start with. Once, the female students were still little girls in the third year. Nowadays, they already look like women when they start the first year. Especially the way they dress, use make-up and do their hair. With their parents compliance, of course".

 

 

Im going to be a showgirl
Or a cube dancer, or a TV presenter or a professional dancer. Replying to the most traditional of all questions: "What do you want to be when you grow up?" the Society of Paediatrics interviewees said: "I want to be a celeb". Of course, theres nothing remarkable about that but behind this apparent normality is a vacuum. In second place on the list of preferences is a disarming: "I dont know".

 

Ho dodici anni faccio la cubista mi chiamano principessa" [Im Twelve, Im a Cube Dancer, They Call Me Princess] is the title of a book by Marida Lombardo Pijola, a journalist and mum, which has alarmed other mums and dads. The book takes the lid off the world of afternoon clubs, leaving hordes of parents open-mouthed at some of the comments from young girls: "If youre a cube dancer, youre a woman. Youre not a little girl any more. You only go with the customers if you want to. And you can get paid for it".

 

This is not fiction. Its a phenomenon that arrived here very recently, ...as another import from the United States. In 2003, "Thirteen, 13 anni" hit Italys cinema screens. The shock film, set in Los Angeles, starred two 13-year-old girls living on the edge, in a world of promiscuous sex, drugs, cigarettes, alcohol, petty theft and thinly veiled lesbianism.

 

"Ive been teaching at Centocelle middle school in Rome for twenty years", says Margherita DOnofri, a science teacher. She explains: "Its only in the last few years that Ive seen a change of attitude at the school camps, the trips that enable students to sleep away from home. Now even the first-years stay awake all night. Theyre always in an out of each others rooms. Until recently, that never used to happen".


English translation by Giles Watson

 

 

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