Bologna, October 4, 2016 – “We are surprised and concerned.” Gabriele Piazzoni, national secretary of Arcigay, weighs in on the controversy surrounding the homophobic and misogynistic content broadcast during the show GFvip. Last night, Endemol, the production company behind Big Brother VIP, airing on Canale 5, distanced itself live from the homophobic, violent, and misogynistic content one of the contestants expressed on camera. But while they were distancing themselves and penalizing the contestant, the host arranged to meet that same contestant in the studio, making it clear that a new spotlight will be placed on bad habits and bestiality that it's foolish to think will be resolved in talk show chatter. The impression, on which more than one piece of evidence converges, is that the production of a reality show that has long been adrift is attempting to gain visibility by sensationalizing phenomena like homophobia and femicide, all during prime time. This is intolerable, a trend that the entire system, and those who control it, should pay close attention to. If this were the case, the problem would no longer be the contestant in question, but the chain of producers and writers who develop this reprehensible business model. Because even in business, you can have... An ethic, especially when addressing millions of people of all ages, backgrounds, and cultures. And that ethic should be addressed by all the professionals involved, who, beyond their words, demonstrate in practice that they do not distance themselves from a television game that has decided to survive the ratings war by using snuff-movie language. Until now, we have remained silent on the matter, so as not to give it the visibility it seemed to be seeking. But after Minister Orlando's intervention, and especially given the consequences it has generated, in our opinion insufficient, we expect the competent authorities and Parliament to seize the opportunity to launch an urgent reflection on a certain way of producing television and on how to protect vulnerable audiences from reckless and irresponsible authors and producers, who deserve to be at least marginalized in less impactful programming segments. While public service broadcasters frequently stumble with prejudicial red flags regarding same-sex love, we are not unaware that in the private sector, slips and falls are possible. equally loudly. All this causes damage. Therefore, we invite the public to punish this content with the remote control, changing the channel or turning off the TV, and forgetting the names of the protagonists. In our interest but also in theirs,“ concludes Piazzoni.
