Tag Archive: Homosexuality


WHEN BENITO MET ADOLF

Filed under: Gender, Italy, Movies, Politics — Leave a comment
April 19, 2011

Una Giornata Particolare (A Special Day ) directed by Ettore Scola (1977).

This beautiful film is set in Rome on May 8, 1939, the day  Mussolini first met Hitler.

It opens with extended documentary footage of this infamous occasion. The adoring crowds  waving swastika flags is a sobering reminder of the mass support these despicable leaders commanded.

Sophia Loren plays Antonietta who is left alone in her tenement flat when her fascist husband and tribe of six children leave to attend the celebratory rally.

While cleaning,  the family’s pet minor bird escapes through the window and lands on the stairwell near the window of the flat directly opposite.  This is next to the home of Gabriele  (Marcello Mastroianni). In retrieving the bird the two strike up a friendship through a mutual attraction and  recognition of their lonely lives.

The symbolism of the bird briefly escaping its cage soon becomes apparent. Continue reading →

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A DEVIATION, AN IRREGULARITY, A WOUND

Filed under: Gender — Leave a comment
December 24, 2008

For the Vatican City the season of goodwill clearly does not extend to the Gay community.

Homosexuals are ,according to Pope Benedict (aka  ‘the rat’),  “a deviation. an irregularity and a wound” .  Apparently it’s OK if they are celibate i.e. if they follow the holy catholic priesthood in denying sexually fulfilling loving relationships.   Presumably they are meant to redirect their desire into worship.

Bizarrely, he regards practising gays as a threat to the stability of the planet akin to the destruction of the rain forests.  Quite apart from the fact that equating issues of sexuality with those of environmentalism defies logic, the Catholic church is also guilty of inciting a fresh wave of homophobia at a time when the need for tolerance and understanding is more important than ever.

I always pray (I’m not sure to whom!) that such reactionary bullshit will turn more people away from Catholicism and other brands of  religious fanaticism but I realise that this is a faint hope. In these troubled times people are desperately seeking  scapegoats and bigots like Ratzinger are more than happy to provide them.

Personally, I’m counting on deviancy and irregularily triumphing in 2009

Photo (The Priest, 2005) by Sarah Saudek

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