Politics
Politician Sparks Outrage by Declaring a Woman Who Wears a ‘Longer Skirt’ Will Be a ‘Good Mother’
He wanted to talk about marriage advice for his son. Instead, Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister Antonio Tajani ignited a firestorm, and got a lesson on why you don’t judge a woman’s character based on her hemline.
In a video of a September 18 speech posted by The U.S. Sun on Thursday, September 24, Tajani, 73, compared two hypothetical brides for his son: one “charming” and flashy, the other “serious” with a longer skirt. He then declared the longer-skirted one was the safer bet for a “good mother” who will guarantee “stability for the home and family.”
“The showier one might be nice for a day,” the foreign minister mused. “It’s like in opinion polls, when asked, ‘Do you prefer that one, or the serious girl with a longer skirt?'”
The women in Italian politics clapped back. Senator Simona Flavia Malpezzi, 54, posted an Instagram photo on September 22 of herself and nine other female senators posing for a defiant photo, all in miniskirts. Turin’s mayor, Chiara Appendino, joined the mini-skirt rebellion herself, posting her own photo.
“Tajani, am I not a ‘reliable’ woman? Am I not a ‘good mother?'” Appendino, 42, captioned her own Instagram post. She went on to criticize him for measuring a woman’s reliability “in centimeters of fabric.”
Even the Catholic Church subtly rebuked his comments. “Every word and every gaze directed at a woman must be filled with respect and admiration,” Giuseppe Baturi, the head of the Italian Bishops Conference, said in response to the controversy, per Ansa.
“We connect with others through our gaze,” Baturi, 62, added. “Respect is required toward men, women, children, and the elderly alike — but it is especially necessary regarding women, given that they can be the object of superficial glances.”
Currently in New York for the UN General Assembly, Tajani scrambled to walk it back. On September 21, per Alanews, he insisted he’d been misunderstood and swore he’d never intended to offend women, adding, “I have never done so in my life, neither in private nor in my public life.”
