TOThe types of violence do not leave visible bruises on the skin but deep furrows in the soul. THE‘systematic humiliation of one’s body by a parent belongs to this category. For this reason, the Italian Court of Cassation has put a fixed point, establishing that define a “fat” daughter on a regular basis, It is not an educational slipbut but A real crime of mistreatment in the family. The sentence, therefore, not only condemns a father, but establishes a fundamental principle: The domestic environment is not at all a frank zone for contempt.
Body Shaming is mistreatment even if done in the family
The case, which culminated in the decision of September 15, is the chronicle of a verbal abuse made by a father on the build of a daughter of eleven years: “Cicciona, make you crap! Arouse repulsion in me and in those who look at you“It was the phrases that the man shouted to the girl. These expressions were considered by the Cassation not delayable to simple “quarrels”. On the contrary: The blood bond aggravated the fault. As the judges pointed out, in fact, the paternal judgment has a huge and destructive weight just when it affects a daughter in the midst of her identity formation.
The weak defense of the Father
In an attempt to defend herself, the father tried to minimize, claiming to have seen the girl only for a few weekends, between work commitments and pandemic restrictions. However, for the Supreme Court, His conduct had been characterized by “repeated frequency” And manifested a “systematic contempt”. In short, it was not about isolated episodes, but a picture of abuse that, moreover, I will degenerate up to a physical escalation: the man came to transform verbal body shaming into concrete violence.
Body Shaming, the new frontiers of psychological violence
This ruling of the Cassation is important not only for the condemnation of an abuse, but why It redefines what is tolerable within a family unit. The turning point of this verdict It is, in fact, that it is not limited to saying that the body shaming is wrong and that words like “ugly,” “dwarf,” “dry,” and, of course, “fat” they will no longer have to be taken under leg but considered for what they areagents capable of causing serious psychological consequences. Says something more: he says that, if practiced repeatedly and systematically by a parent against a son, or other cohabitants, This behavior integrates the much more serious crime of family mistreatment. It is an evolution that reflects a greater social awareness on how much the judgment on physical aspect, especially in evolutionary age, can be devastating.
Not only the weight: when humiliation becomes torture
The severity of the Cassation It is part of a growing jurisprudential vein. Just think, for example, of the sentence issued by the Court of Verona in March 2024. In that case, A father had been sentenced at 4 years and 4 months not only for having addressed insults related to the weight to the eight -year -old son, but also for imposing himas a form of psychological torture, Fasting for Ramadan in an unavailable age. The man, moreover, did not just impose himself; On the contrary, he mocked the child by eating in front of him and wasolated him socially, claiming that “the children were beaten to be educated”. These previous, are proof of an irreversible change of step. The verbal humiliations and coercive behaviors aimed at debasing a childare no longer labelable as mere “conflicts” to be resolved in private. On the contrary, they integrate crimes that are to be condemned with severe penalties.