dto one side it sporton the other the sexuality without taboos: two themes, which revolve around the women’s bodyare the focus of two new docu-series by arte.tv, a television network based in Strasbourg. Two very different titles, which have their strength in the look, ironic on the one hand, and historical-journalistic on the other.
Free! The animated docu-series on female discrimination in sex
It makes you smile, even though you face very serious examples of discrimination, the French animated series Free! signed by director Ovidie and journalist Sophie-Marie Larrouy. In the new four-minute episodes, we talk about emancipation and sexuality. Investigating even the most daring and curious facets, but with an approach that always cares about what is socially relevant.
For example? We talk about the new ones aesthetic modelssuch as the one proposed by Kim Kardashian (in which the “buttocks that dethroned the breasts”). To the theories on female ejaculation and the “waltz of G-spot“, that one day it exists and the other it doesn’t, and why the alleged demonstration of one or the other theory hurts women.
From the contraceptive pill (which is only feminine, and the “condom bothers me”). To the possibility of being and professing to be “asexual”: an option that can also be political (see lo sex strike driven by Leymah Gbowee in Liberia or that of Lysistrata in Aristophanes’ comedy).
A “Manifesto to get rid of sexual diktats”
These new episodes follow the first series of Free!released in 2021 (episodes are also visible for free, in streaming, with Italian subtitles on arte.tv). The goal, even then, was to dismantle the taboos that gravitate around love and sex. And invite everyone, especially women, to get rid of stereotypesFor start doing what you want, how you want, when you want, only if you want. The project was born as a digital adaptation of the book ‘Libres ! Manifeste pour s’affranchir des diktats sexuels (Free! Manifesto to get rid of sexual diktats)conceived by Ovidie and accompanied by images by the illustrator Diglee.
All gymnastics, the docu-series on discrimination against women in sport
Of a very different kind it is All gymnastics, a docu-series created by French director Camille Juza. Through interviews with philosophers, historians and sociologists and bei vintage footage, is the story of the difficult women’s struggle to play sports. To really do it, and not as supporting actors or from an aesthetic point of view. From the sporting activities to which girls are directed to the mechanisms and rules that permeate sporting competitions, the road towards the affirmation of the sporty woman is still paved with many stereotypes. Yet many have been shot down. Some who remember them today are incredible.
For example? The 800m race was banned for women after the 1928 Games because the “show” of exhausted and sweaty athletes “it was not nice to see”. It will only be reintroduced in 1960. The women’s marathon? Enter the Olympic Games in 1984, a century after the men’s.
Femininity is reassuring and fragile. By force
Sports practices centered on strength and power have always been accused: femininity must be reassuring and fragile.
The documentary is spread over four episodes and photographs the other side of fitness and the obsession with physical fitness. If the aerobics class or the yoga class are ultra-feminine, sport, the real one, is a territory of tiring conquest for women.
Both docu-series are available free of charge, the first with Italian dubbing, the second with Italian subtitles on the arte.tv/it website or on the platform’s apps available for smart TV, Fire TV, Apple TV and mobile devices.
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