Barbara Stefanelli (photo by Carlo Furgeri Gilbert)
AND also happened in Italy, in this summer 2023. Groups of girls – more or less young, crosses of Boomer, X, Millennial and Zeta – who went to the cinema to see the film Barbie by Greta Gerwig. Never alone and often all dressed in pink.
In the United States the numbers have multiplied, giving substance (and cash) to a season of successes for women.
As well as Margot Robbie’s celebrationin the role of the “stereotypical Barbie” who gains freedom from her perfections and celebrates her first gynecological visit, Taylor Swift and Beyoncé, both on tour, generated queues & turnover.
Different stories, with a minimum common denominator. Scripts, rhymes, music, performances: all thought up and signed by womenwho think about what it means to “be a woman” and ignite in spectators the sense of belonging to a community.
The numbers are world records. Always responsible for shopping lists and household budgets, women began «to spend to purchase goods or experiences for their own pleasure» (Misty Heggeness, economist and professor at the University of Kansas, al Wall Street Journal).
This at least in one country, America, where labor force participation of women between the ages of 25 and 54 has increased by two percentage points in 2022 compared to 2012, reaching 76.4 percent, and the availability of weekly resources has jumped 28 percent in the last 5 years.
This means that buying beaded bracelets or putting on a cowboy hat to go dancing at Swift and Beyoncé concerts, as well as laughing/crying at the Barbie-girl parable, is not foam.
It reverberates a social change that is here to stay. In the perimeter of brilliant commercial operations, there are traces of new life and the desire to take space and time for oneself.
And in Italy? The long crisis, exasperated by the consequences of the pandemic and now intertwined with inflation, has eroded the treasure trove of resources that can be spent to respond to personal desires. And, at the base, female employment remains stuck around the 50 percent thresholdbelow the average in the European Union.
And so: we still went to the cinema, maybe even a couple of times, to see Barbie, but… daily fatigue surpasses collective female happiness. That being able to recognize oneself as part of a creative and winning movement, rooted in a more solid economic independence.
As Djamila Ribeiro – Brazilian philosopher and activist, guest of the Women’s timeheir to generations of slaves and maids – the key to freedom is having a choice. Always. Break away from the established models and be able to decide how to invest your money: even if it’s just the ticket money.
How do you organize your outings with friends? Write to us at [email protected]
All articles by Barbara Stefanelli
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