Remove the ‘rapist Apollo’ from the MIC logo. PD and M5S: “We are considering the proposal”

Rome. After changing ministers, it’s time to change the logo. No longer the patriarchal Apollo raping Daphne… No longer the wildly aroused, beautiful god… But perhaps a more chaste Pan’s flute. A new logo for the MIC – why not? On Tuesday morning, members of the Chamber of Deputies’ Culture Committee received and read a petition. A public petition – which appears to have been written by Valerie Solanas or Michela Murgia – calling for a review of the Ministry’s emblem designed by Alessandro Giuli. Against the Mediterranean patriarchy. No longer Bernini’s profile of Apollo, then, but something – or someone – that is ‘fully inclusive’, ‘which does not evoke, even implicitly, dynamics of gender-based violence’. The text, forwarded to MPs, was written by a ‘little Solanas’ from Rome. Mrs Fufi Sonnino, aged 86, a veteran of the Roman feminist movement who, together with Yuki Maraini – sister of Dacia – sang in the 1970s: ‘Your doll was the weapon / that invented the vocation / of being a wife, of being a mother / of serving a master’.

Fufi, whom we contacted, wrote the text and has so far collected over six hundred signatures. All have been transcribed and attached to the certified email. The great Maraini is missing, of course, but amongst the organisers we spot Toni Maraini. She too is a writer, a historian of the Maghreb, and Dacia’s second sister. We also note the name Giulia Minoli, who is believed to be the film director – daughter of Giovanni – and, alongside Fiorella Mannoia, president of ‘Una nessuna centomila’. The foundation combats patriarchy and works to tackle male violence.

In short, the Culture Committee has read the text. Which has raised an issue. A serious one. Since form is substance, as they say, and only petty people pay no heed to appearances – as anyone who has ever sat through gruelling meetings about logos (and they call it ‘rebranding’…) knows. Form is substance, as we were saying, and an Apollo raping a nymph in a ministry is simply unacceptable. Even less so in that particular ministry where, over the past four years, there has been no shortage of nymphs. Quite the contrary. (Although, at the time, they turned out to be more like weeds than laurels)… We know Mediterranean patriarchs, more or less. We therefore asked the female MPs, who are often more sensitive to such matters, for their views. Irene Manzi, a member of the committee representing the PD, answered the phone: “It’s a proposal that needs to be considered,” she told us, “because it gives us food for thought.” She added: “We must always remember that Greek myths are part of our history; they need to be understood, studied and put into context.” It is no coincidence that Manzi is part of Elly Schlein’s national secretariat and is responsible for education. “We certainly wouldn’t want to dismantle the statues!” No. Even though Fufi was thinking of the logo. “The logo isn’t a statue, of course, and the proposal certainly makes one think that times have changed. Thank God.” We then try to contact Elisabetta Piccolotti of AVS, who cannot be reached, and subsequently Anna Laura Orrico of the Five Star Movement. “The issue – says the Five Star MP – may be a topic worth addressing as it draws attention, which is often lost, to the problem of Western culture. Permeated by patriarchal impulses and patterns.” Indeed. And to think that at first glance – we admit it – we had not taken it seriously. “What is certain,” adds Orrico, “is that I would focus my reflections – as I have personally done in the past – on what is happening within the offices on Via del Collegio in Rome, perhaps to get the MIC’s Observatory on Gender Equality up and running again. The aim would be to work toward reducing gender disparities in the field of Italian arts and culture.” Be that as it may, Bernini’s Apollo may well be the most beautiful god in the world. And, like Daphne, we might sometimes wish to be turned into laurel (is the nymph not inclusive?). But a logo that goes against consent cannot be allowed to stand twenty years after its introduction. After all, times have changed. And the Meloni government is not only the longest-serving government, but also the one which, from the right, has introduced the offence we felt was missing: femicide. Or, at this point, nymphicide. We therefore await the rebranding – with the authorisation of the Hegemony Office.