The locker room dialectic of the Italian sports media

"Is a butt and two legs really what's left, the main topic to talk about?" This is what Linda Cerruti, multiple synchronised swimming champion, asks herself in response to the horde of sexist comments that appeared under the photo showing her in a competition position while displaying the eight medals she won in her best European season, which has just ended. Not only under her post, but also under those of the trade publications that have shared the content, thousands of comments appear expressing themselves by sexualising the athlete's body. This is because the sports communities are predominantly male and there has never been much care to represent the female figure in any other way than as a 'trophy' or a 'body to possess', as the continuous celebration of female bodies shows. Cerruti added in the last few hours that she will resort to legal action to defend herself and the next generations of female athletes, so that they can in future represent themselves freely without receiving locker room comments from an entire nation.

Everything revolves around the body in sport, agreed, but communication in this sector must open up to the world of women with a view to inclusivity: according to the Coni report "I numeri dello sport 2019 -2020" the gender gap is very high: female athletes make up almost a third of the total number of registered members, 28.2% against 71.8% of male representatives.

Is it also the responsibility of the type of conversation active in Italy in the field of sport?  If Italian sports communities continue to share images of female journalists on holiday, ending up instrumentalising the female body in an attempt to engage with their community, there is something wrong with the editorial line as well as the cultural conception, which is even more worrying. After all, changing tone of voice, freeing oneself from the locker room dialectic that makes appreciation of the female form a form of compliment with an antiquated cultural heritage, is a symbol of evolution, and has already been a successful gamble: the example of Calciatori Brutti, which has abandoned the Phi Cap in favour of an approach to content that focuses more on memes than on the objectification of the female body, especially since being a female athlete is not easy if we consider the lack of recognition of sporting activities as professional and the expectations that have always been placed on women with respect to their hypothetical social role. Having to win the Olympics and withstand sexist and obscene comments with a smile could be quite taxing.