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Tarantism explained by Monica Cirinnà
28.08.2019
Miserable, painful and shameful. There are no other adjectives to describe the scene of Senator Monica Cirinnà. The sad show was held in the Senate hall on August 20th during the speech held by Interior Minister Matteo Salvini.
The “tarantata” Cirinnà was unleashed when Salvini gave the magic words “mom” and “dad”, referring to the right of children to have a father and a mother.
A sentence that the rainbow senator [belong to the colored Italian Left] did not like and sparked a rather disturbing hysterical manifestation in her: she started laughing and jumping in a disarray, turning her head back and visibly opening her mouth. A reaction that reminded us of the phenomenon of tarantism that anthropological studies have called “cultural syndrome”.
It is a form of hysteria that mainly affected women in Puglia [a region of Southern Italy, just the hell] and is said to be caused by the bite (pinch) of the tarantula. Those who were suffering from tarantism began to jump and move in a convulsive way, hence the Salento pizzica [a dance] derives from this.
Most affected were women who experienced delusions, depression and motor abnormalities. The symptoms were all there.
The tarantula in issue, the one that has shaken Cirinnà, is parenting: mom and dad, two figures that the senator doesn't like. The same senator that was shocked for the national anthem danced on the beach by two go-go dancers, to appreciate it instead in contexts like the Gay Pride, where very often the sacrosanct rights of so many serious homosexuals have no space because of the rampant indecency. The same Cirinnà who proudly posed, during the last Gay Pride in Rome, next to one who wore a T-shirt with the inscription “Frociaria di Stato” [1], a clear mockery to the institution of the State Police. This is the painful theater that we were forced to attend yesterday in the midst of a government crisis.
It's okay that the heat gives to the head, but there is a limit to everything. Even to indecency, dear Cirinnà.
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[1] It’s a new Italian slang difficult to translate: “frociaria” rhymes with Polizia (Police). In English could be “Queering of State” to mocker “Police of State”. The colors of the T-shirt are the same of Italian Police: blue and white.
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Original article by Elena Ricci:
Translation by Costantino Ceoldo – Pravda freelance
