by Emilia Costantini
Writer and journalist, now head of the Rai sector: “I visited sex slaves for my book”
“Captains? I had the first example of a captain in my family: my mother was a pioneering entrepreneur, she opened the first jeans factory in Calabria many years ago».
Maria Pia Ammirati has been director of Rai Fiction for over two years: “But I’m not a pioneer in this field – she wants to clarify – because in this role I was preceded by the excellent Tinny Andreatta, another captain: the prima donna, around the take charge of the structure.
A structure dedicated to the production of TV series, TV movies and docu-fiction. A difficult job?
“Certainly complex, because it’s not just about the complexity of management relationships and industrial systems within a large public service company, but is primarily based on content, i.e. creativity.”
And is a woman more or less capable than a man in such a varied task?
“Women in general have a greater ability to be inclusive, they are more empathetic, more attentive to others because they have the gift of listening. A quality that I believe depends on family relationships: from an early age and then as wives and mothers, we are used to forming relationships of coexistence, playing a mediating role when conflicts arise. For millennia we have been marginalized, obedient, subject to the yoke of patriarchy, to male authority… For this reason we are more open to new things, to accepting difficult challenges».
Have you experienced gender discrimination from colleagues?
«The most critical issue in terms of discrimination against women today is the wage gap. With some delay I realized that women are paid less than men for the same work. When I decided to become a mother, I also felt disadvantaged: at the time, I thought I was a sedentary person, had an official role, and could afford the luxury of being away from the office for a few months for maternity leave. When I returned after the birth of my son, I found that my room had been given to someone else: I had been vacated. It bothered me. Just like I was very upset about another surreal episode years before.”
What’s happened?
«It was the beginning of the 90s, I was not yet a civil servant and one of my bosses, who was about to retire, said to me: I will leave you my desk and my chair, which are better than the ones you have at your disposal. I thanked him and put this furniture in my room. But one morning when I arrive at the office, I find a boy who wanted to take her away to take her somewhere else. I asked him for explanations and he answered hermetically: higher orders. A little later I found out that there had been an informer, that is, an official, who had not acknowledged my appropriation of this furniture, since it belonged to a manager. In practice, I had acquired a status that did not belong to me.
How did it end?
“I planted. I wrote a dirty letter to my line manager explaining that I had been offered a desk and chair, so I announced my resignation to him».
Pretty brave!
«I was very young and quite aggressive… In the end I was persuaded to withdraw my resignation: I took back my furniture as a programmer and they took back that of the retired manager. I’m sure if I were a man this wouldn’t have happened. An episode that also taught me a lot about corporate dynamics and that makes me smile at a distance».
In addition to the various functions, you were also President of the Equal Opportunities Committee of Rai…
«Yes, and there is still a lot to do. We strive for gender equality, but rights are never established and we always have to fight: remember, never back down, the most vulnerable groups in times of crisis are always women.
Have you ever been harassed at work?
“Like many others, I had the inevitable annoying suitors… yes, that happened to me many years ago: other older colleagues also told me tougher stories… When it happened to me, I kept them at a distance. As President of Equal Opportunities, it has unfortunately happened that young girls have come to me to tell me about the harassment they have suffered: I have always helped them with great attention because there is a risk of causing difficulties for the victims … there is always someone ready to cynically comment on the crime and say: She was molested because she was looking for it. Still, I’ve always urged girls to speak up, have courage. Recently, however, the company has breathed a different air, the result of female vigilance yes, but also of men’s cultural growth».
As the director of Rai Fiction, you give women’s stories more space…
«I feel a bit like a mission, also because in recent years the number of Italian women writers has increased and we see more and more screenwriters than screenwriters. And in our projects there are often written female figures.»
His latest novel, The Ordinary Life of a Street Woman, has a prostitute as the protagonist. Why this choice?
«In my novels, I have always thought about women’s bodies: the suffering, the pain that runs through the female macrocosm. This time I wanted to face a world that was not part of my social environment. When I saw girls selling themselves on the street, I asked myself: what makes them different from me? Under what conditions of poverty and exclusion could they have agreed to become prostitutes? I then decided to meet some of them to understand what happens in this state of the human periphery: I met some of them who told me what it means to become a sexual slave. Luckily these girls came out of this hell and were welcomed by religious institutes or associations.”
How do you rate the young girls getting naked on OnlyFans?
“I say that at the risk of appearing moralistic: I think that’s a big mistake. The body contains its own sacredness of intimacy and identity that must not be violated. Some women believe they are doing this out of rebellion, to break taboos, but by showing up boldly by stripping naked they risk objectifying themselves».
Looking back on their pioneering entrepreneurial mother, can women really be captains?
“Of course, they prepare for the world of work much more seriously: they are nerds, they study more, they put more passion into the game and they graduate more often than their peers. I don’t mean to say that men lack virtue… To be honest, the war between the sexes worries me and I have often found in men great teachers and thoughtful companions».
Isn’t she even bound to her “chair” of power?
“I’m going back to my mother one last time: she was an incredible woman of strength and energy, she suffered physically and mentally, she has four daughters and today she has Alzheimer’s, what more can I say? To have power you have to have a lot of time just to think about it and I have proof now that everything passes, everything ends, even the most beautiful things. I dedicate my time to the better, but above all to young and passionate colleagues to whom I can pass on something good… and certainly not the hunger for power».
January 28, 2023 (change January 28, 2023 | 07:48)
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