Heroine of our time, touchstone of the contemporary collective imagination, (unjust) symbol of ignorance and cultural aridity (but, precisely for this reason, has in turn become a sign of popular redemption which becomes “culture”), of Low who meets thehighemblem and synthesis of an entire post-contemporary socio-cultural system: it is the “housewife from Voghera“, an imaginary figure – but up to a certain point – of the uneducated person to whom television authors, presenters, intellectuals and writers have not stopped turning for years, creating stories, formats, programs and works, with the primary objective of creating television products – and therefore “cultural” – that were within her reach, that she could understand and appreciate. She who, in fact, had not studied, was not cultured but, from her kitchen in Oltrepò Pavia, with the television on while she did the dishes or ironed, she was the main recipient of the uninterrupted generalist flow: shows, quizzes and the news and everything that “was on TV”.
Yesterday Voghera said goodbye to its most illustrious citizen: Paola Zanin Concati She died at the age of 76. She was the president ofAssociation “Housewives of Voghera”created to counter the stereotype, fueled by certain fiercely snobbish and authentically radical chic cultural circles, according to which this woman could only be ignorant, with coarse, unrefined tastes, “naughty” as they would say well below the Po.
Traditionally attributed to Alberto Arbasinothat this vast region of lower Lombardy frequented, knew and described well (from The Beauty of Lodi1960), the appearance of the Voghera housewife dates back to the sixties, even if the origin of the term is disputed. On the one hand, it dates back to 1966, when the Review service of the Rai launched a survey to see how well some expressions of current events and politics were understood. The group that, among those interviewed in the survey, showed the lowest level of understanding was precisely that of the housewives of Voghera. According to another version, the creator was the writer Arbasino himself, born in Voghera in 1930, who used the expression in the 1960s in some articles, designating his aunts from Voghera as representatives of a solid common sense lumbardmade of concrete, work and sound principles.
Alberto Arbasino (1930-2020) (GettyImages)
In any case, journalistic jargon was immediately appropriated, especially to simplify concepts and reasoning that are not within everyone's reach (proof of ignorance, in fact). Paola Zanin's association was born in the mid-90s, when Silvio Berlusconi's commercial television had already succeeded (in terms of audience and elections) in restoring prestige to the mistreated figure of the Voghera housewife. Very active in defending her “colleagues”, Paola Zanin decided in 1996 to react to the contemptuous criticism and denigrating judgments by founding the Association of which she is president. Over the years, she had then been a guest on several television shows, with the aim of showing the positive side of being. Alone housewife and had also participated in her city's Equal Opportunities Commission.
“For me, the stereotype of the housewife – wrote the mayor of Voghera, Paola Garlaschelli – never rejected an idea of mediocrity but, on the contrary, the idea of hardworking women devoted to the serenity and well-being of the family. Paola Zaninas president of the Voghera Housewives, She was a beacon of dedication and strength. Her passion for improving the condition of women and her tireless commitment to the good of the community made her an admired and respected figure. » The first citizen of Voghera, “saying 'Thank you' to her for being an ambassador on television and in national newspapers for the often forgotten reasons of housewives”, recalls that “it comforts us to know that the impact of Paola Zanin will continue to live on through her work and the love she shared with all of us.
The President of the Lombardy Region also remembered this, Attilio Fontanawho in a post stressed how Mrs. Zanin was “proud to represent all these women, often mothers, who, with passion and dedication, are the pivot of the family. Condolences and closeness to her loved ones and sincere thanks to all the housewives.”
Narrow-minded and of conservative political orientation; queen of the house of the small Italian province; typical petty bourgeois woman of the post-Second World War period; meeting of the national popular with the typical habits that only a housewife knows well: the traditional weekly menu (“Every day has its dish”), shopping on Saturday and going to mass on Sunday. With all these things combined, we are certain that the housewife of Voghera will survive her incarnation.