Teflon Silvio again

Forza Italia!

"Silvio Berlusconi's cutting remark about a female rival's lack of beauty has stirred a rare public backlash from thousands of Italian women who had largely kept silent about the Prime Minister's womanising and sex scandals. About 97,000 Italian women have signed the "Women offended by the premier" appeal after Berlusconi told the matronly, bespectacled leftist Rosy Bindi [below] that she was "more beautiful than intelligent" in a swipe at both her looks and brains...



Still, pollsters say that without a credible political rival to challenge him, the feminist backlash will do little to lower Berlusconi's support among conservative women voters - even if they may be less enthusiastic about him than before.

"Berlusconi has not changed his approach to women and it's not the first time he has made such comments about women," said Maurizio Pessato of the SWG polling group. "It's likely that some of the women already against him were spurred into action since the remark was so harsh, but others are used to this. We're in the phase where those supporting him continue to do so, and those against him are markedly so."

Another pollster, Luigi Crespi, said some female Berlusconi supporters may be disillusioned, but not enough to switch sides. In a country where few batted an eyelid when former showgirl Mara Carfagna [below] became equality minister and scantily-clad women are the mainstay on TV, especially channels owned by Berlusconi, his comments on women have so far triggered little outrage...

A slightly different picture of Signorina Carfagna here worksafe

For his part, Berlusconi has offered a half-hearted apology and brushed it off as a "joke" in a "moment of disappointment", prompting Bindi to say he had only aggravated the situation.

Source

I am somehow reminded of one of Winston Churchill's famous rejoinders: A female politician once called out to him in Parliament: "Winston! You're drunk"! Churchill replied: "And you, Madam, are ugly. But I shall be sober in the morning". It's probably lucky that there were no feminists around in those days.

Posted by John Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).