‘Two third of what you see is behind your eyes’. This is what Gianrico Carofiglio writes in one of his latest novel’s last pages. The novel’s title is “Penelope’s Discipline”. The above quote expresses the paradigm shift on which the book is based.
The novel is a detective story that questions ne of the most strongly rooted topos of most of modern and contemporary literature. In fact, differently from what one would expect, both the plot’s main character, the detective whose name is Penelope, and the villain are women – apologies for spoilering. What is more, Penelope’s investigation itself is initially biased, hence jeopardised, by the assumption that the villain is a man. In fact, Penelope looks for a man. Only when she realises that her way of conceiving and seeing reality is unconsciously distorted by a sexist prejudice, she is able to solve the case.
The societal world is still today constructed by members of a dominant social group made of white, healthy, wealthy, heterosexual males. Ethnic minorities, which in a global world are no longer minorities, as well as elders, homosexuals, bisexuals, transgenders, disabled people and women are largely excluded from the process.
Advertising, marketing and communication are products of such dominant social group. Even women’s fashion is designed by males. The result is that most of the women see, conceive and judge themselves using male-based aesthetic and cultural codes.
However, what if the excluded ones became instead actively included in the construction of the social realm? How much economy and society would benefit from more inclusive processes of production?
Everything we buy, from consumer goods to 5 star holidays in luxury resorts, even those goods whose main target is not constituted by white males, is today conceived, designed and marketed using male imageries. How much economy could grow if women and minorities had a voice in the design and marketing of products they use and buy? What possibilities such a process of democratisation of economy would disclose?
These thoughts Carofiglio’s novel prompted into my mind. And I think they are worth being discussed.
Antonio Desiderio