The American Spectator

Reader Mail

Bimbomania

3.4.02 @ 12:01AM

BIMBOWATCH
I have been waiting, the forty years that I have been in Italy, to read something like Francis X. Rocca's article ("That Idiotic Television") about the bimbomania of Italian TV. I have, in vain, encouraged friends who are Rome correspondents for American publications to write about the bizarre Italian quiz shows in which as many as eighteen semi-nude, mindlessly smiling, mute bimbos are on stage from the beginning to the end of the show. They neither sing nor dance; they just stand there. The government-owned TV, one suspects, is paying them for more than just standing there. The Italian TV bureaucracy obviously enjoys fringe benefits. Italian taxpayers apparently have nothing to say about their squandered contributions to bimbomania.

Years ago, when Richard Gere appeared on national Italian TV to make an appeal for Tibet, a horde of nearly naked, mindlessly smiling, bimbos flooded the stage. The stunned and overwhelmed Gere exclaimed "What is going on here?" to the embarrassment of his Italian interpreter who was accustomed to Italian TV bimbomania. Gere continued, "I have come to make a serious appeal, and unless you get these people out of here, I am leaving." That was the end of the cheesecake spectacle. The overkill of Italian bimbomania appalled a leading world sex-symbol!

When an Indian actor, most popular in Italy, and his English wife were interviewed on Italian TV, the interviewer insisted that after their high praise of Italy that they also express what they disliked. Only after considerable pressure, the English wife reluctantly stated that she could not understand how in an allegedly Catholic country national TV could reduce hordes of women to ridiculous sex objects. She implied that the harems of the Muslim world seemed to have spilled over into the Italian mass-media.

The English-speaking world has nothing like the mute, do-nothing, Italian TV bimbos, because, I suspect, that the women of this cultural world would not accept such demeaning treatment.

In a country where the Catholic church has something to say about everything, one fails to understand the absolute the silence of Italian prelates and clergy about the degrading role of Italy's TV bimbos. The most charitable assumption is that they have no time for watching TV, or are too poor to afford TV sets.
Sincerely,
-- John Navone, S.J.

MISSING PERSON
Where has the daily Prowler piece gone for the last two days? Please resume.
-- Wayne J. Roques

The Editor replies: Sometimes the Prowler is taken into custody and it takes time to raise bail.

GOOD PLACE TO START
Re: George Neumayr's "Liberal Catholicism's Just Deserts": Thanks for the great article. I plan is to pass it around. I am Roman Catholic (57 years old), very sad and very shaken by the horrible sex stories. You really gave me a tool and starting point to understand how this could have happened.
-- unsigned

WATCH WHAT YOU SAY
Re: Dave Shiflett's "Not On My Watch": To a kindred soul (my watch was stolen 25 years ago; I have never replaced it, nor do I miss it) time does have a gender: Father time.
-- Jim Stevenson

MAN TO MAN
Re: Evan Gahr's "A Bad Case of the Huggies": Worse than hugs are the bizarre handshakes. I can understand a traditional "secret handshake" among athletes and gang members who share a common experience and unity, but what does an "outsider" do when the outstretched hand is not thumbs-up on a straight-out or slightly lowered arm? It's weird. Have I suddenly stepped into a foreign country where the customs are different? Do I adjust to their customs or do they adjust to mine?
-- Joe Lawrence, visitor from an older civilization.

SWIFT ROMNEY
Re: Washington Prowler's "Fallout From Utah": Check out the past several days worth of the Boston papers: Mitt Romney is going to, it seems, run for Massachusetts governor, challenging Swift. He has retained his legal residence in Massachusetts, and is a delegate to the MA GOP convention in April.
-- James L.J. Nuzzo

DANNY PEARL'S LEGACY
I just read Jed Babbin's assessment of Mr. Pearl, and I have to say that I concur. He was in way over his head, no doubt playing from a strong sense of what is right.

The first rule of a philosophical discussion is that both parties agree on the terms of the discussion. It is naive to think that we can insist on our enemy to speak our language (e.g., Marquis of Queensberry), so we must speak their language. Clearly, succinctly, and then back it up, clearly and succinctly.

God Bless you and yours, Mr. Pearl.
-- Mike Ryan

COP-KILLERS
Re: Mark Goldblatt's "Heady Times for Cop-Killers": They are not the only ones for whom Christmas came early. Below is a copy of an e-mail I sent to the author of the piece.

Letter to the Editor

topics:
Television, Catholicism, Law, Supreme Court