Editor’s Editorial – “The Broken Mirror”
There is something deeply sick about the way women are treated, especially when they are in the public eye. And I am not just talking about power, but about visibility. Of the light that should shine on competence and instead, too often, refracts on appearances.
These days, a colleague of ours, esteemed journalist that she is, Valentina Bisti , ended up at the center of a media cyclone for a fault that should not even exist: showing herself made-up. Without foundation, without concealer, without filters. Just a face. A normal face, like the ones we see every morning in the mirror before coffee.
But at that moment it was not “morning.” It was urgency. It was news that rips through the silence and runs faster than any habit: the death of the Pope. The colleague was in the newsroom, like many of us, ready to do her job. The news came suddenly, and within minutes she was on the air, her voice steady, her gaze clear, her professionalism intact.
He did not think about the makeup. He thought about the information.
Instead, outside that sacred moment that is journalism done with urgency and truth, someone thought it best to stop at appearance. Of ignoring the content, of not listening to the news, of skipping the historical weight of the moment. Of focusing on the skin, on the eyelashes, on what was missing from her face.
They were careful not to talk about her work, her achievements, the exemplary way in which she handled such a delicate announcement. No, the most convenient shot was chosen: that of the naked face, to be judged superficially and cruelly, as if that would be enough to belittle her.
But there is more than just sexism here. There is a sick idea of perfection, a toxic cult of image, a grotesque claim to uniformity that affects us all. It is a sign of a culture that tolerates women only if they are made up, combed, domesticated.
As a director, but first as a woman and a citizen, I say enough is enough. We must not defend our colleague just because she is one of us. We must do so because she is the symbol of a much bigger battle: the battle for the freedom to be, to show oneself, to work without first having to go through a beautician.
To those who used this case to sell a few more clicks, I say: journalism is not gossip in disguise. And to those who read those headlines without getting indignant, I remind: tomorrow it could be your sister, your daughter, yourself.
The colleague’s make-up face is not a weakness. It is an act of truth. And truth, in this business, should always be the only thing that really matters.
