For Gino Cecchettin, courses on affectivity should be held at every age to eradicate “patriarchy”. But who decides who is entitled to speak? Furthermore, the outbursts about gender and toxic virility risk doing more harm than good.
He says Matteo Salviniand rightly so, that “it is essential that those who teach our children, instead of bringing gender ideologies and similar rubbish into the classroom, can teach respect, good education, duties, the Constitution”. And certainly the new rule on informed consent in schools desired by Giuseppe Valditara will help give some more protection to families. However, the feeling, not a very pleasant one, is that here one is never able to get to the bottom of the capital issues, that one has to stop halfway for fear of exposing oneself too much, of being fiercely criticized (which however, to avoid any misunderstanding, happens in any case). The ban on bringing sexual education to middle schools has been removed from the bill in question, and the Minister of Education is keen to point out that «sexual education, as I have always said, continues and will continue to be taught in our schools at all levels. Emotional education is not affected in the slightest by this bill, in fact we were the first to introduce it.”
And this is precisely the point that leaves us a bit perplexed. It makes you think that doors are being left open that are ready to transform into gates. And we ask ourselves: why retreat? Who are you afraid of irritating?
To take it seriously, it would be appropriate to say that this complicated sexual-affective skein does not only concern the so-called gender. Of course, the theories on the non-existence of the sexual binary are totally absurd, harmful, enemies of common sense and biology and should in no way come into contact with boys and girls, especially if they are minors. But they are not the only ones that are questionable.
The trouble with sexual education and emotional education (which in theory are very different but in practice are difficult to distinguish) is not that they make children “become homosexual”, as some left-wing idiots like to claim to throw it away. The fact is that they are repeatedly used to put ideas into the heads of younger people that are at best highly questionable and at worst harmful, even if presented with fine words and supported by supposed luminaries. He provided an interesting example just yesterday Gino Cecchettinfather of the poor woman Julia killed by Filippo Turetta. On the second anniversary of the girl’s death, Cecchettin spoke to the commission of inquiry into feminicides and uttered some sentences that deserve reflection.
Let’s get clear straight away: Cecchettin he has every right to go anywhere, including schools, to tell the terrible story of which, after his daughter, he was the victim. But he is not just a private citizen. He is also the creator of a foundation that has signed an agreement with the ministry of Valditara to go into classes and help students to «affirm the culture of respect towards every person and, in particular, respect towards women; address and overcome critical issues in gender relations, both in the school context and in the external context; to combat all forms of gender violence, in particular male violence against women; to enhance equal relationships and promote the ability to manage conflicts in a constructive and non-violent way; to convey the value of respect for every human being, of life, freedom and self-determination.”
You understand that it is one thing to tell your own story, it is another to train younger people in relationships. It is in this perspective that the very recent statements by Cecchettin they leave a thread of interdicts. He declared, first of all, that sexual-affective education should be carried out at every age: «I speak as a parent about the importance of the family and affectivity courses in schools, even of the lowest order. I think that education is needed starting from nursery school”, he said yesterday. “It is clear that for each level of schooling the right words and the right training are needed, but certain fundamental concepts that should be started with parental education can easily be done at school.”
And what are these fundamental concepts? Perhaps those that Cecchettin always expressed yesterday at Press? If this were the case, there would be more than one doubt. Among other things, he said that Italian society is «still patriarchal: the news reports tell the story. It is a concept rooted in language, sexist stereotypes and people’s customs. From a legislative point of view, enough has been done, but the educational humus of our society struggles to detach itself from the model of the dominating male.”
But really? Too bad that distinguished scholars, starting from Luca Ricolfion patriarchy they argue – data in hand – the exact opposite. So what should we say to children in nursery, elementary and middle school: does patriarchy exist or not? That we need to demolish “gender stereotypes” and that males grow up steeped in an oppressive culture? With all due respect to those who have suffered a devastating loss, let us strongly reject this reading.
The problem of sexual-affective education is exactly this: who are the experts entitled to teach how relationships should be built? What concepts must they express to be judged suitable and authoritative? If nonsense about gender is unlistenable and harmful, no less so is post-feminist nonsense about patriarchy and toxic masculinity, which does not solve the problem of violence against women, but on the other hand risks creating problems for young men who are already quite fragile in their own affairs.
When you hear about emotional education, therefore, there is no need to worry at all: even if by some miracle we managed to banish gender from schools, getting rid of the clichés about masculinity that need to be deconstructed is decidedly complicated. To make a clean sweep of ideology, a further leap is needed, and a good dose of extra determination.
