Le rappresentazioni delle violenze di genere nelle pubblicità sociali italiane. Un’analisi intersezionale

According to the literature (Oddone 2013; Ciccone 2014; Cosenza 2015; Magaraggia 2015; Polizzi & Oliveri 2015), the representations of gender-based violence in Italian social advertisements are strongly linked to stereotypical imaginaries of the physical dimension, domestic violence, and the removal of victims' agency, as well as heteronormative and ableist ones. In my qualitative research on 12 advertisements (from 2006 to 2019), I tried to identify representations that go beyond hegemonic terms, with particular attention to the dimensions of racism, ableism and homolesbobitransphobia, applying the intersectional approach, to reacha more complex understanding of how identities and power relations are constructed in visual media. My analysis sought to answer the question of whether social advertisements contain images that challenge stereotypes and prejudices regarding violences, or whether they reiterate certain representational mechanisms that are the result of the phenomenon they are intended to combat. The hypotheses on their verifiability ‒ and therefore on the scarce capacity to challenge the preconceptions of those advertisements that by their function should promote social change ‒ were tested on the basis of the following variables, according to a qualitative methodology that refers to socio-semiotic visual analysis in search of counter-hegemonic narratives: promoting subjects, ways of representing the places of violence, representation of the violences themselves, identities and bodies and communicative style. My research shows that, in Italy, it is difficult to carry out campaigns against gender violence that exclude or question stereotypes. On the one hand, there is a gap between innovative aims and the use of stereotypical language, which is typical of social advertising’s form. On the other hand, there are considerable differences between the various promoters: there is a tension between the different structures and aims of the promoters surveyed, between public service advertising and advocacy.