Black Megaphone Christmas edition
Meloni, Sunak and identity politics in 2022 and the review of Witcher Blood Origin on Netflix.
Identity Politics 2022…the winners are…Giorgia Meloni and Rishi Sunak
2022 will definitely be remembered, both in Italy and in the UK, as the year when the first woman and the first non-white politician became Prime Minister of the respective countries. The conditions of Meloni and Sunak’s rise to power are certainly different, as the former leads the most-voted party in the September elections in Italy, while the latter was voted in by Tories MPs, their rise is certainly significant.
In a country where women are scarcely represented in areas of influence, now a woman leads the country, while in the British context, the rise of a politician of Indian descent is seen as a development of a multicultural and diverse country. In addition to this, in the identity politics arena, this is seen as a demonstration that it is the Right (or the far-right in Meloni’s case) the one that can represent women and minorities. The truth of the matter is actually quite different.
Let’s look at policies or at least political intentions: Meloni has selected Eugenia Roccella as Family Minister, for instance. Roccella is fundamentally a theo-con figure that could have appeared within the pages of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaiden Tale. In addition to that, the whole rhetoric of Meloni herself is always around women as mothers, portraying motherhood as kind and the only purpose of womanhood, a rhetoric that was widespread in Italy, especially during the twenty years of Mussolini’s regime, but not only. Here we have a woman in power, who does not care at all about women’s rights (or she would have not shared through our social media channels the video of a rape shared by Italian newspapers online, a demonstration of the sewage level of Italian mainstream media) but who would play her gender as a winning card, without caring about the advancement of women in society and actually having an anti-women rights agenda. This may sound familiar to British readers, as it was fundamentally Margaret Thatcher’s playbook.
When it comes to Sunak, he may represent the success of the children of migration in Britain on one hand, but it is also important to consider that class always plays a crucial role, and to remember that conversations on race without intertwined conversations on class are fundamentally useless. Sunak’s social class should not be considered on the other hand negatively, but it is important to consider that his starting point in terms of his parent’s profession, and his education (p have not been the general starting point of most children of migrants. Similarly, Sunak is not interested in taking down obstacles to improving the lives of children or grandchildren of migrants coming from non-privileged backgrounds, and, at the same time, when it comes to migration, he has fundamentally given free way to Home Secretary Suella Braverman to carry Patel’s plans on asylum seekers deportations to Rwanda (with more backing likely now, given the High Court’s ruling) and he has expressed a commitment of resuming hostile environments checks on bank accounts, alongside dealing with the asylum “backlog”. Meloni’s policies on migration and hateful rhetoric are nothing new on the other hand, but she is also the first West European leader to believe in the Great Replacement Theory, a conspiracy theory entrenched in racism and a large dose of antisemitism as well.
Even though Meloni does not come from a privileged background, something that further reinforces her rhetoric as an underdog and a fresh figure ( a debatable one, given the fact that she has been Minister of Youth from 2008 to 2011) the policies when it comes to economics are still aligned with the interests of the wealthy and influential categories, as it can be seen by the Budget presented by the government, especially when it comes to the aim of smashing the Basic income brought by the Five Stars Movement.
Meloni and Sunak, despite their rhetoric, are gatekeepers and not groundbreakers, but, in addition to their victory of the Identity Politics awards for this year, given the state of the opposition for them, in Meloni’s case (with Carlo Calenda and Matteo Renzi eager to help when needed, a Democratic Party which is once again lost and fundamentally detrimental to the Left, even though Elly Schlein may be trying to change that and a Five Stars Movement with a born again “left-wing” Conte for now) and in Sunak’s case (where Keir Starmer is trying to bring back an ultra-centrist Labour roadmap to government at a time when people in Britain are striking non-stop and where stronger left-wing policies are more popular than before).
How long are these two governments going to last is not clear at the moment, but it is certain that, gatekeepers or not, conversations on the opposite field in terms of representation of women and minorities are needed, and changes of policies are needed, unless the idea is to be stuck in the identity politics war.
The Witcher- Blood Origin
Netflix has a perfect Christmas present today for The Witcher fans who want a taste of the Continent before the release of the third season of the adventures of Geralt of Rivia in the Summer 2023. The limited series Blood Origin takes the viewer back 1,200 years before the events of The Witcher, at a time when humans and monsters were not part of the Continent. The cohesion between the original series and the prequel is held together by Jaskier, bard, and friend and companion of Geralt, played by Joey Batey (War of the World).
The time is that of the Golden Age of Elves, and through different paths, in the good tradition of fantasy, a gang of heroes gets together, including Éile (Sophia Brown) a warrior of the Raven Clan and member of the Queen’s Guard, who became a bard known as the Lark but will have to take up her weapons back to Fjall (Laurence O’ Faurain) a warrior and an exiled member of the Dog Clan, Scian (the legendary Michelle Yeoh) last living member of the Ghost Clan and a swordswoman with no equals and Meldof (Francesca Mills) a kickass Dwarven warrior.
Keeping with the good fantasy tradition, this posse of warriors stand against an Empire, and their central enemies turn out to be Merwyn (Mirren Mack, seen in Sex Education), Eredin (Jacob Collins-Levy), and the wizard Balor (played by a Lenny Henry who seems to be enjoying fantasy roles as this is his second of this year following the Harfoot Sadoc Burrows in Rings of Power).
The series provides viewers and fans with a visually stunning account of the Conjunction of the Spheres, linking it with the story of Witchers while keeping it passionate, gory, monstrous, and brutal.
An issue with the show is that it is probably too short for the ambition of the prequel story that it wants to tell, and therefore the character development may feel reduced at times, but Blood Origin is still an efficient appetizer for those who wait for the return of Henry Cavill as Geralt of Rivia for the last time until he will pass the mantle to Liam Hemsworth.
The Witcher Blood Origin is available on Netflix from Christmas Day.
It’s a wrap for this newsletter this year, see you in 2023 and in the meantime Merry Christmas, Channukah Chag Sameach, happy Kwaanza, and happy New Year.