Some ready for post-bimbo era in Italy - Europe

Some ready for post-bimbo era in Italy: Italy has the lowest rate of female workers in the European Union, excep...

MILAN — As a studious girl in a small Italian town, Giulia Giupponi drew no inspiration from the women on the glowing box in her living room. The ones who giggled and jiggled while wearing next to nothing. Who simpered and cooed over male TV hosts more than twice their age. Who strutted, bent over, kneeled, pouted, blew kisses. “If I think about women I could see when I was 15 or 16 on television, I can think only of showgirls,” says Giupponi, who’s 23 and about to earn a master’s degree in economics. “You can see it everywhere. It’s too much sometimes.” Like all Italian women her age, Giupponi grew up in the era of Silvio Berlusconi, the flamboyant media-tycoon-turned-premier who dominated this country’s political scene for two decades. As Italy’s longest-serving postwar prime minister, he became more famous for his personal scandals, including allegations that he paid fo...

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