News of November
The testimonies included for the month of November show the different ways of approaching conversations and choices in the reproductive field, which highlight as many prejudices with which these ways are often greeted or, rather, not greeted, whether one decides to experience motherhood or not.
While proclamations are multiplying – and unfortunately already turned into laws and decrees – limiting women’s self-determination precisely on issues regarding our body and motherhood, we choose to dedicate the coming 25 November, International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, to the free choice – individual, personal, intimate and political at the same time – of each and every woman.
Women and men of all ages tell us their stories and reflections in absolute freedom, covering a very wide intergenerational span: surprisingly, the cards on the table are shuffled, the present seems to dance on uncertain horizons, while the past seems to speak from the future and vice versa.
Inside our Live Archive, in addition to the latest testimonies, we also add an impossible monologue: it is that of the Nun of Monza, made famous by the pen of Alessandro Manzoni, here in the double guise of a historical figure and a literary character with a powerful charm that resists time.
That’s Lunàdigas: we like to multiply visions to infinity. Take a tour of the new additions and enjoy the journey!
Graziella Simbolotti: ‘For me, one child was too many’
One of the first diplomats in Italy, Graziella Simbolotti reflects thoroughly on the reasons that led her not to have children. Retracing her life, from school days to work, from her family of origin to her relationship with her husband, she dwells on the combination of women and power and reflects on the need to exercise one’s role outside the male and patriarchal environment.
Carolina: ‘I can’t imagine myself without children’
Carolina recounts the two different pregnancy experiences she had with her two children, born seventeen years apart. Carolina says she cannot imagine herself without children, that is, alone with her partner, but reiterates her belief that motherhood should be a choice.
Joseph: ‘I hope it’s not a choice out of selfishness’
A student at the University of Washington, Joseph answers a point-blank question on what he thinks about childfree women: his hope is that it is not for selfish reasons but for other reasons.
Sybilla: ‘When I got pregnant, I felt trapped’
Sybilla, a fifty-two year old Austrian woman, retraces the stages of her life that allowed her to affirm her choice of non-parenthood. In none of the many places she has lived, she feels there is a free space to express her political positioning around reproductive rights. Today Sybilla lives in Ecuador.
The impossible monologue of the nuns of Monza
Lia Careddu performs the impossible monologue of the Nuns of Monza. Gertrude, the bewitching character to whom Alessandro Manzoni dedicates ample space in ‘The Betrothed’ also through a profound psychological characterisation, is accompanied by her historical counterpart, a Spanish nun at the centre of some turbulent 17th century events.
