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Scandal, Motherhood and Mina in 1960s Italy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 September 2017

Rachel Haworth
Rachel Haworth*
Affiliation:
School of Histories, Languages and Cultures, University of Hull, UK
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Abstract

Celebrity scandals are a useful tool to reveal the pervasiveness of expected ways of behaving within a particular culture or society. Italy of the early 1960s was particularly marked by these kinds of scandals, including that of singer Mina’s pregnancy by Corrado Pani in 1963. This article takes this scandal as a case study to explore how star image in this period in Italy was influenced by the established ideologies that governed social convention, morality, and traditional gender roles. It examines in detail the ways in which the popular press reported on this scandal, using the reports that covered the announcement of the pregnancy and then the birth to cast light on the extent to which the mainstream social values and ideas regarding the status quo and expected ways of behaving for women in Italy during the early 1960s were destabilised and/or reasserted through the star persona of Mina.

Italian summary

Gli scandali che coinvolgono le celebrità costituiscono strumenti efficaci per svelare la diffusione dei modi di comportarsi previsti in un contesto culturale o sociale particolare. Nei primi anni sessanta, l’Italia ha assistito a vari scandali di celebrità, compresa la gravidanza della cantante Mina derivata dalla sua relazione extraconiugale con Corrado Pani nel 1963. Questo articolo si focalizza sul loro scandalo per esplorare come le ideologie costituite (che controllavano le norme sociali, la moralità e i ruoli tradizionali delle donne) influenzassero l’immagine generale della star in quel periodo. L’articolo analizza in modo dettagliato i modi in cui i rotocalchi hanno riportato lo scandalo, utilizzando gli articoli che sono stati pubblicati subito dopo l’annuncio della gravidanza e poi dopo la nascita del bambino al fine di mettere in evidenza fino a che punto i valori e le idee sociali convenzionali che stabilivano lo status quo e il comportamento previsto per le donne in Italia nei primi anni sessanta si destabilizzano o si riaffermano attraverso la celebrità di Mina.

Keywords

Minacelebrity scandalstar imagestatus quogender rolessocial expectations
Type
Research Article
Information
Modern Italy , Volume 22 , Issue 3 , August 2017 , pp. 247 - 260
Copyright
© 2017 Association for the Study of Modern Italy 

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