It seems that an artist from the Sanremo festival (yes, I know that together "artist" and "Sanremo" is an oxymoron) has come out saying she wants to "be a whore from start to finish," specifying that by this she means "a determined person, who knows what she wants."
I believe that this semantic clarification from the lady is an interesting cultural index. We might be tempted to correct her, to bring her before a dictionary and make her rethink her verbal choices, but that would be a misunderstanding. She did not misinterpret; she simply used that word in a way consistent with the cultural and cinematic models available (and let’s remember that the use of words is the matrix of their meaning).
After all, how is the "whore" presented in a large part of contemporary pop culture and filmmaking? A whore is an exemplary working subjectivity, "free from unnecessary moralism," who sells herself in a highly flexible manner to the highest bidder. In a certain way, it is an exemplary representation of the "self-made entrepreneur," someone who not only invests their "human capital" without hesitation, but gains an advantage precisely through the ability (compared to those who still suffer from some reluctance) to "not care what others think." For all these reasons, we also face subjectivities that can masquerade as forms of "highly emancipated femininity," self-assertive.
Let’s set aside the obvious issue of the transfiguration that always occurs in cinematography (film whores bear negligible similarities to real ones, and the "glamour" level of the latter is typically deplorable).
The central point is that the conceptual re-evaluation of prostitution is, in fact, perfectly coherent with all the underlying messages of contemporary society. Thus, it is not our "artist" who has misunderstood, but we are the ones misunderstanding our society if we think she has misinterpreted the words. Talking about a whore as a "determined person, who knows what she wants" is not incorrect, but simply assumes contemporary society and its underlying value lines. In fact, within this framework, being "determined" means "having no scruples to obtain what one wants," and "knowing what one wants" means "focusing self-referentially on one's own 'business'," which results in 'securing monetary gain.'
And here, in our society, there are two groups of underlying attitudes: one that concludes from this framework that we live in a world that must be reset and rebuilt; and another that thinks we are witnessing another invigorating progress towards the "fall of masks" and "liberation from remnants."
I believe that this semantic clarification from the lady is an interesting cultural index. We might be tempted to correct her, to bring her before a dictionary and make her rethink her verbal choices, but that would be a misunderstanding. She did not misinterpret; she simply used that word in a way consistent with the cultural and cinematic models available (and let’s remember that the use of words is the matrix of their meaning).
After all, how is the "whore" presented in a large part of contemporary pop culture and filmmaking? A whore is an exemplary working subjectivity, "free from unnecessary moralism," who sells herself in a highly flexible manner to the highest bidder. In a certain way, it is an exemplary representation of the "self-made entrepreneur," someone who not only invests their "human capital" without hesitation, but gains an advantage precisely through the ability (compared to those who still suffer from some reluctance) to "not care what others think." For all these reasons, we also face subjectivities that can masquerade as forms of "highly emancipated femininity," self-assertive.
Let’s set aside the obvious issue of the transfiguration that always occurs in cinematography (film whores bear negligible similarities to real ones, and the "glamour" level of the latter is typically deplorable).
The central point is that the conceptual re-evaluation of prostitution is, in fact, perfectly coherent with all the underlying messages of contemporary society. Thus, it is not our "artist" who has misunderstood, but we are the ones misunderstanding our society if we think she has misinterpreted the words. Talking about a whore as a "determined person, who knows what she wants" is not incorrect, but simply assumes contemporary society and its underlying value lines. In fact, within this framework, being "determined" means "having no scruples to obtain what one wants," and "knowing what one wants" means "focusing self-referentially on one's own 'business'," which results in 'securing monetary gain.'
And here, in our society, there are two groups of underlying attitudes: one that concludes from this framework that we live in a world that must be reset and rebuilt; and another that thinks we are witnessing another invigorating progress towards the "fall of masks" and "liberation from remnants."
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