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Simonetta Musitano's irreverence: "Men? They're not used to being made fun of, let alone by a trans woman"

Simonetta Musitano's irreverence: "Men? They're not used to being made fun of, let alone by a trans woman"
Simonetta Musitano

Simonetta Musitano

"It all started from a need to tell and to tell about myself. My story is not just mine, it is the story of many." Simonetta Musitano , a trans actress, author and stand-up comedian, takes the stage with an irreverent style and scathing self-irony and recounts a “divergent” personal experience that becomes a political act. Roman of Calabrian origins, a talent of Wonty Media , Musitano in her monologues deals with themes such as gender identity, transfeminism and power dynamics, using comedy to overturn stereotypes and prejudices. Her career gained momentum with the show " Una donna con le palle ", and then continued with participation in television programs such as Propaganda Live and Comedy Central Live, consolidating her role as a critical and innovative voice in the Italian comedy scene. We met her to find out what it means to be a trans stand-up comedian in Italy, what her relationship is with the public and with social media and why men get offended so easily. You have transformed your personal experience into a comic tool: at what point did you realize that stand-up comedy could be your voice? “I became aware of it little by little, doing stand up in practice. It all started from a need to tell and to tell about myself. My story is not just mine, it is the story of many. I had a truly personal urgency, which however corresponded to the urgency of many other people as well. I started in the period in which, on the stage of Sanremo, a monologue was presented that in my opinion was extremely transphobic. At that moment I was starting my journey of gender affirmation, I had just finished the psychological journey and was starting the hormonal one. Not only did I not identify with anything that had been said on that stage, but I also felt personally touched. And I realized that in the Italian scene, comic voices are very often male, chauvinist, transphobic voices. I started precisely from the idea of ​​dismantling some comic clichés, of telling a different experience”. Your comedy is rooted in your personal experience but manages to speak to everyone. When did you realize that it could become a political tool, as well as an expression? “The political element arrived as a consequence of the experience, because then I realized more and more that my story was queer, it was different, but there were more and more people who told me: “Listening to you I learned some things, it wasn't what I thought”. And at the same time more and more trans people thanked me because they felt for the first time told and represented. My story became more and more a form of vindication of my experience and my body”. Why has Italian comedy had such a hard time opening up to queer and trans narratives? “We suffer in Italy from a comedy, especially in the world of television, that struggles to detach itself from a 'cabaret' culture in which comedians are almost exclusively male and tell - obviously - only their point of view. The problem is that we don't realize that it is actually a single, male point of view, which excludes the female one. And as for the space for trans people, the problem is simply that Italy is a transphobic country: it is the European state with the most transicides and, at the same time, it is one of the countries where people watch the most porn videos with trans actresses”.

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Is it easier for these demands to find space in stand-up comedy? “Stand-up comedy, which is still something relatively new in Italy, offers more room for action and innovation. In reality, it is a genre that many in our country still have a hard time digesting, regardless of the possibility that it talks about queer and trans issues, because it uses a much cruder and more vulgar language than cabaret. The code of stand-up in itself undermines the stylistic features of a certain type of Italian comedy. Added to this is a greater freedom due to a still very short tradition that allows for greater room for maneuver and construction”. You are one of the few trans voices visible in mainstream Italian comedy. Do you feel the weight of this representation or do you see it as an opportunity? “With the increase in my visibility, also through participation in Propaganda Live, and with the growth of my social following, it happens more and more often that I am stopped in the street by many people from the LGBTQ+ community who thank me, because they finally feel represented and told. This gives me a lot of satisfaction. Comedy has always been very violent towards trans people. The fact of being able to overturn this paradigm through the story of my life is very important to me. I don't feel any burden. At the same time, I would like there to be more queer and especially trans comedians. Sometimes I am asked if I don't want to break away from the 'trans narrative', but it wouldn't make sense: a cisgender person, man or woman, never stops talking about themselves as cisgender. Mine is certainly a divergent experience, new for many people. That's why it is perceived so strongly. But I talk about many topics, about dating, about sex, about couples - topics that everyone talks about. It's just that I tell them from my personal perspective, which - for now - is underrepresented". What did participating in programs like Propaganda Live and Comedy Central Live mean to you? What is different compared to stand-up comedy? "The fundamental difference is that stand-up comedy is live and this allows you to create empathy with the audience and to improvise depending on their reactions. And it is a moment that is born and consumed over the course of an evening. On television, however, these are highly conventional moments, which last less than ten minutes and are much more controlled. Then there is the fact that clips of the programs are uploaded to social platforms, where users comment whatever they want. And if in live shows, the fact of being contested rarely happens because people are in awe, on social media they give the worst of themselves. Furthermore, the live show allows me to interact and make fun of those who attack me, in the digital context this cannot happen”.

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By the way, how is your journey on social media going, where you started posting comedy clips on your personal channels? “It’s going very well, although I think I’ve entered a social bubble that I’d like to try to get out of. For now I’m proposing this format that involves dates, which I’ve discovered that when they involve a trans girl they create a lot of discussion and controversy about whether or not it’s necessary to reveal one’s gender identity. I like to stimulate discussion, although sometimes the comments become really violent and in some cases I’ve had to intervene, threatening legal action. I’ve been told that a trans woman is “a fraud”. I partly accept that this happens because if we want people to talk about it, this also needs to happen and we need to realize how violent people are with trans women. And the most angry users are always men, who don’t accept being laughed at”. Why do you think this happens?

"Men take themselves too seriously because they're not used to being at a 'disadvantage' in comedy, to being the butt of jokes. When they see me, they see someone they consider inferior and who turns the power dynamic they're used to on its head. They get 'bitter' when it's a cis woman, imagine what can happen when it's a trans woman."

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