Italy‘s state broadcaster has suspended one of its shows for giving a tutorial on ‘how to shop in a sexy way’ featuring a scantily clad woman in high heels.
Chief Executive of RAI Fabrizio Salini said the segment which appeared on the Detto Fatto (Said Done) show was an ‘extremely serious’ case of perpetuating unhealthy stereotypes.
In the video, a young woman dressed in high heels and squeezed into thigh-high shorts, teaches women to shop in a supermarket sexily.
The tutorial advises women to ‘arch their backs’ to get to products on the higher shelves and world class university to raise their knee ‘to make the most intriguing situation’.
When the woman is asked how she would pick up something that had fell on the floor, she replies: ‘I would squat with one knee more bent than the other, keeping my legs closed so I don’t spread my legs to make the situation more vulgar.
In the segment aired by Italian state broadcaster RAI, the woman can be seen advising other women to arch their backs as they shop to appear more sexy
The tutorial advises women to arch their back and lift their knee as they reach to the top shelves to ‘make the most intriguing’ pose
‘I softly drop my shoulder diagonally, sweeping the length of my arm until the finger nails, I take the product and lifting my bum slightly and I stand up.
At the end of the segment she then improvises a seductive dance, with the shopping trolley becoming a prop for her to move around.
Salini said an investigation will be launched to see if the show breached editorial guidelines, and another episode which was due to air yesterday was pulled, according to ilmessagero.
Salini added: ‘A very serious episode, which has nothing to do with the spirit of the Public Service and with the editorial line of this Rai.
‘Obviously I started an investigation to ascertain responsibility and we are evaluating the future of this program.’
Criticism of the episode began on social media last night, but soon reached Italian politics, with the undersecretary for publishing Andrea Martella attacking the concept.
One Twitter user said: ‘I don’t know whether to believe what I’m watching.
They look like those shady situations of a sexy comedy of the 70s’.
In an interview, Martella added:’Perhaps a tutorial would be needed not on how to shop but on how to do public service by not trampling the value and history of Rai’.
At the end of the segment, the woman improvises a sexy dance with the shopping trolley
The broadcaster’s director Ludovico Di Meo said: ‘Detto Fatto is a show that has the only aspiration, if possible, to entertain.
‘The program yesterday ran into a very serious mistake, certainly not wanted, for which I first apologise to the viewers and viewers.’
‘Although it was not the intention to validate negative female stereotypes – which everyone agrees in blaming and condemning – the ironic charge was overestimated in spite of a key that was clearly offensive.
‘It will be a serious commitment of the network to investigate the incident and the responsibilities, and ensure that this does not happen again in the future: it would be contrary to the spirit of the program and to the civil values of the host, the authors, and Rai2.’
