Italian TV show interviews asexuals (creating lots of controversy)

[ithaca]

A very popular Italian TV show ("Le Iene", mainly investigative journalists) has done a 14-minute interview to mainly 2 Italian ace activists, which went relatively well. It was informative don't get me wrong for some kind of people, I just personally found the questions of the morbid and inappropriate kind (the usual "what do you feel when you masturbate?" and alike).

 

Controversy has (rightfully) sparked as the show didn't stop at interviewing the consenting activists, but they sent an undercover person at meetups, with a hidden camera, talking to ace folks who had not come out to their family and friends, specifically quoting them about the not coming out. Their faces were blurred and voices distorted, but they felt it wasn't enough if people they knew could recognise them from their clothes, accessories, hair, accent and phrases. Plus obviously an mainly the rightful rage about lack of consent to being shown on TV, with or without their faces blurred. 

 

For that reason, I will not link to the show (unusual of me, I know), but I'd like to notify/log that it happened, and hear people's opinions on this little summary.

[straightouttamordor]

The media is just a tentacle and subset of entertainment now it seems. Not very informative, spin doctors one side or the other and hyper sexualized themselves. Finding a fair and empathetic forum in media for Aces will continue to be an uphill climb I think. I do wonder how some of those people's families amd friends will receive their coming out. 

[AceAnarcho]

Yeah... talking about not wanting sex is controversial.

...But talking about sex, and sexualizing people on the Media is 100% right.

 

[Apathetic Echidna]

That secret camera thing was way out of line. Sometimes they happen like that (the voice distortion and blurred faces only) but that is normally when the person is suspected of criminal behaviour. I remember one undercover camera secretly taken to a meeting and the entire video was blurred without sound and the voiced were written as text in front of the video, the text was read out by voice actors. That is the way they should do it if they don't have consent. 

[simplyalex]

Many thanks for your comments about that show on Italian TV, friends. I'm not in Italy and didn't watch the show. Nor have I asked other people's opinions, so this is my own opinion.

 

While it's a good that asexuals are mentioned openly, it's not appropriate to ask them sexual questions because many asexuals don't have a clue on what's been asked  (those who know about this issue are usually because their curiosity and studies on human sexuality) and secondly,  I think it's a violation of privacy to show them on camera unless they have agreed to do that.

[Cirque_du_sweet]

I agree that this tv show was way out of line. Outing someone without consent is problematic especially since even in countries that have laws against firing people for their sexuality, they aren't always upheld. Even if someone is okay talking about their sexuality with one person, that hardly means that they want the world to know,

 

I find with media, they often do a poor job of dealing with asexuality. I remember that just after I came out to my mom, she found a news article from a reputable company that talked about how asexuals were obligated to have sex with their partner regardless of how repulsed by sex they were. I have found that some of the newer stories have been a bit better about treating asexuality with respect. Last year, the National Post published an article that talked about asexuality and the discrimination that asexuals sometimes faced that I thought was pretty good all things considering (http://nationalpost.com/news/canada/asexuality-own-unique-sexual-orientation) and when Kelly Clarkson came out as demisexual, I think People did a very good job on the article (http://people.com/music/kelly-clarkson-asexual-attraction-husband-brandon-blackstock/). While they didn't talk too much about what asexuality or demisexuality were (despite using both terms in the article), they treated the whole thing with respect.