the big bad body post

what i've observed as a guest in Italy

During one of my first weeks in Naples, I was at the local laundromat waiting with two other American tourists for our clothes to be finished. One woman was a petite trim 50 year old, and she struck up a conversation with a young woman in her thirties. The older woman was talking on and on about how much pasta and bread she was eating. She said, “I have to stop, I have to stop with all of this pasta and bread! And I need to exercise! Oh my god!” I quietly observed the interaction, as the younger woman soothed her fears by assuring her she’d walked enough to balance out the splurge.

Similarly, when I told people I was moving to Italy, I was surprised by the amount of times many people said to me: “omg, you’re going to get so fat” or “omg, you’re going to gain so much weight”. While these comments are more of a reflection of society’s fear of fatness than anything to do with me, these types of comments were frustrating to be on the receiving end of. Why are Americans so afraid of bread and pasta? We are very happy to criminalize eating carbohydrates but don’t seek any justice for the pharma executives running FDA and producing American “food”.

The American assumption is that when you step foot inside of Italy, you eat nothing but bread and pasta until you become a human dough ball, yet Italians having a magic wine potion that allows them to be skinny. I’ve also heard Americans say that “Italians don’t even work out”. These are both false in that 1) people here are self-conscious about their bodies just like every other human susceptible to society’s demands for thinness and 2) Italian people, just like any other kind of people, do enjoy exercise. There are plenty of gyms, running clubs, hiking clubs, tennis courts, etc. just like any other place.

The biggest difference I’ve observed between Italian and American culture can be described in a more general attitude towards one thing: pleasure. Italians generally encourage and delight in pleasure, where as Americans fear it.

Where Italians workout for fun, Americans work out for punishment. Where Italians eat for joy, Americans eat to make their macros. Where Italians dress to feel good in their bodies, Americans dress to cover their bodies.

Over the summer I was at a pool with both American and Italian families. This particular pool served as a microscope into the pleasure conundrum: right away, I could tell the color of everyone’s passports. American moms wore bulky Lululemon skorts, standing apart from the slinky bikini laden Italian moms. Italian women soaked up the sun and relaxed on a lounger while American women huddled under the umbrella with SPF 70 reading parenting books. When I moved into the locker room, the Italian women walked from the shower to the changing stall completely naked, where as American women huddled behind towels.

Of course, this is a generalization. There is also the American attitude towards overindulgence (sex, power, money, greed). But I wonder if the general sense of indulgence and pleasure being “sinful”, rooted deep in American dirt, is a cause of the lack of moderation. I love this painting above, as I interpret indulging in pleasure to be a choice: give yourself every finest indulgence, or let duty, roles, and obligations rot you away. How can you allow yourself the life of a hedonist, today?