‘I’d Like to See an Italian Film or TV Series in Which a Girl Moves Abroad’: Italian Girlhood and Nomadic Experiences

ABSTRACT

This article explores the portrayal of contemporary Italian girlhood in the context of Italian media studies. It critically examines the emergence of a new media depiction of Italian high-school girls in the role of exchange students abroad. Given the widespread prevalence of this trend, which has received limited academic attention, the representations of these young travellers are examined across different media, offering insights into their dynamic agency as cultural intermediaries within Italian society. The inquiry draws from data from the AHRC research project A Girls’ Eye View. It analyses excerpts from project interviews and social media in order to shed light on the emergence of nomadic Italian girlhood as portrayed in TV series and on the TikTok platform. By exploring Italian girls’ nomadic aspirations, the study provides valuable insights into the dynamic relationship between travel, education, and the impact of social media on their lives.

KEYWORDS:

• Youth
• girlhood
• students
• TikTok
• Netflix
• study abroad

Acknowledgments

This article would not have been possible without the collaboration of the research team of A Girls’ Eye View to which I belong, and which is led by Professor Danielle Hipkins from the University of Exeter, Professor Romana Andò, and Dott. Leonardo Campagna from Rome’s Sapienza University. The demanding work behind this project is only possible thanks to effective teamwork. I am especially indebted to Professor Hipkins who provided me with all the support I needed. I extend my sincere thanks to Dr Clelia Boscolo for her invaluable assistance. Additionally, I express my gratitude to Dr Lauren Jones. I also want to thank the teachers and girls interviewed at the different schools, in particular Professor Francesca Bellantone and the whole Guglielmo Marconi school (Siderno, Reggio Calabria, Italy) for their constant help. Finally, I am grateful to the journal’s editors and anonymous reviewers for their valuable feedback.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

¹ Danielle Hipkins, ‘Why Italian Film Studies Needs a Second Take on Gender’, Italian Studies, 63.2 (2008), 213–34.

² Giovanna Faleschini Lerner and Maria Elena D’Amelio, Italian Motherhood on Screen (New York/London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017), p. 8.

³ Maria Elena Alampi, ‘New Italian Cinema of Precarity’ (unpublished doctoral thesis, University of Birmingham, 2022), p. 18.

⁴ Charlotte Ross, ‘Critical Approaches to Gender and Sexuality in Italian Culture and Society’, Italian Studies, 65.2 (2010), 164–77.

⁵ Hipkins, ‘Su di noi’, A Girls’Eye View, 2021 <https://agirlseyeview.exeter.ac.uk/en/about/> [accessed 31 January 2024].

⁶ Hipkins, ‘Why Italian Film Studies Needs a Second Take on Gender’, pp. 213–34.

⁷ Non è la rai, dir. by Gianni Boncompagni (Italia 1 Mediaset, 1991–1995); Beverly Hills 90210, dir. by Darren Star (Torand Productions Inc. and Spelling Television, 1990–2000); Dawson’s Creek, dir. by Kevin Williamson (Outerbank Entertainment, Granville Productions, Columbia TriStar Television, Procter & Gamble Productions, Sony Pictures Entertainment, 1998–2003); Sabrina the Teenage Witch, dir. by Nell Scovell (Archie Comics, 1996–2003); Veronica Mars, dir. by Rob Thomas (Silver Pictures Television, Stu Segall Productions Inc. & Warner Bros. Television, 2004–2019).

⁸ The Italian media products for girls will be documented by the publications of the project A Girls’ Eye View: Girlhood on the Italian Screen since the 1950s, expected in 2025.

⁹ Romana Andò, ‘Girls and the Media: Girlhood Studies Agenda and Prospects in Italy’, gender/sexuality/Italy, 4 (2017) <https://www.gendersexualityitaly.com/7-girls-and-the-media-girlhood-studies-agenda-and-prospects-in-italy/> [accessed 20 February 2023].

¹⁰ We conducted interviews during the school year 2021–2022 with a heterogeneous group of 66 girls, encompassing different backgrounds in terms of educational level, socioeconomic status, race and religious beliefs.

¹¹ The term ‘global nomad’ is first used in Greg Richards, ‘The New Global Nomads: Youth Travel in a Globalizing World’, Tourism Recreation Research, 40.3 (2015), 340–52 (p. 340).

¹² Rosi Braidotti, Nomadic Subjects: Embodiment and Sexual Difference in Contemporary Feminist Theory (New York: Columbia University Press, 1994); Jean Baudrillard, America (London: Verso, 1988); Gill Deleuze and Félix Guattari, A Thousand Plateaus (London and New York: Continuum, 1980); Dominique Grisoni, Politiques de la philosophie (Paris: Grasset, 1976); Richards, p. 340.

¹³ Richards, p. 341.

¹⁴ Anthony D’Andrea, Global Nomads: Techno and New Age as Transnational Countercultures in Ibiza and Goa (London/New York: Routledge, 2007).

¹⁵ Greg Richards and Julie Wilson, New Horizons in Independent Youth and Student Travel: Summary Report (Amsterdam: International Student Travel Confederation (ISTC), 2003), pp. 1—41, cited in Richards, ‘The New Global Nomads’, p. 343.

¹⁶ Richards, p. 346.

¹⁷ Ibid., pp. 340–41.

¹⁸ Richards and Wilson, New Horizons in Independent Youth and Student Travel, p. 3.

¹⁹ Hipkins, ‘Figlie di papà’?: Adolescent Girls between the Incest Motif and Female Friendship in Contemporary Italian Film Comedy’, The Italianist, 35.2 (2015), 248–71 (p. 249).

²⁰ Alessandro Rossi, ‘Considerazioni sul cinema pandemico’, Il Mulino, 27 May 2021 <https://www.rivistailmulino.it/a/considerazioni-sul-cinema-pandemico> [accessed 3 January 2022].

²¹ Valentina Re, ‘Netflix all’italiana: The Netflix Experience as Narrated by Italian Users’, The Italianist, 42.2 (2022), 289–302 (p. 292).

²² Luca Barra, ‘Media: Oltre le solite storie’, Il Mulino, 8 October 2015 <https://www.rivistailmulino.it/item/2969> [accessed 24 February 2023].

²³ Andò, p. 107.

²⁴ For more information about British ‘girl power’, see Matthew Smith, The Child in British Cinema (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2022), pp. 109–42.

²⁵ Andrea Vitale, ‘Noi orfani di MTV’, Grado Zero, <https://www.rivistagradozero.com/2022/10/04/noi-orfani-di-mtv/> [accessed 20 July 2023].

²⁶ Fiona Handyside and Kate Taylor-Jones, International Cinema and the Girl: Local Issues, Transnational Contexts (London/New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016).

²⁷ Andò, p. 104.

²⁸ See, among others, Romana Andò and Danielle Hipkins, ‘Teen Identity, Affect and Sex in Rome. Italian Teen Girl Audiences and the Dissonant Pleasures of Netflix’s Underage Prostitution Drama Baby’, Studi culturali, Rivista quadrimestrale 2 (2022), 207–32; Jessica Harris, ‘Una rivoluzione sul piccolo schermo?: Le donne afroitaliane nelle fiction televisive italiane contemporanee’, Imago. Studi di cinema e media, 19 (2019), 153–64; Julia Heim and Sole Anatrone, Spaghetti Sissies. Queering Italian American Media (London/New York: Palgrave Macmillian, 2023).

²⁹ Baby, dir. by Andrea De Sica, Anna Negri and Letizia Lamartire (Netflix Italia, 2018–2020); SKAM Italia, dir. by Ludovico Bassegato (TIMvision, Netflix, Cross Productions, 2018-ongoing).

³⁰ ‘Programma Erasmus, la storia: come, dove, perché è nato’, La Repubblica, 21 July 2018 <https://ricerca.repubblica.it/repubblica/archivio/repubblica/2018/07/21/programma-erasmus-la-storia-come-dove-perche-e-natoMilano23.html> [accessed 18 February 2023].

³¹ L’auberge espagnole, dir. by Cédric Klapisch (Ce Qui Me Meut, Bac Films, Studio Canal, France 2, Cinéma, Mate Production, Castelao Productions, 2002).

³² ‘Erasmus +’, MIUR <https://www.miur.gov.it/erasmus> [accessed 18 February 2023].

³³ Eugenio Bruno, ‘L’anno all’estero è realtà per 10mila studenti’, Il Sole 24 Ore, 1 October 2019 <https://www.ilsole24ore.com/art/l-anno-all-estero-e-realta-10mila-studenti-ACQJmCo> [accessed 20 February 2023]. Brexit has substantially changed the patterns of cooperation within the framework of the EU’s main education programme Erasmus+. In fact, as of 31 December 2020, the UK is out of the Erasmus+ programme. On this see Stefan Zotti, ‘Academic Mobility After Brexit: Erasmus and the UK Post-2020’, European Journal of English Studies, 25.1 (2021), 19–33. The Erasmus programme was replaced by the Touring scheme which presents several issues; see Saroj Kumar Aryal and Adithyan Nair, ‘The Post Brexit Impact on the Students Exchange Program’, Journal of Globalisation Studies, 13.2 (2022), 76–84.

³⁴ Asmara Irfan et al., ‘Role of Social Media in Promoting Education Tourism’, Advanced Science Letters, 23.9 (2017), 8728–31 (p. 8729).

³⁵ Irfan et al., ‘Role of Social Media’, p. 8729; Rico Maggi and Loredana Padurean, ‘Higher Tourism Education in English – Where and Why?’, Tourism Review, 64 (2009), 48–58.

³⁶ ‘XIII rapporto’, Osservatorio Nazionale Intercultura <www.scuoleinternazionali.org/_files/uploads/rapporto_2022_web_1.pdf> [accessed 3 January 2022].

³⁷ Antonella De Gregorio, ‘Studiare all’estero? Roba da ragazze’, Corriere della Sera, 10 October 2018 <https://www.corriere.it/scuola/secondaria/18_ottobre_10/piu-libere-curiose-16-anni-sono-ragazze-far-valigie-studiare-0c5cd246-c880-11e8-81ab-863c582a99f0.shtml> [accessed 18 February 2023].

³⁸ De Gregorio.

³⁹ On the benefits of study abroad and economic access to this experience, see Patricia R. Hetz, Christi L. Dawson, and Theresa A. Cullen, ‘Social Media Use and the Fear of Missing Out (FoMO) While Studying Abroad’, Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 47.4 (2015), 259–72; Mary E. McMahon, ‘Higher Education in a World Market: A Historical Look at the Global Context of International Study’, Higher Education, 24.4 (1992), 465–82.

⁴⁰ Irfan et al., ‘Role of Social Media’, p. 8730.

⁴¹ Katy Ellen Anderson, ‘.Getting Acquainted with Social Networks and Apps: It is Time to Talk about TikTok’,

⁴² Daniela Jaramillo-Dent, Paloma Contreras-Pulido, and Amor Pérez-Rodríguez, ‘Immigrant Influencers on TikTok: Diverse Microcelebrity Profiles and Algorithmic (In)Visibility’, Media and Communication, 10.1 (2022), 208–21 (p. 209).

⁴³ Pier Luca Santoro ‘Quasi metà degli italiani su internet usa TikTok (che raddoppia gli utenti in un anno)’, La Repubblica, 23 January 2023, <https://www.repubblica.it/tecnologia/blog/esplorazioni-digitali/2023/01/23/news/quasi_la_meta_degli_italiani_che_usano_internet_utilizzano_tiktok-384710413/> [accessed 20 February 2023].

⁴⁴ Andò.

⁴⁵ Andreas Schellewald, ‘Communicative Forms on TikTok: Perspectives from Digital Ethnography’, International Journal of Communication, 15 (2021), 1437–57.

⁴⁶ Vilde Schanke Sundet, ‘“Youthification” of Drama Through Real-time Storytelling: A Production Study of Blank and the Legacy of SKAM’, The International Journal of Television Studies, 16.2 (2021), 145–62.

⁴⁷ Clueless, dir. by Amy Heckerling (Paramount Pictures, 1995).

⁴⁸ Rosalind Gill and Shani Ogard, ‘The Amazing Bounce-Backable Woman: Resilience and the Psychological Turn in Neoliberalism’, Sociological Research Online, 23.2 (2018), 477–95 (p. 480); Peter Dwyer and Johanna Wyn, Youth, Education and Risk: Facing the Future, 1st ed. (New York: Routledge, 2001), pp. 128–29.

⁴⁹ See Sara D. Rocks, ‘Stitched Together: What We Learn from Secret Stories in Public Media’ (unpublished doctoral thesis, University of South Florida, 2022), p. 5.

⁵⁰ Ibid., p. 5.

⁵¹ High School Musical, dir. by Kenny Ortega (Disney Channel Original Movie, 2006).

⁵² Shellewald, ‘Communicative Forms on TikTok’, p. 1451.

⁵³ Participant 4 (P4) was suggested by the Guglielmo Marconi School; they were assigned a different code as they were interviewed as an external voluntary contributor to the article. Consequently, they are excluded from the data represented in the two graphs extracted from the project’s interview sample in this article.

⁵⁴ The distinction between technical schools and licei could undoubtedly benefit from further examination, particularly from a class-based viewpoint. Future publications of the A Girls’ Eye View project will delve into this matter, as conducting an analysis of the class dynamics within these educational institutions can offer insights into the socio-economic backgrounds of the students enrolled in each type of school in Italy.

⁵⁵ Anita Harris, Future Girls. Young Women in the Twenty-First Century (New York: Routledge, 2004), p. 46.

⁵⁶ Harris, Future Girls, p. 46.

⁵⁷ Dwyer and Wyn, Youth, Education and Risk, pp. 128–29.

Additional information

Funding

This article has been produced from data extracted from the AHRC-funded project: A Girls’ Eye-View: Girlhood on the Italian Screen Since the 1950s.