Looking back on what has apparenly been a historic week in global politics (the end of a 3000 year conflict in the Middle East, no less), spare a thought for Giorgia Meloni. The Italian Prime Minister had made sure to be at the Gaza Peace summit in Sharm el Sheikh. In a sea of dark suits and the odd arab thobe, there she was - in a lilac-blue version of her trademark wide-legged pant suit, which fashion folklore dictates should drown out her diminuitive figure and yet somehow it just works - only marginally avoiding looking like the blonde Smurfette who hasn’t fully severed her links to Gargamel.
The leader who has proved Italy can be a reliable ally, who has managed to change the minds of most of the international press about her party’s neo-fascist tendencies, who is often talked about as being a key interlocutor between the EU and the predictably erratic US President, was present at the most powerful gathering the world had seen in a while. What could go wrong?
Plenty has been written about the Gaza Peace Summit and the actual impact it will have on stabilising the region. Thought we don’t yet know about its long term achievements, as a news-channel-let’s-roll-on-this live event, the summit did not disappoint.
At one point the event started to aquire the air of the Miss Universe pageant that Trump used to own, with the President relating to his fellow leaders by calling out their countries’ names: “United Kingdom? Where’s the United Kingdom?” (Cue an awkward-looking Keir Starmer with the air of someone who had definitely not made the final three).
In fairness, these guys were actually trying to achieve world peace. While beauty queens just talk the world peace talk, the gathered leaders were walking the walk. Apparently.
But in the midst of contestants for most acquiescing smile, there was only one true Beauty Queen in the eyes of the main man in the room: Giorgia Meloni. Donald Trump didn’t shy away from showing his appreciation, saying this in front of the world’s cameras:
“We have a woman, a young woman who is…I’m not allowed to say it because usually it’s the end of your political career if you say it - she’s a beautiful young woman.
You don’t mind being called beautiful right? Because you are.
If you use the world ‘beautiful’ in the United States about a woman, that’s the end of your political career. But I’ll take my chances.”
Oh Donald. Chance away. It’s hardly done you any harm in the US. And in Italy, calling many, many women beautiful, far from ending your career would probably make you the country’s longest serving Prime Minister. When it comes to the public and slightly inappropriate appreciation of the female form, we are all living in the shadow of Silvio Berlusconi.
Which interestingly, is exactly what Giorgia Meloni had to contend with for most of her political life. Her first high-profile role came in 2008, when she was appointed Minister for Youth in the fourth Berlusconi government. She was only 31 which, in a country blighted by gerontocracy, made her the second-youngest ever minister since Italy’s unification. Meloni started her career in the 90s, just as Berlusconi’s TV channels were filling the airwaves with scantily clad women who acted as a kind of ubiquitous decorative TV set prop. The line between TV careers and politics started to blur, with some of those showgirls swapping TV studios for the right-wing side of the Parliamentary chamber at impressive speed.
To give Meloni her due, she was not part of that dynamic. Her career was forged in grassroots activism within the ranks of radical right parties but not at parties of a different kind. If you don’t know what I mean, look up Bunga Bunga and read this post.
But here’s the irony in what happened in Sharm el Sheikh. I don’t mean to break with the sisterhood, but in Italy Giorgia Meloni isn’t actually considered beautiful. Not just because Italian beauty standards tend to skew quite high, but also because she never used her looks to further her position, possibly realising that it could be a double-edged sword for her future political ambitions.
She is, unsurprisingly, avowedly NOT a feminist. When she was elected in the autumn of 2022 she insisted on using the male version of her title, President of the Council of Ministers, which in Italian means calling herself ‘IL’ Presidente and not ‘LA’ presidente. She has always been against female-only quotas and though she made history as Italy’s first female prime minister, she has eschewed any talk of smashing glass ceilings. Italy’s left wing opposition tends to agree with her on this, often saying that just because she is herself a woman, it doesn’t mean that her policies are feminist in nature and good for women.
Speaking of the opposition, sexism does manage to span both sides of the political spectrum. Right after the meeting in Sharm el Sheikh, the head of Italy’s biggest trade union said Meloni had acted like a courtesan with Donald Trump. In case there was any doubt, Meloni went on to tweet that the term courtesan implied prostitute, and called out the Left for its hypocrisy towards women.
Attacking the left is certainly more her comfort zone than the tight-lipped smile she showed during Trump’s shower of compliments. Maybe even Donald Trump realised that despite his hope that “You don’t mind being called beautiful, do you?” Meloni did actually mind. That may be why since the meeting in Egypt Trump has gushed on Truth Social about Meloni’s autobiography as well as reposting a video of her giving her now infamous speech “Io sono Giorgia” . Trump is playing the card that in Italy is called ‘Bella e Brava’ - Good and Beautiful - made when any accomplished woman is also pleasing on the eye. But the Brava is the cherry on the cake. It’s beauty that’s the cake.
Giorgia Meloni was the only woman in the room in Sharm el Sheikh. Unlike many of the men there, she got there by winning a democratic election in her country, of which she is the first ever female Prime Minister. These are notable accomplishments which she would say she achieved without needing preferential treatment due to her being a woman. But despite all of her achievements, it was her pleasing image for the male gaze that she was praised for.
Because that’s the problem with not calling yourself a feminist. Sure, you might not align yourself with all of the arguments of modern feminism (many feminists don’t), but despite your protestations, sexism will find you regardless.
Giorgia Meloni is one of the leading figureheads of the new global right, and arguably its most high profile female exponent. She shares what is often superficially described as the ‘war on woke’. But Meloni is a woman, and the events of Sharm el Sheikh may not be the last time that she’ll find herself unwittingly at odds with her fellow right-wing leaders.
And if you think ‘beauty-gate’ hadn’t been enough to sour the peace summit for Meloni, footage has also emerged of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan telling the Italian Prime Minister through a translator that she should quit smoking. In fairness though, patronising or not, he does have a point: It really does wreck havoc with your skin.
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