Newspapers 'slut-shamed' Asia Argento so badly over the Weinstein saga that she's leaving Italy

The Italian actress and director Asia Argento was one of the first women to speak up out about an alleged rape by Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein. But now she's leaving Italy because she's been "slut-shamed" by the Italian press.

Argento's story, published in the New Yorker, detailed how Weinstein sexually assaulted her in a hotel room twenty years ago, when she was 21. It inspired other women to come forward and tell harrowing accounts of sexual harassment, assault and rape.

Argento has been overwhelmingly praised in the press and social media for her bravery. But in Italy the reception has been quite different.

In a TV interview with Rai 3’s "Cartabianca" show, Argento said she had to leave the country and temporarily settle in Berlin, Germany to escape the wave of misogyny and sexism that followed her after the New Yorker article.

“I don’t see what I can do there -- I’ll come back when things improve to fight alongside all the other women,” she said. "I didn't have to courage to speak until now because you see what happened, twenty years after the attack?"

Part of the criticism from some Italian newspapers and social media users revolves around the counter-argument that these celebrities should have come forward years ago (we debunked this argument here.)

While these newspapers and internet users are hardly the only ones engaging in this form of victim-blaming, the violent tone used by some is alarming and astonishing.

Far-right daily Libero, for example, published an article by Renato Farina entitled: "First they give it away, then they whine and pretend to repent." The subtitle reads: "Falling for your boss's sexual advances is prostitution, not rape."

Argento said on Twitter she would sue the newspaper for "harming her reputation and insulting her dignity as a woman":

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But Farina, the author of the column, didn't yield and published another article directed at Argento saying: "I will explain you the difference between a rapist and a pig."

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Argento told Variety she's been "slut-shamed" in the Italian press.

“I am being shamed by the Italian media, which is medieval,” she said, adding that "until the 60's you could kill your wife and it was called murder of honor, if she had cheated."

“Until 1996 rape was considered a crime against morals, not against a person," she said.

Fortunately, Argento has also received a lot of support from other women who launched a social media campaign inspired by #metoo.

Writer and radio presenter Giulia Blasi coined the hashtag #quellavoltache (that time when) which was subsequently used by Italian women to tell their stories of sexual harassment:

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