On Being Italian
About Barbara Bisanti
If you need to find my mother, you can probably see her working from home and sometimes at the office, or in the city taking me to the conservatory. She loves to read, solve math problems, and go shopping!
Could you start by telling me about your regards to your language and gender?
“Sure, I have never had any doubts that I was born as a female. Maybe some people, when I was small, might have had some doubts, because I preferred to play with boys toys..., but I think that has to do with me being more interested in technical stuff rather than toys that require imagination”. “When it comes to language, I was born and raised in Italy. At the time when I lived there, Italian was the only language that people spoke around me... Italy was at the time very monolingual.”
How important is your language and your gender to you?
“I think language is more important than gender or at least that is how I perceive it. Having moved away from Italy...and living in a foreign country has made me more conscious of my language and that’s part of the characteristics that make me feel that I am who I am. Although I became Swiss by marriage, I still consider myself very much Italian”. “Gender is less important than language, I don’t think about it that much, except when I was at the university because I studied engineering and at the time there were very few women”. “... It was very much a school for boys and you could see that because there were not any restrooms for us [females], so we had to use the boys’ restroom, which was always a bit of a challenge.” “But later on in life, I never thought my gender would make a specific difference, I was just who I was.”
Have you always felt the same about your language and gender, or has it changed over time?
“... my language and my mother tongue have gained in importance ... in defining my identity just because I moved away from the place that the language was linked to”. “In the meantime, I still feel very much like I'm Italian... When I find someone from Italy around me, it's a bit like going back. It is like feeling at home”. “When it comes to gender... growing up, I never thought about it, the university was pretty much the first time where you noticed that there was one girl among 100 boys on average”. “When I went to work, I was exposed to people who might think that if you're a woman, you should stay at home, you should not work, at least not full-time... when people asked me how much you work, they were expecting me not to work full time. So that certainly made me different from the rest in terms of my identity.”
Do you think that other people see your gender and your language differently than you?
“I do not think that anybody thinks that my mother tongue is not Italian. There was a time in my life when I used to have very short hair because I thought it was easy to deal with, maybe too short! I remember traveling to Hawaii and there actually has been one person who thought of me as not being a female, so your physical appearance might be misleading.”
When you went to school how did you feel about your gender and your language?
“Everybody was Italian. Language was not a specific marker, we were all the same”. “There were some people whose grandparents were from Milan [where I grew up] and my parents were not, so my language was purely Italian, without an accent”.
Do you think your gender or your language impacts the way you see the world?
“... this is a tricky one… my mother tongue is Italian… I might be biased… if I meet someone who speaks Italian then I immediately think that this person can relate to me more, than someone who doesn’t speak Italian… This has a lot to do with the fact that I do not live in Italy… I made a lot of Italian friends here over the years because they all speak Italian”. “In terms of gender, I think I am maybe not the typical woman, who wants to be surrounded by women...I am actually very unbiased about gender...I typically would find myself at work in meetings where I am the only woman and I don’t even notice...something needs to happen for me to realize I am a woman [discrimination].”
“But later on in life, I never thought my gender would make a specific difference, I was just who I was”.
-Barbara Bisanti
Have you ever felt discriminated against because of your gender or your language?
“The answer is yes. Gender wise as I said at work… in some cultures, women are discouraged from studying, from going to work... I have gone through it [that type of discrimination]. It’s not too bad...but I have seen it”. “...Switzerland is not particularly welcoming if you don’t speak the dialect...years ago it was even worse.”
Have you ever seen someone else discriminated against for also having your gender and your language?
“I have never seen it personally, but I have heard about it”. “The immigration from Italy to Switzerland [today] is very different than it used to be. In the old days, there used to be a lot of blue-collar workers… they didn’t have much of an education, so they were very discriminated [against]. Women… sometimes I’m actually wondering whether it’s real or not… sometimes I think people have the false perception about this kind of stuff.”
Have you ever felt proud or embarrassed about your gender and your language?
“Not about my gender…[gender] is not a unique characteristic that defines my identity in such a strong manner. About my language, yes...when I was in Italy I actually like English more than Italian...but then again after leaving Italy, I probably feel more homesick than I used to in the past [for obvious reasons], so I am actually proud of speaking a language that a lot of people actually love for the sound of it”.
Have you ever noticed that your gender and your language have put you or others in a position of privilege?
“Being Italian these days in Switzerland is a privilege as opposed to being from South-Eastern Europe. With gender, no, I would say rather the opposite… but it doesn’t affect me that much.”
Do you have any advice for young people who have similar experiences as you did?
“...I think that it’s important to be aware of your identity, but I wouldn’t make too much out of it in terms of always looking for excuses why you are not getting what you think you should be getting. You should just work harder and be better and then I think there is still some fairness in this world to be able for you to achieve what you want”.
If you could, would you like to change something about you regarding your language and your gender?
“No”.
“When I find someone from Italy around me, it's a bit like going back. It is like feeling at home”
-Barbara Bisanti
