[100 Challenge] Roberta Gattel_17

The women’s space, Daniela Brogi, 2022

“We talked about the importance of gaining a perspective that makes us look at the space that women didn’t have in a patriarchal system, but we also have to talk about their space, but which was made invisible." Daniela Brogi talks about material and abstract space; she talks about women's place in History as a deserved, hidden place.

She does not talk about men: men do not need to find space, writes Brogi, because they are the space. This may seem like a provocative phrase for a non-expert reader, but it is simply a fact. Just think that until a few years ago, medicines were designed and tested starting from a "standard male" between 20 and 30 years old, weighing 70 kilos and 1.70 meters tall; the design of mobile phones is based on models of male hands, which tend to be larger and which require women to adapt to objects not designed for their needs; that the average temperature of offices is calibrated to the male metabolism and this leads many women to work in situations of climatic discomfort. Or, again, safety systems are studied and designed on men, on their muscles, so that in a car accident, a woman has forty- forty-seven percent more probability than a man of being seriously injured, according to the investigation by Caroline Criado Perez.

In Italy, until 2021, VAT on sanitary pads was 22%, as for oriental carpets and sparkling wine because they were not considered a primary good (quoting a famous article by Milena Gabanelli). It is difficult to feel in control of space and to live in it at ease if it is made to measure for someone else. It is also challenging to inhabit one's body when many things that naturally concern it are considered wrong.