Italian television programme suspended over ‘tutorial’ on how women should shop sexily

The model and pole dancing instructor demonstrated how to go supermarket shopping in a 'sexy' way

An Italian television programme has been suspended after airing a segment of a model in high heels and leather shorts giving a tutorial on how women should go supermarket shopping in a sexy and provocative way.

MPs from across the political spectrum called for an explanation of how the segment was allowed to air on RAI, the national broadcaster, while campaigners said it was highly offensive and put the cause of feminism in Italy back by decades.

The programme was ridiculed on social media, with many Italians saying it represented a hopelessly outdated view of the role of women in society and expectations of how they should behave.

Compounding the criticism was the fact that the programme, called Detto Fatto (Said and Done), aired on Tuesday, on the eve of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.

How to reach for an item of shopping on a high shelf, according to the segment aired earlier this week on Italian TV

The programme featured a model and pole dancing instructor, Emily Angelillo, dressed in a tight leather shorts and a cropped top demonstrating how to shop coquettishly in a supermarket.

Reaching for an item on a high shelf, she said the action could be made more sexy by jauntily lifting one leg.

Women should use the aisles of a supermarket as a “stage” on which to attract the attention of men, she said.

Fabrizio Salini, the chief executive of RAI, said the programme was an "extremely serious" case of perpetuating sexist stereotypes about women and suspended it until further notice.

Giulia Grillo, an MP from the Five Star Movement, which governs in coalition with the centre-Left, said the segment was “humiliating” to women.

Silvio Berlusconi, with his former girlfriend Francesca Pascale, who he left for an even younger woman

Credit: Getty

“It is unacceptable that the public broadcaster, which is funded by taxpayers, should air such a second-rate, low grade spectacle,” MPs from the hard-Right League party said in a statement.

The segment was reminiscent of the 1950s and encapsulated “every sexist stereotype that one could imagine,” an editorial in La Stampa newspaper said. “It drags Italy back by 70 years and has justifiably prompted a storm on social media.”

A culture of celebrating showgirls and starlets flourished when Silvio Berlusconi was in power in Italy, but the casual sexism and objectification of women seemed to have waned since he lost power in 2011.

But Italian TV can still come up with shows that to British eyes have a distinct touch of Benny Hill about them.