Women empowerment, emancipation, rights and many beautiful words, but then if a 24 year old girl has the courage to talk about depression on TV there is the stigma. Ema Stokholma in Sanremo Giovani missed an opportunity to remain silent.

Leaving aside the statement that R&B “died twenty years ago” – which alone would be enough to cast doubt on its presence on a musical commission – the radio speaker, television presenter and now also actress, protagonist in the series Life of Charles 3she didn’t make a good impression as the juror/columnist during the first episode of the contest broadcast on Rai 2 to choose the 4 artists who will be part of the New Proposals at the next Sanremo Festival. The challenge between Mew and Sidy was commented at length by the jurors before the vote, and if on the one hand Carolina Rey encouraged the former student of Friendswho in the last edition left the Canale 5 talent show in a moment of difficulty to take care of her mental health – as she explained last night in the presentation video – on the other hand Ema Stokholma, just to intervene and take 40 seconds of the scene too in that block, he gave vent to the most vulgar prejudice. “I just wanted to add that Mew has already had…”, so he spoke up while the director was already moving on to something else. “I really like your genre, but you’ve already had some difficulties with your approach to this world and I would be a little afraid” he insisted, as if having a moment of fragility at twenty years old, within a television program, could compromise your natural life during any other opportunity that presents itself in the future and you feel like taking advantage of it. Or, even worse, as if you can never recover from depression and it continues to stick to you, influencing everything you do and bringing with it the immovable judgment of the people around you.

Hypocrisy on live TV

And nothing, Ema Stokholma feels this responsibility very strongly: “I could be your mother I think. Mental health is important, people’s well-being is very important, so I don’t know. I don’t know if you’re really ready.” Now our TV parsley is also a psychotherapist, so attentive and sensitive to mental health that she has demonstrated the tact of a rhinoceros locked in a studio apartment.

Well done to Alessandro Cattelan for giving the last word to Mew, who once again underlined that he was fine, almost justifying himself, and then ended it there. Let’s hope Rai doesn’t end it there, instead, which should have a much more important responsibility than that flaunted by Ema Stokholma and prevent their faces from arrogating the right to pass judgment on such delicate and personal things, going so far as to say between the lines – but not even that much – of the mentally disabled to a young singer whose only “fault” was that of having shared her experience publicly, sending a very positive message, exactly as the establishment of television and social activism wants. Until one of his champions betrays himself live and we realize that everything is still sadly taboo.