On this first Monday of the month, RBL is pleased to share Giorgia Succi‘s interview – feminist, author and host of Ai Amazones together with co-host Cristina Legovic.
1. Tell us something about you. Who are you, where are you from and what do you do in life?
I was born and raised in Turin. I’ve earned a postgraduate diploma in Comparative Cultural Studies from the University of Turin and later a master degree in Feminist History and Literature from the University of Stirling (Scotland). I lived in London and Glasgow, where I studied and worked. In 2018, I published a book on lesbian-feminist history and literature (La parola alle Amazzoni. Scenario artistico-letterario da Lesbo a Hollywood– Robin Edizioni) and I’m committed to spreading knowledge about women’s and feminist culture online, and I’m an independent lecturer and researcher. For a few years, I’ve taught literary subjects in primary and middle schools.
2. When did you first feel the urgence to celebrate and pass on women’s and feminist’s tradition? How did you get involved in this topic?
Since middle school, my curiosity about female subjectivity made me want to learn more about the lives of women from every discipline during my studies. To celebrate and to pass on the female and feminist tradition became a necessity and something to be proud of since the first years of University – a necessity that became more structured later, when I obtained my master degree in Feminist History and Literature.
3. What experiences led you to get involved with the radio? How did you discover RBL in particular and why did you decide to join its community?
The need of spreading and supporting women’s culture through a medium of immediate communication, in which music and talk could meet and result in an effect of immediacy. I learned about RBL some years ago thanks to a high school mate, who took an active part in the project from its very beginning. The dynamism and variety of RBL’s reality convinced me to collaborate and become an active member.
4. Your radio show enables you to accomplish your mission in spreading awareness about the topics you care about, but there’s no doubt you can also entertain and inform the audience. Before going on air, how do you choose specific matters concerning women and their history when you get an episode of Ai Amazones ready? In what way do you analyze them in a feminist perspective?
I’ve discovered – and keep discovering – that the study and deepening of women’s history and literature is an endless process. Every day – also thanks to my job as a teacher – I learn about so many women who made themselves protagonists in every field, during each revolution and historical event. These people are rarely mentioned, studied or deepened as historical characters, though. At its beginning, talking about all these women in Ai Amazones seemed impossible: that’s how I came up with the idea of planning chronological and thematic cycles, in which I could tell something more about some of these incredible women. The first episodes revolved around the most important women in history: from matriarchy to present days, in order to focus on the activists from the first and second feminism later.
The choice of the women I talk about together with Cristina Légovic – co-host of Ai Amazones – is, therefore, driven by the specific knowledge that each of them specialized about, besides their charming personal and professional stories. All the women we discuss can be defined feminist? No. From the beginning, one of the goals of Ai Amazones was that of giving directions to our listeners to conduct a feminist analysis on the history and on the actions regarding the women we talk about. However, the feminist vision and perspective remains the subtext of each episode.
5. Is your show mainly directed to a female target or does it address a male audience, too? Do you believe that the topics you discuss in Ai Amazones are understood differently by the female audience on the one hand, and by the male audience on the other hand?
Ai Amazones was created to spread feminist and women’s culture and subjectivity: therefore, it’s inevitable that the main receivers are women, who can discover and deepen together with us figures of common yet exceptional women that history didn’t tell us about – women that are an example and in whom they can find strength and courage. For Ai Amazones, the fundamental point is the feminist concept of network and sisterhood among conscious and assertive women, who fought against patriarchal prejudices, discrimination and violence. However, a male audience is for sure welcome when it comes to listen and learn about women’s history. Anyway, I believe that there’s a difference in reception: for women, learning about the existence, the work and the ideas of other women is a re-discovery also for themselves. For men, it can instead be an interesting discovery, but less revolutionary, if we consider that they could’ve found themselves in a boundless number of men, since they were children.
6. Do you believe that, 20 years ago, it would have been different to host a show basing its roots on feminism and related topics? Would have you done it anyway in different times from those in which we’re living?
Twenty years ago, the greatest portion of the Feminist Movement had disappeared from universities. It had historically lost its revolutionary scope, lots of groups composed of women only had split because they didn’t have any more shared objectives and pop culture absorbed and removed what was considered subversive of the previous feminist ideas. I think that it must have been brave to host a feminist radio show in 2000, in a tremendous reactionary and conservative Italy. Would have I done it anyway? Most likely, yes!
7. What has RBL given you in these years?
It has given me the opportunity to discover a medium I knew little about, to learn techniques of recording and assembling, to explore the format in a totally free way and to meet many different people, having different interests.
8. Which RBL’s shows do you enjoy the most and why? Is there any host that you specifically admire?
Capoversi, Booksound, Radio Rumenta, Taste the Roots, Onde Martenot: the first three because of their topics and formats, the last two because of their music selection. I’ve known Albafairy, Roberto Lupano and Joe Rock for several years, and I had the opportunity to collaborate and talk with them – we mutually respect each other. A host I certainly admire is Cristina Légovich, with whom I’ve hosted Ai Amazones for many years now.
9. Is there any song or soundtrack that you feel represents you or that is particularly important to you? Can you share it with us?
Cherry Bomb by The Runaways: it’s not just Ai Amazones’ music intro, but a real “bomb” of music and lyrics made by women for women!
AUTORI-tratti is the series of interviews dedicated to getting to know better the hosts from all RBL’s hubs.
Project curated by Valeria Alimandi Graphics by Chiara Manchovas
