Saying "flesh colored" is discriminatory

A campaign launched last year succeeded in changing the definition of "flesh-colored" in some Italian dictionaries, but the invitation is still open.

• You've probably never thought about it, but saying that something is "flesh-colored", referring to the complexion of white people, is discriminatory because it implies that that is the norm, the standard.
• The Italian “Colour carne” campaign is helping to change things and even won an award at the European diversity awards in London.
• The goal is to push more and more people to shift their gaze from what is considered normal and standard to create a more inclusive reality.

If last February we had opened the Devoto Oli dictionary, under the heading “flesh colored” we would have read:“Pale pink color similar to that of human skin.”Today, in addition to the Nuovo Devoto Oli, the Dizionario Garzanti di Italiano, the Nuovo De Mauro per Internazionale, the Treccani and the Zingarelli-Zanichelli have also changed their definition of flesh colour.

All this is thanks to one communication campaign thrown by two women, Cristina Maurelli And Giuditta Rossi, who have managed to move a small, big piece with respect to what we consider the status quo.Cristina Maurelli is an author and director who deals with cinema for social issues, teaches entertainment disciplines at university and works as a consultant for companies, as does Giuditta Rossi, who is a brand strategist and deals with multi-channel campaigns and branding .They met while working on a joint consultancy project and then became business partners first, and partners of activism Then.

“Colour Carne” is a campaign born last February

“One day I told Giuditta that under a dress she was wearing one day she should wear a flesh-colored bra:As soon as I finished saying that sentence I felt like I was dying.I said it myself, who have always fought for rights and who have focused on a thousand theatrical shows and documentaries on these topics.She started laughing, because she always goes to a shop to ask for something in her flesh color and receives something pink in return, but for me it was like an epiphany. I had simply never thought about it” says Cristina Maurelli about the birth of the campaign.The question is as simple as it is important:taking it for granted that normality is having white skin, all those who do not have it are automatically excluded.

“However, this release gave us the inspiration to work on it, so we put our craft into practice and structured a integrated advocacy campaign and designed in such a way that people could themselves give their opinion on the topic”, adds Giuditta Rossi.“The goal was to create an absolutely type of communication not blaming.We wanted to do something light, which however reveals a huge theme, namely how many things we don't see, don't hear and take for granted.”

THELanguage and representation somehow contribute to creating reality:the name we give to things is indicative of what we think and feel about them.Similar to issues related to gender identity, the skin color of the majority of speakers of a language has over time led to define a standard that the time has come to deconstruct as such.

The awareness campaign was launched with a call to action from both people and brands.The latter today have the duty to make people feel represented through their narratives, their products, but also through the corporate culture.“Flesh colour” becomes a bit of an emblem, the symbol of all those things that are taken for granted but which, by changing them, can bring a more inclusive and welcoming vision to the world.“For example, we have been contacted by various translators for cosmetics and by networks active in sustainable fashion.In areas where the issue of skin color has a practical feedback the issue was more successful.As well as with emerging brands, which have more room for maneuver" explains Giuditta Rossi.

Deconstructing the standard 

“The great effort, in fact, was initially understanding how to set up the campaign and how to find a tangible result, so we set ourselves the objective of change dictionaries.To do this we worked with both words and images:we created cards for social media with which we "hacked" the Google algorithm because people began to share cards that were not only pink so now if you write flesh-colored the wall is no longer just light pink or beige, but comes in all colours.After the social campaign something moved and some dictionaries, to which we had written before, changed the wording", continues Cristina Maurelli.“Then came the most tangible result, first came the nomination and then the award European diversity awards, in an evening with more than 600 people dealing with these very issues, for Italy there was only us.It was a satisfaction and recognition of the work of the entire community who worked to carry the message forward."

Among the community participants there are also many young people and children, from those who brought the question as an eighth grade essay to the child who does not see differences between skin tones. Italy today is much more multicultural compared to even just fifty years ago, therefore it is a more receptive terrain for a message like that of "Flesh colour", which aims to broaden the spectrum of meaning that we attribute to this expression.

“That's why we think it's important to address these aspects of language.Italy will be increasingly mixed, a land of encounters between people:we need to deal with this change. Find the words, images and ways so that every person feels represented and their identity is shown.The pale complexion is also the color of sixteenth-century painting, it is clear how the idea that Europe and white Europeans are the center of the world, the norm, is rooted there.Italian, like all Romance languages, has gods representation problems, in addition to the flesh color, let's think about the overextended masculine plural, for example.There are many things that need to be sorted out."

“Colour Carne” aims to be the demonstration of how concepts that seem harmless, particularly in language and visual representations, can instead hide bias, prejudice and discrimination.It intends to raise awareness among people and invite publishers and brands to change their vocabulary and think of new inclusive products, for a society in which everyone can feel represented.