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Short Stuff: Franca Viola · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to the Short Stuff. I'm Josh, and
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Chuck's here and Jerry's here for Dave, So that makes
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: this an official short stuff.
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: That's right, And we're going to issue a trigger warning
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: on this one. Part of the story has to do
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: with sexual assault, so we just wanted to kind of
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: let everyone know that that's coming. But ultimately this is
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: a story of courage and bravery.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah. So if you go down to Sicily and southern
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: Italy and ask them what a fou atina is, they
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: will say, huh, we don't really do that anymore, but
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: we'll tell you what it is anyway. It means sudden escape,
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: and in its most benign form, it was a way
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: for couples who were consenting. They wanted to get married,
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: but their families were like, no, we don't approve of
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: this union, and therefore you can't get married. It was
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: a way for them to elope all right. So the
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: fu atina was essentially an elopement. The key to the
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: fu atina, though, was that the couple would wait a
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: little while, say a week, and then they would return
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: home and their families would presume that over the course
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: of that week this couple had had premarital sex. So
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: when they came back, the couple was like, now you
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: have to agree to letting us get married. And in fact,
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: it's going to be a specific type of marriage that's
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: prescribed by law and socially it's called the matrimonial repertory.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: It's called a rehabilitating marriage. Right.
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: That's right, and that was a legal thing. It was
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: a socially accepted thing to where you could restore honor
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: to that bride. It was a loophole if he wanted
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: to get married and your parents didn't like he were
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: getting married to. But there was a very dark version
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: of this in which a man could take a woman
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: that he wanted to marry even if she didn't want to.
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: He could take her away, he could kidnap her, he
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: could hold her against her will, he could sexually assault her,
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: and then in the same way that that elopement, which
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: was consensual would have to be, you know, could restore
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: that marriage. They would then come back with a woman
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: and say, well, you are now a tainted woman. If
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: your damaged goods, no one's going to marry you. So
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: if you want to restore your honor and you want
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  Speaker 2: to have a family, one day and be married. Then
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: you have to marry me your maybe your captor and assault.
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And so it's a no win situation here, right,
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: because if you wanted to be not ostracized by your community,
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: if you wanted to ever get married, because no one
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: would marry you after you were essentially teened goods because
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: you had been sexually assaulted by this man. The only
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: way out of it was to consent to this rehabilitating
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: marriage because it would restore your honor and then also conveniently,
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: it erased any criminal act that had led to that marriage. Legally,
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: it let the man off the hook for kidnapping in
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: sexual assault because the woman had married her him, even
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: though she had no choice. If she ever wanted to
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: get married and say, have kids, her only chance now
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: was with the man who had kidnapped and sexually assaulted her.
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: That's just how that worked.
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah. So this was a thing that went seemingly completely
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: unchallenged as far as anyone knows, until the mid nineteen sixties,
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: when a woman named Franka Viola came along and said no.
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: In nineteen sixty three, in her hometown of Alcamo, she
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: was fifteen years old, she was engaged to a twenty
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: three year old nephew of a Sicilian mafioso. His name
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: was Filippo Melodia, and they were headed toward marriage, but
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: he got nabbed for a crime for theft. Six months
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: into their engagement, she broke it off. He fled to
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: Germany to escape this, going to prison basically, and while
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: he was gone she became engaged. She fell in love
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: to another guy, this guy she grew up with named
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: Giuseppe Ruisi, her former fiance. I guess Melodia came back
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: in nineteen sixty five, said I want you back, and
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: she said, no, I really love this guy. I'm staying
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: with him.
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah. So Melodia kept trying over and over again to
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: win her back, and she kept saying no every time,
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  Speaker 1: so as each time he was becoming angrier and angrier,
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: and also he was humiliated every time that she turned
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  Speaker 1: him down. So he hatched a plan where he would
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  Speaker 1: kidnap Franca from her home. He and fifteen other men
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  Speaker 1: did on the day after Christmas in nineteen sixty five,
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  Speaker 1: and he held her at a farmhouse and he sexually
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: assaulted her there over the course of a week, which
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  Speaker 1: effectively triggered that matrimonial repertory, like it gave her no
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: choice at that point. Then after the week she was released,
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  Speaker 1: and then as part of this custom, initially Melodia and
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: his accomplices were arrested, but the choice was up to
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  Speaker 1: Franca to press charges or to marry the guy. That
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: was her choice. And again, up to this point, as
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: far as we know, every single woman put in this
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: position agreed to marry the person who kidnapped and sexually
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: assaulted her.
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: That's right. So I feel like that's halfway point. It's
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: a good time for a break, and we'll tell you
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: what happened right after this, all right. So I actually
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: kind of spoiled it earlier when I said that she
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: said no, But that's exactly what happened. Franca, very very
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: bravely decided to press charges, and like you said, she
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: was the first woman in modern times, maybe of all times,
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: to say I'm not participating in this. Even though her
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: honor was tarnished, her family's reputation was tarnished, They got threats,
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: their barn and their vineyard were burned down because remember
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: this is a nephew of a mafioso, so some heavy
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: things were going down and these guys were arraigned for trial.
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  Speaker 2: It became an international story in nineteen sixty six. They
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  Speaker 2: knew he did it, so it wasn't like did you
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  Speaker 2: do it or not? He basically said no, no, no,
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: I was love sick. She loved me too, and it
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: was the parents who didn't approve. So this is just
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: like a good old fashioned eloping. What was that called,
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: It's like a good old fashioned fuitina. And she said this,
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: I am the property of no one. No one can
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  Speaker 2: force me to love a person I do not respect.
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  Speaker 2: Honor is lost by the one who does certain things,
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: not the one who was subjected to the right.
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: She also said to him directly from the stand, I
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: do not love you. I will not marry you. And
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: she was despite she was going against all custom. And again,
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: like I think it's worth pointing out, her family stood
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: by her and rather than pressuring her to do you
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: know what the community and society wanted her to do.
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: That was extremely brave of them as well, and in
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: return for her bravery and courage she won. Melodia lost
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: his case and because rape and kidnapping were still crimes
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: in Sicily and Italy, he was sentenced to eleven years
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: in prison, ended up serving ten, and seven of his
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: fifteen accomplices were received four year sentences each. And I
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: guess kind of joyously two years after Filippo Melodia got
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: out of prison, so he spent ten years in prison.
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: Within two years he'd been gunned down Modina in Italy
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: famous for its balsamic vannegar.
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: So the media, you know, got a hold this story,
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: like I said earlier, and you might think like the
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: media talked about like just how awful this was. They
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: did in a way, but the media in Italy also
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: talked about how pretty she was, and there were on
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: TV there were panel discussions where they talked to local
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: men about like, hey, like you know, she's good looking,
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: would you still marry her? And you know they were
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: all like no, I still wouldn't marry her. So the
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: media coverage was just very sexist and not fair. But
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: she did get married to Giuseppe. They were married December
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: nineteen sixty eight. She was twenty by this time, he
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: was twenty five years old, and it was a like
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: it was a national celebration basically when she got married.
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah, surprisingly there was a huge happy ending of this
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  Speaker 1: Giuseppe's another person who deserves credit for standing by her too.
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  Speaker 1: He was honestly the only chance. He was the only
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: man who could step up and restore her honor because
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: essentially she they got married under a matrimonial raprare. And yeah,
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  Speaker 1: it was a celebration by the country, so much so
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: that Italy's president, and I think Mashable pointed this out,
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: Italy's president directly sent them a wedding president of forty dollars,
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  Speaker 1: which would be over two hundred and fifty dollars today,
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  Speaker 1: and the transport minister gave them a month of free
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: railway rides. So like this woman went rail pass Yeah,
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: pretty much. I mean a month of it. That's pretty
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: good for a newly whit couple, right. Yeah, So they
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: she went from scorned and people in the media talking
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: about how her life was basically over, she was going
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: to be a spinster to being celebrated in Italy by
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: the very people who had essentially tried to pressure her
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: into submitting to Melodia's advances.
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and this was nineteen sixty six when it happened.
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: He would think, well, in nineteen sixty seven, they probably
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: got rid of this thing, not so it wasn't. It
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: took till nineteen eighty one to repeal that law, which
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: is staggering. I can't believe it took that long.
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the foutina is still around in the rehabilitation. Marriage
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: is still around. But the key is that if you
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: rape the woman, you are no longer off the hook
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: if she marries you. And yeah, the fact that it
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: took more than a decade is a little unnerving, but
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: that was one of the things that she did. She
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: kind of shined an international spotlight on this really backwards custom,
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: and Italy and Sicily were kind of like shrinking a
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: little bit in the spotlight because it just made them
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: look so bad. So that was one thing she did.
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: And also she was credited for inspiring no less than
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: four women in the same situation to press charges on
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: their abductor and assault her by the time she even
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: got the trial. Who knows how many she she inspired
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: after that. So she changed this custom that was so
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: old you can't even tell when it would have began.
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure. If you do think, why haven't I
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: seen this movie, well you can. There's a filmmaker named
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: Marta Savina who had an award winning short film called Viola,
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: and she turned that into a feature film called Prima
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: Donna or The Girl from Tomorrow.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, and in an even happier part of the happy
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  Speaker 1: ending on International Wednesday. In twenty fourteen, President Giorgio Napolitano
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: bestowed on Franca the honor of Grande Officiale del ordinae
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: el Marito della Republica Italiana, which means that she was
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: essentially knighted for her active bravery. Amazing, amazing, huge hat
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: tip to m I had never heard of Franko Viola
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: until she mentioned her to me. I think she sent
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: me an article a while back, so yeah, I appreciate that.
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: I think the whole world does now. Yeah.
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: Did she was it from the did she see the
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: movie or was it just from something she read.
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: I think she ran across something like an article on
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: the internet and send it to me, So yeah, I
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: want to check check out that movie. Let's see what
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: that's like. Yeah, and a huge hat tip to Franco
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: Viola too for being so brave. That's just what an
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: amazing story. Agreed Chucks That agreed short Stuff is out.
• 12:24
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• 12:26
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