Better fascist that gay - Mussolini's granddaughter

[arcos]

Better fascist that gay - Mussolini's granddaughter

ROME (Reuters) - The granddaughter of Italy's wartime dictator Benito Mussolini has defended being a fascist by saying it was better than being a "faggot".

Alessandra Mussolini's televised derogatory remarks came less than a month after Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi welcomed her far-right political party into his coalition before a general election in April.

Mussolini, proud of her ancestral ties to "Il Duce", had been criticised by a drag queen-turned-politician about being a fascist on Italian TV talk show Porta a Porta.

<snip>

"Better to be a fascist than a faggot," Mussolini said, using the highly offensive Italian word "frocio", according to Porta a Porta's press office.

<snip>

http://today.reuters.co.uk/misc/PrinterFriendlyPopup.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=uri:2006-03-09T200512Z_01_L09643994_RTRUKOC_0_UK-ITALY-MUSSOLINI.xml

[ReadTomPaine]

1. She's been a loose cannon for some time in the US air base called Italy.

[NVMojo]

2. good grief!

[Nostradammit]

3. Jeez, she looks so reasonable in the photo

Heh heh

[SpiralHawk]

7. That's because Ann Coulter is her Ideal

Side note: if I recollect rightly, the term 'facist' originally mean to bind, or tie together, a bunch of faggots (sticks of kindling).

[TechBear_Seattle]

10. Etymology of "fascist" and "faggot"

You are right, the two words are related, sort of.

"Faggot" derives from the Latin word fagus, or "beech tree." Beeches were sacred to Jupiter, and there was a highly respected school of priests who would sit in beech groves and derive oracles from the sound of the wind in the leaves. Like all Roman priesthoods, they were bound by very strict taboos; this priesthood had to abstain from sex with any female while serving as an oracle. Because such a rule was less onerous to someone with little interest in women, it is believed that this priesthood attracted many homosexual men. Fagus was used in early Christian polemics to denounce the perceived immorality of paganism; as challengers to Christian dominance died off, it came to be used specifically against gay men. It is interesting to note that charges of "sodomy" were leveled by the Inquisition against male witches (there were more than a few), the charge was often based on nothing more than the presence of beech trees near the accused's home, or amulets or other "magical" items made from the wood of the beech tree. And of course, since the Inquisition records were kept in Latin, the word fagus was used. (Information from Another Mother Tongue by Judy Grahn, Witchcraft and the Gay Counterculture by Arthur Evans, and other sources.)

"Fascist" is a modern Italian form of earlier Latin fagotto (I think I have the form right), literally meaning "little beech" and used to describe a beech twig. A bundle of beech twigs tied together was called a fascis, Latin for "bundle"; such bundles were frequently used to represent the god Jupiter. Early in the Roman Empire, the fasces (note the slightly different spelling) became a symbol of the state's power, with government officials having the right to carry them in formal processions. Outside the traditional boundaries of the city of Rome, fasces included an axe, indicating that the magistrate had the power to decide life or death cases; within Rome, the axe was removed except for those used by the Emperor. (No cites, just stuff I've picked up.)

From fagotto, through Middle French fagot (bundle of sticks), we get the English word "faggot" to mean a bundle of sticks and latter, a bundle used specifically as kindling (which is where British English gets "fag" to mean a cigarette, ie a smoldering twig of tobacco.) The combining of "bundle of sticks" and "homosexual" into the same word appears around the middle of the 15th century, rejoining two different meanings of the same original word.

[Richardo]

16. Also, fagotti = Italian for 'bassoon'

Which of course looks like a bundle of sticks.

Still, you didn't want to be a bassoon player in high school and see 'fag.' or 'fagotti' on the sheet music. Kids are relentlessly jerky about stuff like that.

[Flubadubya]

25. I had also heard that "faggot" got its derogatory implications...

from the Spanish Inquisition. While heretics and witches (worst offenders) were burned upon huge ceremonial pyres and were the "focal point" of the ritual conflagration, those accused of being homosexuals (lesser players) were tied to bundles of smaller sticks, or faggots, surrounding the pyre and burned. Thus homosexuals became associated with the word faggot.

This is the story I have always heard about the etymology of the term. Makes sense to me. :shrug:

[TechBear_Seattle]

28. There is no record at all of anything like that happening

At least, not that I have ever heard of. If the Inquisition was anything, it was neurotic about keeping complete and accurate records.

Keep in mind that burning at the stake was supposed to be a very slow, extremely painful way to die. The fire was kept deliberately low, usually little more than glowing embers hot enough to crisp the skin but not enough to bring death outright. The victim was supposed to linger as long as possible, with the idea that this was but a short, relatively pleasant foretaste of the eternal flames of Hell. Death might come hours after the fire was lit, either from massive system shock or from smoke inhalation. Homosexuals were seen by the medieval church as among the highest ranks of sinners; it would have been far too merciful to use them to light the fires and let them die quickly. And anyway, people make for lousy kindling.

The two meanings of "faggot" -- a bundle of twigs and a male homosexual -- came back together in the mid 15th century; that was when the Inquisition was reaching its height in much of Europe. The legend you cite most likely comes from poor translation of records which show the dual usage.

[Blue_Tires]

29. thanks for the explanation!

[mondo joe]

15. Post of the day, IMO.

She makes Coulter look almost sane.

[xchrom]

4. obviously her stylist, make up person,

and hair dresser are gay -- and not happy.

[ReadTomPaine]

5. That's assuming she's wearing clothes. Google her name...

Appears as tho she's got a problem staying dressed in front of cameras.

[xchrom]

6. lol -- fascists and conservative christians

seem to have problems with little things like that.

[leveymg]

9. You mean this photo? >

Is she really sure about that better fascist than gay stuff?

[Ben Ceremos]

26. Would not such a criticism

imply that she has experience of both conditions? Why is it that 'fascisti' ALWAYS put their emotions in gear before using their brains? Anyway, as a married hetero w/kid and a wonderful wife, I would rather turn gay than fascist, but I would rather burn a fascist than a faggot.

[meganmonkey]

12. True, but I bet she always wears great shoes!

Of course, so does Condisleeza

:P

[no_hypocrisy]

8. Let me get this straight: It's better to be a heterosexual fascist than

to be a gay democratist. Okay. . . I don't get it.

[henslee]

11. And if you're a gay fascist? Watchout.

[MrPrax]

13. Is she a fascist...

or the newest CNN anchor...




Hard to Tell these days...Both have TV shows

TV's Aryan Sisterhood

Oops...seems to be a not-so-subtle motif for propaganda these days...


Get Behind Denmark!! Yuk Yuk

[Solly Mack]

14. OK. What I'm hearing is: Suppressed sexuality leads to fascism

So if you suppress who you really are sexually, you become a fascist.

Cause well, there's a whole lot of misdirected anger in her statement.

[Binka]

17. Look How Happy The Hubby Is Here!

A picture of joy....maybe he's gay....

[Solly Mack]

18. Maybe he's just ashamed of her

But then, he did marry a fascist...so maybe that's his way of looking like a "serious" fascist.

Dunno...but that woman has a lot of anger inside her. All misdirected.

[anotherdrew]

19. fascist's are all sadists and ass-rapers anyway, she knows this too

fascists - they all know it too, they are nothing but psychopaths, and they should be hunted down, identified by tests and isolated from the general population.

[Rocknrule]

20. Classic Republican talking point

"Better facist than gay" (or black, or liberal, or...)

[cmkramer]

21. Sophia Loren

Her younger sister was married to Mussolini's son. I wonder if that's her daughter.

[NYC]

22. Was Benito Mussolini's son Romano Mussolini, the jazz pianist?

Yes. Answered my own question.

Alessandra Mussolini's parents:

Father: Romano, third son of Benito Mussolini.
Mother: Maria Scicolone, Sophia Loren's younger sister.

[Endangered Specie]

23. Say what you will about her... at least she admits to being a fascist...

unlike our breed...

[arcos]

24. Well...

If Ann Coulter's last name were Mussolini, I'm sure she would be a proud and open fascist :P

[Ben Ceremos]

27. But Man Coulter

isn't a real woman anyway...She's only half-bred.