A Philosophical Cappuccino With Giada Biaggi
Giada Biaggi is a writer, journalist and aspiring fashion-comedian, with a Master’s degree in Philosophy. After a few months of listening and enjoying her podcast Philosophy & the City –the “YouPorn of Scientific Divulgation”, introducing sexiness in culture and philosophy– we grabbed a coffee with her to discuss philosophy, comedy, feminism and fashion.
@giadabgg
23/2 at 11:0 AM, Ester and Emanuela have an informal talk with writer and comedian Giada Biaggi in front of three hot cups of cappuccino.
On what you can expect to find in Philosophy & the City.
“Buongiorno a tutte e a tutti e a tutt*”. Where does the idea for the iconic podcast intro come from?
This intro came to my mind when I was working on the video newscast “Vagina Breaking News” for the Wovo store in Milano, where I gave updates on feminism-related news in a fun way, something like: “I am wearing black because the news today is that the patriarchy is dead!” Buongiorno a tutte e a tutti e a tutt* was my intro. The issue of pronouns among feminists and the LGBTQ+ community is relevant, however there is the risk of being a little bit too pedant/doctrinaire, so I made up that formula in order to play it down. I never take things too seriously!
When listening to Philosophy & the City we enter in a type of microcosm where philosophy pills meet pop culture. Where does the idea of mixing these different worlds come from?
It belongs to me. I felt that a project like that was missing, that’s why it caught the attention of many people soon. I have always been fascinated by "frivolous" things like fashion and clothes. I have a PhD in Philosophy but I alway felt like I didn’t really fit in the academic environment –I was the best dressed. It all started from a feeling of inadequacy.
I wanted to give to my podcast a specific aesthetic, as you can guess from the pulp-ish thumbnail, and create something informative but with an aesthetic dimension as well, in order to make culture and comedy cool and appealing.
@giadabgg
On Giada between comedy and feminism.
After you graduated, you started writing as well as performing stand-up comedy at night. How did you end up in comedy?
I always knew I had comedic side inside of me. Two years ago, I started doing stand-up comedy in small local Milanese bars, but I never felt 100% comfortable in that environment. I feel that there are some established comedian formulas –such as Nord-Sud stereotypes– in which my sense of humour (and my period jokes) didn’t fit in. Aside from being informative, my podcast is genuinely humorous/comic.
If I had to imagine visually my comedy, it would be as if Lolita from Woody Allen movies would have started to make wittier jokes than him. That’s what I’d like to do.
Where do you get your inspiration from? And who are your role models?
I look up to contemporary American female stand-up comedians, such as Catherine Cohen, who mixed music with comedy creating some funny hits like I can make myself come with my hands. Also Lena Dunham from Girls, who made me realize that a female version of Woody Allen can exist. Also, they are style icons! Content and aesthetics are linked in a way that presents women in a revolutionary way: making people laugh makes it easier to start a conversation about feminism with the public.
As far as writers, I enjoy the works of Ottessa Moshfegh, author of My Year of Rest and Relaxation– which Yorgos Lanthimos will soon adapt into a film. She’s super cool and she also modeled for Proenza Schouler. Definitely an outsider with the strongest aura.
@giadabgg
Which books would you recommend to university students?
Ripartire dal Desiderio by Elisa Cuter. She managed to engage in storytelling ranging from Marx to Britney Spears, all framed in an aesthetic imaginary. Moreover, the author often chooses a first-person narrative and I believe that nowadays autobiography is needed more than anything, i.e. with social media we tell a lot about ourselves to the world. There is a lot of egocentricity in this epoch which can be perfectly reflected in a more complex form of art like a book or a movie.
Then The Appointment (Or, The Story of a Cock) by Katharina Volckmer, a London-based, German writer whose essay is about her recurrent dream to have sex with Hitler. The whole thing is really funny since I lived in Berlin for a year and there you cannot even mention him. The book is thought-provoking w.r.t. Modern-censorship (do noy say this, do not say that, do not show your nipples…) and what not, talking about Hitler can represent and what the implications might be.
Speaking about female intellectual models, there is a stereotype of the intellectual and educated woman as sloppy and disinterested about her appearance. You seem to disrupt this unwritten rule to embrace aesthetics as well.
To me, it seems like there is a unique and stereotyped representation of intellectual women (in Italy), who is unbothered by appearance and looks and mediated in a univocal way. For example, in the Italian show Che tempo che fa (regarded as intellectual), there is one good looking girl, Filippa Lagerbäck, who barely speaks and Luciana Littizzetto, the comedian, who makes jokes while sitting on the desk annoying the male host (who continuously tells her to behave). Dynamics like these don’t help women to feel accepted and empowered for sure. Female comedy should be normalized, with shades of comedy and characters, without being at one of the two extremes. I’m a cute girl, I like shoes! But I can also make jokes. You don’t need to be extreme for that.
@giadabgg
On Giada between character and reality.
Is the Giada we see in stand-up comedy and the podcast the same Giada of everyday life? And to what extent your tales are true to reality?
Yes, they are. I consider myself quite Woody-Allenian in my art, I am self-reported. To look like a frivolous girl but to be a cultured woman, it made me suffer at times, and I turned this paradox into comedy– comedy always implies wearing a "mask"– as a way to get rid of this feeling.
In your experience, have you ever felt labeled as a “frivolous” girl and therefore underestimated when talking about deep topics? It feels like you have to prove yourself even more when you’re good looking in order to be taken seriously.
One of the disadvantages of being a woman is having to give a justification for how you look. Men never to explain themselves. As a journalist, I get to interview many women that also feel the same way as I do. There are other women that want to carry on the same kind of comedy here in Italy, yet we have not been able to due to a system that has prevented us from doing so, that doesn’t want us to express ourselves and doesn’t want to listen.
When I was doing stand-up comedy, everyone told me that I would never become successful with my sense of humour, however I knew the stand up comedians I looked up to had made it and this made me feel strong enough to pursue my goals. We have to educate the public on what’s new.
On the philosophical side of fashion.
In your podcast you quoted Georg Simmel, who is the first philosopher to treat fashion as an object of philosophical inquiry. Where do you think fashion and philosophy are linked?
Everyone in a certain epoch wears certain things related to their era; no one today wears a renaissance style gown with a hard-wear structure underneath. Subcultures are also characterized by the way people dress, for instance French existentialists used to wear little foulards around their neck. Even the people who state they do not care about fashion, are actually making a fashion statement: you care about the fact that you don’t care. Everyone is a member of a society, so it is kind of impossible to be completely out of the fashion-discourse. Even if you think you don’t make fashion choices, you are choosing not to choose, which might even be a shrewder choice.
I would love to explore a bikini stand-up comedy, the latter would be a true revolution: wearing a bikini, symbol of female subjugation, and turning it into whatever you want that bikini to be, by giving it a new value. For instance, the tailleur has become a political statement.
On social media and digital identity.
In your opinion, has the presence on social media today become essential to the point where we’re not able to choose anymore whether to have a virtual identity or not?
It depends on whether you can afford to be at the margin of the net. If you make self-produced content, like my podcast, Instagram is the easiest way to make it known to a wider audience. However, I am quite skeptical about being completely off social media– aside from cases like Ottessa Moshfegh who already is well-known as a literary statement. It’s way too easy to say Instagram sucks, it means not being contemporary/modern. Sometimes I read books where the main character doesn’t have a smartphone and is alienated from technology… I believe in revolutions that come from within: let’s approach Instagram from a new perspective, forget mirror selfies and let’s look at it as a means of sharing and spreading ideas. That’s the good in it. Social media are here and they will be there, let’s learn how to make the best out of them.
Trailer by @attimino_collective