Short Stuff: Franca Viola

Summary

Stuff You Should Know: Short Stuff Episode - Franca Viola

Release Date: December 4, 2024
Hosts: Josh and Chuck
Producer: iHeartPodcasts

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Introduction

In the "Short Stuff" segment of the Stuff You Should Know podcast, hosts Josh and Chuck delve into the compelling and courageous story of Franca Viola, a Sicilian woman who challenged deep-seated societal norms in Italy. This episode sheds light on the archaic custom of fuitina, its implications, and how Franca Viola became a symbol of resistance and change.

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Understanding Fuitina

Josh begins by explaining the traditional Sicilian practice of fuitina:

*"The fuotina was essentially an elopement... It was a way for couples who were consenting to get married despite their families' disapproval" (00:53).

In its benign form, fuitina allowed couples to escape parental opposition and marry without immediate family consent. However, Chuck reveals the darker side of this custom:

"There was a very dark version in which a man could take a woman he wanted to marry even if she didn't want to... hold her against her will, sexually assault her... and then claim it as a rehabilitation marriage" (01:58).

This abusive practice forced women into marriages with their assailants to restore their honor, effectively nullifying any criminal acts committed against them.

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Franca Viola's Defiance

Chuck introduces Franca Viola's pivotal role in challenging fuitina:

"In the mid-1960s, Franca Viola said no. She was the first woman in modern times to refuse this practice." (03:47).

Josh recounts Franca's personal story:

"In 1963, at 15 years old, Franca was engaged to Filippo Melodia, a nephew of a Sicilian mafioso. Six months into their engagement, she broke it off, leading Melodia to flee to Germany." (04:50).

When Melodia returned in 1965 to rekindle their relationship, Franca remained steadfast:

"She told Filippo, 'I do not love you. I will not marry you,' directly from the stand." (09:41).

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Legal and Social Ramifications

Following her refusal, Melodia kidnapped and sexually assaulted Franca to force a fuitina, expecting her to marry him post-assault to restore his honor. However, Franca took an unprecedented stand by pressing charges instead of succumbing to societal pressure:

"Franca bravely decided to press charges, challenging the very foundation of this oppressive custom." (08:29).

Her actions led to significant legal consequences for Melodia and his accomplices:

"Melodia was sentenced to 11 years in prison, serving 10, while seven of his 15 accomplices received four-year sentences each." (09:41).

Despite severe backlash, including threats and the destruction of her family's property, Franca's family supported her unwaveringly, highlighting a shift in societal attitudes.

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Impact and Legacy

Franca Viola's defiance had profound implications for Italian society and law:

1. Legal Reforms: It wasn't until 1981 that fuitina was officially repealed, partly due to the spotlight Franca brought to the issue.

2. Media Attention: While Chinese media often portrayed Franca's beauty, they also exhibited pervasive sexism, questioning her value beyond her appearance. Nevertheless, Franca's story inspired other women to resist similar abuses, fostering a movement against fuitina.

3. Personal Triumph: Franca married Giuseppe Ruisi in December 1968, celebrating her freedom and resilience. Their union was so celebrated that Italy's President personally sent them a wedding gift, and the Transport Minister awarded them a month of free railway rides—a testament to national recognition of her bravery.

4. Cultural Representation: Franca's story was immortalized in film. Marta Savina created an award-winning short film titled Viola, which was later expanded into the feature film Prima Donna (The Girl From Tomorrow).

5. Honors: On International Women's Day in 2014, President Giorgio Napolitano honored Franca with the title Grande Officiale del Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana, acknowledging her as a knight for her bravery.

Josh reflects on Franca's enduring legacy:

"She shined an international spotlight on this really backwards custom. She inspired numerous women to stand up against oppression." (12:17).

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Conclusion

Franca Viola's story is a poignant example of individual courage catalyzing societal change. By refusing to adhere to oppressive traditions, she not only reclaimed her own autonomy but also paved the way for future generations to challenge and dismantle unjust customs. Her legacy continues to inspire movements against gender-based violence and societal coercion worldwide.

"A huge hat tip to Franca Viola for being so brave. What an amazing story." (14:50).

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Notable Quotes:

• Chuck: "This is just like a good old fashioned fuitina. And she said this. I am the property of no one." (09:25)

• Josh: "The Fuotina is still around and the rehabilitation marriage is still around. But the key is that if you rape the woman, you are no longer off the hook if she marries you." (12:17)

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Acknowledgments:

• Yumi is thanked for bringing Franca Viola's story to the hosts' attention, emphasizing the importance of sharing such impactful narratives.

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Further Resources:

• Film: Prima Donna (The Girl From Tomorrow) – A feature film based on Franca Viola's story.
• Recognition: Grande Officiale del Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana awarded to Franca Viola.

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Note: Advertisements and non-content sections from the transcript have been omitted to focus solely on the impactful story of Franca Viola.

Transcript

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[Josh]

Hey, and welcome to the Short Stuff. I'm Josh, and Chuck's here, and Jerry's here for Dave. So that makes this an official short stuff.

[Chuck]

That's right. And we're gonna issue a trigger warning on this one. Part of the story has to do with sexual assault. So we just wanted to kind of let everyone know that that's coming. But ultimately, this is a story of courage and bravery.

[Josh]

Yeah. So if you go down to Sicily and southern Italy and ask them what a fuotina is, they will say, we don't really do that anymore. But we'll tell you what it is anyway. It means sudden escape. And in its most benign form, it was a way for couples who were consenting, they wanted to get married, but their families were like, no, we don't approve of this union, and therefore you can't get married. It was a way for them to elope. All right, so the fuotina was essentially an elopement. The key to the fuitina, though, was that the couple would wait a little while, say a week, and then they would return home, and their families would presume that over the course of that week, this couple had had premarital sex. So when they came back, the couple was like, now you have to agree to letting us get married. And in fact, it's going to be a specific type of marriage that's prescribed by law. And socially, it's called the matrimonial repertory. It's called a rehabilitating marriage. Right?

[Chuck]

That's right. And that was a legal thing. It was a socially accepted thing to where you could restore honor to that bride. It was a loophole. If you wanted to get married and your parents didn't like you were getting married to. But there was a very dark version of this in which a man could take a woman that he wanted to marry even if she didn't want to. He could take her away, he could kidnap her, he could hold her against her will, he could sexually assault her. And then in the same way that that elopement, which was consensual, would have to Be, you know, could restore that marriage. They would then come back with a woman and say, well, you are now a tainted woman. If you're damaged goods, no one's gonna marry you. So if you wanna restore your honor and you wanna have a family one day and be married, then you have to marry me, your maybe your captor and assaulter.

[Josh]

Yeah. And so it's a no win situation here. Right. Because if you wanted to be not ostracized by your community, if you wanted to ever get married, because no one would marry you after you were essentially tainted goods because you had been sexually assaulted by this man, the only way out of it was to consent to this rehabilitating marriage because it would restore your honor. And then also, conveniently, it erased any criminal act that had led to that marriage. Legally, it let the man off the hook for kidnapping in sexual assault because the woman had married him, even though she had no choice. If she ever wanted to get married and, say, have kids, her only chance now was with the man who had kidnapped and sexually assaulted her. That's just how that worked.

[Chuck]

Yeah. So this was a thing that went seemingly completely unchallenged, as far as anyone knows, until the mid-1960s, when a woman named Franca Viola came along and said no. In 1963, in her hometown of Alamo, she was 15 years old, she was engaged to a 23 year old nephew of a Sicilian mafioso. His name was Filippo Melodia. And they were headed toward marriage, but he got nabbed for a crime, for theft. Six months into their engagement, she broke it off. He fled to Germany to, you know, to escape this, going to prison, basically. And while he was gone, she became engaged. She fell in love to another guy, this guy she grew up with named Giuseppe Ruisi, her former fiance, I guess. Melodia came back in 1965, said, I want you back. And she said, no, I really love this guy. I'm staying with him.

[Josh]

Yeah. So Melodia kept trying over and over again to win her back, and she kept saying no every time. So each time he was becoming angrier and angrier, and also he was humiliated every time that she turned him down. So he hatched a plan where he would kidnap Franke from her home. He and 15 other men did on the day after Christmas in 1965. And he held her at a farmhouse and he sexually assaulted her there over the course of a week, which effectively triggered that matrimonial repertory. Like, it gave her no choice at that point. And then after the week, she was released. And then as part of this custom, initially Melodia and his accomplices were arrested. But the choice was up to Franke to press charges or to marry the guy that was her choice. And again, up to this point, as far as we know, every single woman put in this position agreed to marry the person who kidnapped and sexually assaulted her.

[Chuck]

That's right. So I feel like that's halfway point. It's a good time for a break. And we'll tell you what happened right after this.

[Jerry]

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[Chuck]

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[Josh]

I'm thirsty.

[Jerry]

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[Chuck]

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[Jerry]

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[Chuck]

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[Jerry]

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[Chuck]

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[Chuck]

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[Chuck]

All right, so I actually kind of spoiled it earlier when I said that. She said, no, but that's exactly what happened. Franke very, very bravely decided to press charges. And like you said, she was the first woman in modern times, maybe of all times to say, I'm not participating in this. Even though her honor was tarnished, her family's reputation was tarnished. They got threats. Their barn and their vineyard were burned down, because, remember, this is a nephew of a mafioso. So some heavy things were going down and these guys were arraigned for trial. It became an international story in 1966. They knew he did it, so it wasn't like, did you do it or not? He basically said, no, no, no. I was love sick. She loved me too. And it was the parents who didn't approve. So this is just like a good old fashioned eloping. What was that called?

[Josh]

Fuitina.

[Chuck]

It's like a good old fashioned fuitina. And she said this. I am the property of no one. No one can force me to love a person I do not respect. Honor is lost by the one who does certain things, not the one who is subjected to them.

[Josh]

Right. She also said to him directly from the stand, I do not love you. I will not marry you. And she was, despite. She was going against all custom. And again, like I think it's worth pointing out, her family stood by her. And rather than pressuring her to do, you know, what the community and society wanted her to do, that was extremely brave of them as well. And in return for her bravery and courage, she won. Melodia lost his case. And because rape and kidnapping were still crimes in Sicily and Italy, he was sentenced to 11 years in prison, ended up serving 10. And seven of his 15 accomplices received four year sentences each. And I guess kind of joyously, two years after, Filippo Melodia got out of prison. So he spent 10 years in prison. Within two years, he'd been gunned down in Modena in Italy, famous for its balsamic vinegar.

[Chuck]

So the media got ahold of this story, like I said earlier, and you might think, like, the media talked about just how awful this was. They did, in a way. But the media in Italy also talked about how pretty she was. And there were on tv. There were panel discussions where they talked to local men about, like, hey, like, you know, she's good looking. Would you still marry her? And, you know, they were all like, no, I still wouldn't marry her. So the media coverage was just very sexist and not fair. But she did get married to Giuseppe. They were married December 1968. She was 20 by this time, he was 25 years old. And it was a, like, it was a national celebration basically, when she got married.

[Josh]

Yeah, surprisingly, there's a huge happy ending to this. Giuseppe is another person who deserves credit for standing by her too. He was honestly her only chance. He was the only man who could step up and restore her honor because essentially they got married under a matrimonial reprare. And yeah, it was a celebration by the country, so much so that Italy's president and I think Mashable pointed this out. Italy's president directly sent them a wedding present of $40, which would be over $250 today. And the transport minister gave them a month of free railway rides. So, like this woman, like a rail pass? Yeah, pretty much. I mean, a month of it. That's pretty good for a newlywed couple, right?

[Chuck]

Yeah.

[Josh]

So she went from scorned and people in the media talking about how her life was basically over, she was going to be a spinster, to being celebrated in Italy by the very people who had essentially tried to pressure her into submitting to Melodia's advances.

[Chuck]

Yeah, and this was 1966 when it happened. So you would think, well, in 1967 they probably got rid of this thing. Not so it took till 1981 to repeal that law, which is staggering. I can't believe it took that long.

[Josh]

Yeah, the Fuotina is still around and the rehabilitation marriage is still around. But the key is that if you rape the woman, you are no longer off the hook if she marries you. And yeah, the fact that it took more than a decade is a little. A little unnerving, but that was one of the things that she did. She kind of shined an international spotlight on this really backwards custom. And Italy and Sicily were kind of like shrinking a little bit in this, the spotlight, because it just made them look so bad. So that was one thing she did. And also she was credited for inspiring no less than four women in the same situation to press charges on their abductor and assaulter by the time she even got to trial. Who knows how many she inspired after that. So she changed this custom that was so old, you can't even tell when it would have began.

[Chuck]

Yeah, for sure. If you think, why haven't I seen this movie? Well, you can. There's a filmmaker named Marta Savina who had an award winning short film called Viola and she turned that into a feature film called Prima Donna or the Girl From Tomorrow.

[Josh]

Yes. And in an even happier part of the happy ending, on International Women's Day in 2014, President Giorgio Napolitano bestowed on Franca the honor of Grande Officiale del Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana, which means that she was essentially knighted for her act of bravery.

[Chuck]

Amazing.

[Josh]

Amazing. Huge hat tip to Yumi. I had never heard of Franco Viola until she mentioned her to me. I think she sent me an article a while back, so. Yeah, I appreciate that. I think the whole world does now.

[Chuck]

Yeah. Did she. Was it from. Did she see the movie or was it just from something she read?

[Josh]

I think she ran across something like an article on the Internet and sent it to me. So, yeah, I want to check out.

[Chuck]

That movie and see what that's like.

[Josh]

Yeah. And a huge hat tip to Franca Viola too, for being so brave. It's just. What an amazing story.

[Chuck]

Agreed.

[Josh]

Chuck said. Agreed. Short Stuff is out.

[Jerry]

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