The Dichotomy Karima/Ruby in Italian Online Newspapers: Exclusions and Inclusions of Muslim Femininity in Post-feminist Culture

Abstract

This paper focuses on the representation of Karima El Mahroug, alias Ruby Rubacuori (‘Ruby Heartstealer’), in the online editions of three Italian newspapers (Il Giornale, Repubblica, Corriere della Sera). Karima/Ruby, a young woman originally from Morocco, was placed in the media spotlight for her implication in a sexual scandal involving the ex-Prime Minister of Italy, Silvio Berlusconi. The analysis shows a dichotomy in the representation of the young woman: as an ‘at risk girl’ or as a ‘post-feminist sex worker’. Karima’s national and religious origins contribute to the construction of her as a vulnerable, voiceless and fragile girl, made so by a traditional and sexist culture of origin. However, as the trial proceeds, a different construction of Karima, now fully identified with the name Ruby, emerges: an agentic, determined and assertive post-feminist sex worker who knowingly employed her sexual desirability for her own personal gains. As part of this evolution, Ruby sheds her ‘otherness’, becoming not only symbolic of Italian younger generations, but of the moral degeneration of the whole country. The narrative parabola Karima/Ruby that is engendered in the newspapers sees the incorporation of the Muslim woman in post-feminist culture, as well as her naturalisation as Italian, as long as she subscribes to its specifically neoliberal gender relations. This article explores the inclusions and exclusions of post-feminist culture, by investigating the normative discourses employed to make sense of Muslim femininity.