Voici une devinette : que fait la mŽnagre professionnelle italienne quand dehors il pleut et qu'il fait froid ?
RŽponse : elle met le linge fra”chement lavŽ ˆ sŽcher dehors !
Je trouve cet aspect de la culture italienne totalement fascinant tellement il est irrationel. Avant de venir en Italie, j'avais ce prŽjugŽ selon lequel les femmes italiennes restent en majoritŽ ˆ la maison (par opposition ˆ travailler), et qu'eles ont toutes ˆ leurs fentres des fils ˆ linge sur lesquels elles attachent les vtements pour qu'ils schent. Vous savez, comme dans le quartier italien de "la belle et le clochard", le classique de Disney, quand les deux chiens mangent des spaghetti chez Tony.
Cela dit, mettre le linge ˆ sŽcher dehors est en soi une trs bonne chose : c'est gratuit et Žcologique, et a peut tre extrmement efficace (dans un bon jour, ˆ JŽrusalem, a prend moins de 10 minutes pour totalement sŽcher des vtements dŽgoulinants). Quoi qu'il en soit, quand il fait environ quatre degrŽs au-dessus du point de congŽlation, et que la pluie tombe jour aprs jour, et nuit aprs nuit, je ne parviens plus ˆ percevoir le bien fondŽ du sŽchage de linge en extŽrieur, pour la bonne raison que rien ne peut sŽcher ˆ ces tempŽratures, mme sans pluie ! Avec de la pluie, c'est encore pire, vu que la pluie ˆ Bologne n'est pas moins mouillŽe qu'ailleurs; en fait elle est peut-tre mme pire qu'ailleurs.
NŽanmoins, la mŽnagre italienne met infailliblement sa lessive ˆ sŽcher dehors, et laissent leurs soutien-gorges et les sous-vtements de leurs maris pendus dehors pendant presque une semaine avant de les rentrer, aussi mouillŽs que quand elles les ont Žtendus.
Pourquoi est-ce qu'elles continuent, gŽnŽration aprs gŽnŽration ? Est-ce qu'elles ne voient pas la futilitŽ, voire la stupitidŽ de tout a ? O, si elles l'ont vue, pourquoi continuent-elles ˆ faire comme si le ciel Žtait bleu et le soleil Žclatant ?
La voilˆ, la vraie devinette !
Et je n'ai pas la rŽponse... pas encore...
Traduit de l'anglais par O., le texte original se trouve en suite de l'article...
Dry clothes
This is a riddle: When it rains outside and it is cold, what does the professional Italian housewife do?
Answer: She puts the newly washed clothes outside to get dry!
I find this aspect of Italian culture totally amazing because of how irrational it is. Before coming to Italy, I had this prejudice that Italian women by and large stay at home (as distinct from working outside), and that they all have lines outside their windows onto which they attach clothes for getting dry; you know just like the Italian neighbourhood in the Disney classic Lady and the Tramp, when the dogs eat spaghetti at Tonys.
Lo and behold, thats exactly what its like in real life too. In spite of pollution and car-fumes, clothes (even intimate clothing) are put up outside on these lines to get dry. Now, drying clothes outside is per se a very good thing; its cheap and environmentally friendly, and can be extremely efficient (on a good day in Jerusalem, it takes less than ten minutes to get dripping wet clothes completely dry). However, when the temperature is about four degrees above freezing point, and when the rain is pouring down day after day and night after night, I can no longer see the point in outdoor-drying of clothes, for the simple reason that nothing will get dry at those temperatures even without rain! With rain, its even worse, as the rain in Bologna is not less wet than elsewhere; in fact, it might even be wetter. Yet, Italian housewives unfailingly puts outside their clean washing to get dry, and they let their bras and the underpants of their husbands and jeans and whatever else hang out there for almost a week before they take it inside again, in a condition as wet as when they put it out to get dry. Why do they continue to do this, generation after generation? Why have they not realised the futility and even stupidity of it? Or, if they have realised it, why do they continue to act the same way, as if the sky was blue and the sun was shining? Now, this is really a riddle! And I dont know the answer to it. Yet.
Tina:
"Pourquoi est-ce qu'elles continuent, gŽnŽration aprs gŽnŽration ? Est-ce qu'elles ne voient pas la futilitŽ, voire la stupitidŽ de tout a ? O, si elles l'ont vue, pourquoi continuent-elles ˆ faire comme si le ciel Žtait bleu et le soleil Žclatant ?"
C'est une question ?
Ou plut™t un jugement ? (Futile, stupide...?)
Sont trop cons ces ritals...
Posted by: PA on janvier 15, 2003 09:22 AMDear PA,
thanks for your questions! If I have understood you correctly (my French is extremely bad), you're asking if my questions are genuine questions or if they're a judgement. In fact, they are questions (and if you have the answers, please tell me!). I am genuinly wondering why they do this.
Having said that, let me also give an apology. I have reread the text I wrote, and realise now that I have been to rash in my statements. I think I got carried away by my own amazement in such a way that I ended up asking whether they have not realised the futility and stupidity of their action. I realise that I should have phrased myself very differently, so as not to be misunderstood. Let me first point out that I do not call the Italian housewives stupid; the question concerns the action, not the people. Secondly, let me just say that the clothe-drying business does seem futile and therefore stupid to ME; this does not mean that it is in fact futile and stupid. It may well be that there is a very good reason why they have the clothes out when it's raining, and so maybe it's not at all futile or stupid. But being Norwegian, I do not know (yet) what this reason may be; I hope to find out, though. This is of course a question of cultural differences; what seems stupid to a Norwegian may not seem stupid to an Italian and vice versa! For all I know, maybe an Italian seeing Norwegians running out to take in the clothes when it starts raining thinks that the Norwegians are totally stupid (or at least that they act stupidly). Actually, I would be very interested in getting an outsider's view on Norwegian behaviour, as outsiders are able to see things which insiders often don't see (because it's taken for granted). So, maybe the stupidity lies in my own ignorance of Italian culture. Again, let me state that I am sorry I wrote what I wrote in this way; I merely meant to convey my amazement at this action (amazement is of course not something negative or judging; on the contrary, it opens up for questions, which judgements don't do), which, as long as I do not know the WHY behind it, SEEMS futile (if the aim is to get dry clothes) and stupid (because the aim is not reached, quite on the contrary).
Thirdly, of course not all Italian housewives do this. I know of at least one exception, who actually asked me to take in the clothes for her if it began raining while she was out. Yet, being a Norwegian I have been stuck by how many who actually do put their clothes out in the rain.
So, has anyone got any answers to my questions?
That's my Tina !!!! :)))))))))
Glad to have you here, JerryGirl !
Posted by: O. on janvier 21, 2003 11:57 AM