Shame, Platforms, and the Spectacular Girl

Performing Italian Girlhood in Skam Italia, Baby, and Nudes

Autori

Parole chiave:

girlhood, shame, platform culture, Italian teen drama, postfeminism, streaming media

Abstract

This article examines how three recent Italian teen dramas — Baby (Netflix, 2018–2020), Skam Italia (TIMvision/Netflix, 2018–2020), and Nudes (RaiPlay, 2021–2024) — construct girlhood as a mediated performance shaped by shame and conflicting modes of agency. Drawing on feminist shame theory, postfeminist media critique, affect theory, and platform studies, the article argues that shame functions less as a private emotion than as a structuring cultural force: it is through shame that girlhood becomes legible, narratable, and spectacular within a media ecosystem governed by platform logics, algorithmic visibility, and participatory culture. Reconstructing the series' production histories and ce ultimately argues that the adolescent girl's affective precarity is not incidental to platform culture's commercial logic but constitutive of it.

Biografie autore

Maria Elena D'Amelio, University of the Republic of San Marino

Maria Elena D’Amelio is Associate Professor of Cinema, Photography, Radio, Television and Digital Media at the Department of Humanities, University of the Republic of San Marino. She is vice-director of the BA in Communication and Digital media and President of the University Committee for Gender Equality and Inclusion. Her research focuses on film and media history, cultural and gender studies, stardom and celebrity studies, television seriality, and digital media. She is co-editor of the book series Senso e Cultura published by Il Mulino. Among her most recent publications: “Dentro e fuori dal carcere, dentro e fuori dal set. Le figure femminili in Mare fuori e le nuove attrici della serialità italiana.” L'Avventura- International Journal of Italian Film and Media Landscapes 11.1 (2025); “On-screen leadership models and beyond-the-screen celebrification processes in the Italian teen drama Mare fuori” (with Spalletta M., De Rosa P.), Celebrity Studies (2025); La Diva Madre. Saggi su maternità e divismo nel cinema italiano (Meltemi, Milan 2024).

Nicoletta Marini Maio, Dickinson College, USA

Nicoletta Marini-Maio is Full Professor and Chair of Italian and Film Studies, and Conser Curley Chair in Global Education at Dickinson College, USA. She is co-founder and principal editor of gender/sexuality/italy (g/s/i). She is Coordinator of the Film and Media Studies Caucus of the American Association for Italian Studies (with C. Uva). Her research centers on terrorism and politics in film and media; gender and sexuality in Italian culture and media; and Italian girlhoods and the media. Her most recent publications include “Sabrina Ferilli, or the Performance of Authenticity,” Italian Contemporary Screen Performers. (2000–2020) (Palgrave, 2025); New Queer South,  gender/sexuality/italy 12 (2025, co-editor with A. Parrinello); “Almost like a Virgin: Strategic Appropriation of Marian Symbolism, femminismo della differenza, and Fascist Feminism in Giorgia Meloni’s ‘Reverse Discourse,’” (with D. Pasetti), gender/sexuality/italy, 10 I-II (2023-2024); “Confessioni di due collaboratrici seriali,” La Valle dell’Eden, 37 (2021, with E. Nerenberg); “Variazioni dell’osceno: le immagini cinematografiche nella parabola politica del Berlusconismo,” in Politica e antipolitica. Quaderni del CSCI, 17 (2021).

##submission.downloads##

Pubblicato

2026-06-30

Come citare

D'Amelio, M. E., & Marini Maio, N. (2026). Shame, Platforms, and the Spectacular Girl: Performing Italian Girlhood in Skam Italia, Baby, and Nudes. Mediascapes Journal, 27(1), 71–93. Recuperato da https://rosa.uniroma1.it/rosa03/mediascapes/article/view/19470

Fascicolo

V. 27 N. 1 (2026): GEMINI-SCAPES. Detecting the Interplay between Serial Dramas, Gender Issues and European Young Audiences

Sezione

Saggi della sezione monografica

Licenza

Creative Commons License

TQuesto lavoro è fornito con la licenza Creative Commons Attribuzione 4.0 Internazionale.