Rome, March 28…After an emotional trial pitting an American feminist against a Sicilian bricklayer, Italy’s highest court has ruled that men may no longer touch their genitals in public.
In a unanimous decision it denied an appeal by Estansio Cullioni, of Palermo, who was convicted last year of harassment for loitering outside the hotel of Leah Schildkraut, chairperson of the Anarcho-Feminist coalition and “ostentatiously touching his genitals through his clothing” whenever she walked by.
Ms. Schildkraut testified that Signor Cullioni was in a construction crew that shouted obscenities at her as she entered the hotel to attend the annual conference of the Komodo Sisterhood, an organization named for the Komodo dragon, whose females fertilize their own eggs and reproduce without the participation of the male. She acknowledged shouting back that men would soon be as obsolete as the male Komodo and said the harassment began soon after that.
Ms. Schildkraut said Signor Cullioni accosted her at all hours, grabbing his testicles and making offensive remarks. She admitted she didn’t know what he was saying, but “I didn’t think he was asking me what time it was.”
The police did not take her seriously, she said, fondling their groins suggestively and asking “is this how he did it?” But when Komodo Board members Martha Stuart and Rosie O’Donnell complained to the American embassy they took Signor Cullioni into custody.
Cullioni’s lawyer argued that Signor Cullioni was merely observing the ancient Italian custom of cupping the crotch to ward off bad luck. He had done it once when a funeral procession passed on the way to the cemetery, another time when an opposing football team’s bus drove by on the way to a match and a third time when a nun followed by a black cat crossed the street and walked under a ladder.
Ms. Schildkraut’s presence on these three occasions was a tragic coincidence, Cullioni’s lawyer said.
“I beg of you, do not let a foreign agitator emasculate a thousand years of Italian history,” he pleaded.
But the court ruled that Signor Cullioni’s act had been a ”violation of public decency” and suggested that any Italian man who feels the need to grab his crotch can do so in the privacy of his home.
NON GRATA LA GENT
