An Italian institution that is unique among the people of Earth.
Fare una brutta figura – (literally “to make an ugly figure”) is best translated by the English phrase “to cut a bad image” in public, or perhaps being “caught with your pants down“. Every Italian lives in mortal fear of this terrible social stigma, and from childhood they are taught it is the worst thing that could ever happen to them. If you “make” a brutta figura (“hai fatto una brutta figura”) it means that you’ve made a complete ass of yourself in public or among friends, perhaps even among family, and there is usually no way of redeeming yourself save perhaps by a dual to the death.
The spectrum of behaviour and social comportment that can earn you a brutta figura is wide and varied. It includes benign social clangers – such as wearing clashing colours or the wrong shoes – but also more serious lapses such as failing to return a favour or not turning up at someone’s funeral. Or as I once did, serving a sweet prosecco before, rather than after, a meal.
Obviously a variety of faux pas are found and frowned upon in other cultures, but the unique aspect of Italian society is that to get labelled with the graceless epithet of “brutta figura” it requires only one offence. After that, you will have a jolly time trying to shake it off.
However, the real problem with the brutta figura is not that it is, in itself, such a bad thing. One could live with that, especially if you are British (because we are, after all, quite above that sort of thing). No, it is the threat of earning yourself a brutta figura that is the terrible price to pay for being an Italian model citizen. The mere threat of cutting a bad figure has the effect of dumbing you down, of dampening and supressing your otherwise spontaneous and carefree nature, and for anyone who values their individuality greatly, that is indeed a terrible price.
It is this broader, oppressive nature of the phenomenon that makes the brutta figura so insidious to social life in Italy. What is perhaps worst of all in this regard however, is the damage it does to the character of the individual who succumbs to the pressure of the threat. The individual, oppressed by the fear of making una brutta figura, spends most of his life trying to avoid it, and in the process misses out on living his life to the fullest. Instead of living it the way he would have wanted to live it, he ends up living it the way others would appear to want him to live it. Thus, instead of waring your favourite, most comfortable and most loved pair of shoes (simply to go and buy bread), if you want to cut a good figure (even with the baker) you have to wear if not the latest fashion, then at least a pair that looks as if it’s never been worn before!
Of course, again, we have elements of the same phenomenon throughout all other cultures and societies. To an extent, everyone is self-conscious of their public image, and to a degree this is both necessary and good. Otherwise, society would be an awful place to live in indeed. People would behave in any manner that suited them and wear all manner of offensive clothing, such that it would be quite unpleasant to keep their company. But the difference in the case of Italian society is that while these norms are a natural part of the fabric of any society, in Italy the social merit of abiding by them has been exaggerated and blown out of all proportion. This basically means that rather than giving an individual a chance to show themselves as they are (within the bounds of a reasonable social self-awareness) what you see is the rigid stamp of over-the-top social convention. The result is often dull, uninspiring encounters because of the constant fear of saying the “wrong things”, or of behaving the “wrong way”.
Even the manner in which individuals move is carefully choreographed. Again, having social mores is not the problem. The problem arises when flouting them – even innocently – is severely censured out of all proportion to the crime, and further is taken as a definitive judgement on the character of an individual; rather than, say, simply putting it down to their views on the importance of immaculate footwear for all occasions.
The interesting question to ask is why is this the case. Why does the institution of the brutta figura exist in such exaggerated form in Italy, and why does it have such a strong hold, to the point that it is in effect a social sledgehammer?
First, it is important to note that the phenomenon appears to vary depending on geographical location, seemingly much stronger in the provinces and also in the south of the country. Which gives a hint as to why it is more of a stigma in Italy as a whole than in most other cultures. Essentially, Italy is still very much a provincial society even in the cities, with most people still retaining strong links to the countryside. Many city folk own land and property in the many small villages surrounding the urban areas they have migrated to for work, frequently with extended family still living in those villages who they visit often. Though the moral values of country folk tend to be conservative, their everyday comportment is not centred around dressing well or observing refined though morally neutral practices. They are rough and gruff, often unfriendly to outsiders and aside from church and special occasions, unconcerned with appearance. In the city, the attempt to distance oneself from such coarseness shows itself in the buttoned-up approach to public social comportment of the city dweller, only a generation or two away and still probably with strong links to the countryside. Among city dwellers there is an exaggerated emphasis on fine clothes and in particular immaculate shoes, because only peasants would wear anything else. Generally there is a need for the city dwellers to observe protocol on matters that for other cultures would not register on the Richter scale of social gracelessness (eating as you walk along for example, probably something peasants do all the time).
This, of course, is a very loose and unscientific assessment – it does not immediately explain why drinking a cappuccino after midday might draw a raised eyebrow for example – though the analysis does, after a fashion, stand up to personal experience of many foreigners living in Italy.
How to tell if you have “made” a brutta figura, and why Italians love telling you
Unfortunately the only way is from the reaction of others.
If you say or do something that merits a brutta figura, you will soon find out by the way others change their behaviour towards you. In societies where the brutta figura has been tamed, the reaction of others is usually subtle or even absent altogether when one drops a clanger or commits a social howler. Advanced folk, who are above showing others precisely what asses they are, will usually overlook social ineptitude, or simply not bother with those people evermore if they are excessively graceless. But Italians want you to know that you have committed the equivalent of wearing your underpants on the outside, and will go out of their way to bring it to your attention! that is why the bruta figura is alive and thriving in Italy. It is, in a somewhat crude and unsophisticated way, a means of raising oneself higher by discrediting others on matters that are of absolutely no importance.
The comfort one can draw is that only those who themselves suffer from a severe mental poverty would deign to apply such methods of obtaining elevated social status, and that the peasant out in the countryside, though poor and course, shows himself to be richer and more sovereign than his refined urban kin.
As with many other posts on Italy, the author remains in hiding.