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Milan Psychiatrist Dino Origlia has concluded that all the amateur nudity on TV represents "the frustrated woman's revenge. These women still feel the need to assert themselves, to be the center of attention." Among other things, he says, the phenomenon shows "how we Italians have not yet overcome our sexual problems. This puts the clock back a century to keyhole sex." Other experts disagree. Says University of Trento Sociologist Gian Paolo Fabris: "Sex on the tube produces no guilt complexes. On the contrary, it creates an atmosphere of harmless complicity among the most repressed couples and can even stimulate desires."
Healthy or not, the porn programming seems likely to be curbed eventually. Already 18 stations have been warned by the courts to show more restraint or be closed down. Italy's parliament will soon consider a bill that will reduce the number of stations to 100 and limit the amount of advertising they can carry. Meanwhile there are signs that, after the porn wave, the next new rage on the tube may be politics. Italy's main parties have already established a foothold in TV, mainly through ownership by newspapers allied with them. Thus the fare on Rome's newest station, called Videouno, might be expected to be red rather than blue. The station, which will begin test operations this week, is owned by the daily Paese Sera, a supporter of Italy's Communist Party.