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Provocative Headline Gone Too Far
There’s nothing more titillating than a headline like “Lap dancing nun to perform for cardinals and bishops”. A clever headline? Perhaps. But a fair one? No. The headline plays off the worst of stereotypes (and fantasies) about women, authority, and relationships between nuns and clergy.
The headline introduces an article in the UK newspaper Telegraph. “Lap Dancing Nun to perform for cardinals and bishops” (April 3, 2009) includes the more accurate subtitle “An Italian lap dancer turned nun is to perform a religious dance in front of an audience of Roman Catholic cardinals and bishops.”
“So what’s wrong with an attention-grabbing headline and a little fun, Sister Julie? It’s just a headline after all.”
Yeah, yeah. It’s not that I’m against provocative headlines, one of my more recent ones being Nuns, Sex, and Knitting. But I think there’s got to be some integrity in what is written. The fact is that the “lap dancing nun” is a Catholic Sister named Anna Nobili who expressly says that she has given up her lap dancing (and other activities). So she is not a “lap dancing nun” as the headline incorrectly states. But by the time we get to the subtitle and to the actual article (which continues playing with the stereotypes mentioned above), it’s too late. We’ve got an image in our mind that’s difficult to remove even after we’ve read the article. And the fact of the matter is, many Internet readers never make it past a headline (which is why we try so hard to make them click-worthy).
So what’s wrong with this kind of editorial choice of headlines? A few extra clicks are gained at the expense of reinforcing negative stereotypes about Catholic sisters and nuns.
I am not impressed.
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{ 32 comments }
Even the subtitle makes me twitch.
I’m not impressed either. On the other hand, I can’t say I’m surprised. After all, we’re living in a culture that came up with brilliant TV shows like “The Bachelor,” “The Jerry Springer Show” and “Desperate Housewives,” the latter title sounding an awful lot like a porn film – which is what I thought it was the first time I heard of it.
Funny how so many people in our culture apparently don’t have a problem being shocked and scandalized (supposedly) by sex or intimations thereof, yet get all discombobulated when a person they know are thinking about the religious life.
Amusing, and sad.
Yes, the title is indeed racy. The image that comes to mind here is a bunch of old clerics sitting around a table gaping at this sister in dance – and partly because of her past reputation, focusing on her “special parts” and fantasizing about her sexually …
… great venue for celibates!!! (sarcastic).
Having said that, I’m not insinuating that the sister’s dance isn’t holy and that she isn’t authentic. But perhaps the whole thing should be presented differently – as part of a comprensive program including other performances.
And I’m not so sure they should be publicizing her as a past exotic dancer. That just helps sensationalize and sexualize the whole experience.
dee
I’m offended. As I get older, this liberal is more easily offended. I think non-catholics (and, unfortunately, some catholics, too) enjoy these headlines which lead to a mental picture that perpetuate stereotypes that are destructive. It’s some sort of schadenfreude on their part. We just need to pray for them.
I am disturbed that anyone would post that. The title is distorted and makes it sound like she is…umm…making herself available. But that is NOT at all what the article is about. Its about that she is using liturgical dance for God, and that she turned from her sinful ways. And it just so happens that she is performing in front of Cardinals. They should have done something like “Religious Sister (Former Lap Dancer) Performs for Cardinals.” Then they should have explained her amazing conversion. But that is NOT what they did.
Personally, the article does not give her enough justice either. The title purposely distorted the minds of the reader at the beginning of the article, and then the information given against the title in the article did not compensate for it at all.
Oh, and Sister Julie, I was interested by your use of the headline “Nuns, Sex, and Knitting.” Yes, it caused me to raise an eyebrow, but it was an informing and explained the title with justice. Plus, you did not suggest anything inapropriate. You just helped tie the words together. They is a distinct line between going far and TOO far.
You’re absolutely right, Discerninglife25. It could have been done much more tastefully but still generate interest. And yes, so much should have been said about her — she did an amazing thing and the way she is using her gifts for God is quite cool. That highlights a problem with stereotypes — in this case, they sexualize the person and dehumanize her, taking away from her the things that show her full moral agency, her full humanness.
This figures since most of the masses have not gone past their third chakra and remain fixated there. For those who have moved beyond
to the fourth, fifth, sixth, and even seventh, these childish and frivolous sorts of activities are a source of reflective frustration. mtnsister
the headline was most likely not written with integrity in mind, but with garnering hits on the article. truth hasn’t mattered in journalism for some time. it’s all about the numbers.
I wish the press would show more respect for people like Sister Nobili. Since she has even up lap dancing , for dancing for God…
well, i read your “sex, and knitting” post due to the headline; so I agree with your implication that there is a bit of hypocrisy here.
Papers write headlines to get readers to buy the paper: “Extra, extra…”
Hi Kieron, I did not intend to imply that I was being hypocritical. On the contrary, I was attempting to illustrate a difference between a provocative headline that accurately describes a post (catholic nuns discussing knitting and a workshop on sexuality) and a provocative headline that is not only inaccurate but plays on negative stereotypes that are carried through the article itself. As I mentioned, I’ve got nothing against headlines that provoke or evoke. All publishers (myself included) want to have people read our content, “buy” what we are saying, so to speak. But I think there can be fair ways of doing so that are accurate and respectful.
The genuine joy on her face says it all: this is a different dance. Surely, Sister and the clerics involved will clear their minds with prayer and, that day, her gift will not be ruined by this nonsense. After all, we know that each and every one of us has sinned and we find ways not to be curious, and that seems this beautiful woman’s triumph. She insists.
As a broadcasting major in college I have to analys articles for class so I immediately picked up on the last paragraph when it says that she spoke to the La Repubblica, a Italian newspaper. So this says to me that this story was a quick little attention grabber and nothing more, since it seems that the writer, who I found covers the Rome “beat” just needed a story to fill his story “quota”. So I googled the La Repubblica and looked up Sr.Anna and found a huge article on her. But I don’t know any Italian so I can’t say if the article is better protrayer of Sr.Anna but it seems me like it is.
So if anyone can translate….just google “La Repubblica”, it’s the first choice, click translate page first (but I guess if you Italian then you won’t have to do this, anyway click on that and in the search or “Cerca” type in Anna Nobili” in the drop down box choose “La Repubblica.il, it should show the story. It’ll be the first one. (I would have posted the link but it’s really long and probably wouldn’t have worked. ) I hopes that works.
The difference between Julie’s headline and the article’s is the source, and therefore the intent. It’s one thing for Sr. Julie to joke about nuns and sex, considering she is a nun. We don’t know the intent of this reporter or his story, making it a very different story. It’s kind of like how we all complain about our mothers, but heaven forbid anybody else do so, lest we punch them out!
To his credit, he did put “lap dancing nun” in quotations, which implies that he’s not using the phrase as an accurate representation. I think the headline is meant to be ironic, and I think the story is ironic – it is kind of funny that a lap dancer became a nun! Of course she’s no longer a lap dancer – but it’s still kind of funny. And she agreed to be interviewed (presumably), to have publicity for this – I highly doubt she didn’t know that they’d try to portray her as a ‘lap dancing nun.’
I really don’t think this headline is malicious – silly maybe, but not malicious.
Audrat – I used to have some Italian (two amazing summers in Florence/Firenze and college courses) but not enough remains for any reliable translation. So I tried one of the translation sites. Here is a beautiful bit of Sr Anna’s interview in the La Repubblica article:
“And I found the strength to support the weight of my sin. A process of purification. An emotional healing. Finally, I have found the spirituality of the family, the workers of the sisters of the Holy House of Nazareth, that family that I was missing. Jesus has given me dignity. He restored virginity…”
She is quite generous in her willingness to use her own experience to teach and celebrate God and the possibility of conversion for all God’s children. She speaks of St Paul (at one point, the article refer to her conversion as rendering her “the daughter of Paul”). She specifically references 1 Cor 6:19 “Do you not know that YOUR BODY IS A TEMPLE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?” (the capitalized words are the ones she specifically states).
The Telegraph story is a cheap telling of the beautiful, humble and generous story she shares about her journey to “glorify[ing] God in [her] body”.
*** Sr. Julie, I agree with you and DL25 about the difference between your headline and this one. She is not and never was a “lap dancing nun”. There is a very conscious implication there that lap dancing is part of her life as a nun, rather than part of her life pre-conversion – and that is “the lie” of that catchy headline. She is a nun who used to lap dance. Or a former lap dancer who later became a nun. The British papers print racy photos all the time, and the Telegraph writers knew people would be looking for one of Sr Anna along the lines of the ever-present tacky photos that sell papers…
Their headline is titillating and salacious. Yours was intriguing. And you both succeeded in doing exactly what you sought to do: you sought to create dialogue and they sought to sell papers, as Kieron so rightly said.
Jean
Deerose – Just to let you know: (I did some more reading and) Sr Anna will NOT be dancing alone. She teaches her sacred dance and some of her students will be performing with her. Jean
A few more media sources have picked up the story, but notice how the presentation is still intriguing but not as sensationalized as the one in the Telegraph. Here are a couple:
UPI Global News source: Dancer-turned-nun to perform for prelates — still fixated on dancing for cardinals and bishops, but better
FameWatcher.com: Anna Nobili: Lap Dancer Turned Dancing Nun — now this one is actually pretty good — first indicator is that Sister Anna’s name is used in the headline (she’s a person, not an object), the headline is accurate, and the article is actually about her amazing transformation which is way more significant than any event at which she might be performing. This post also includes a beautiful photo of Sister Anna, a video (warning: begins with night-club-esque footage), and additional quotes from her. It’s only in the very last line that a reference is made that Sister Anna will be a ballet for bishops and cardinals.
Now I’m no media or stereotype expert, but to me there is a big difference between the Telegraph‘s article and FameWatcher.com’s approach. While both headlines are provocative, the FameWatcher.com headline and article are significantly different in that it is done respectfully and it focuses on the real story of Sister Anna transformation. It gives the reader someone real to connect with, to be inspired by, not just an article to amuse us at her expense.
P.S. In my post, I’m using the word “provocative” in its basic sense – “to provoke, to call forth”, not it’s secondary meaning – “to excite sexually”. I realize that this was not clear especially given the topic at hand.
Sr Julie –
Great analysis.
And i think the brilliance of your headline for THIS post is that you **did** use provocative (“in its basic sense”) to provoke an intelligent reading of the Telegraph’s effort to “provoke” sales by cheapening Sr Anna’s story until it was merely provocative in “its secondary sense – ‘to excite sexually’”.
Are you one of those amazing creatures – a “lit crit”? If yes, you are – in my book – a rock star in the world of English majors. It is enough to make me wish I was 18 with college to be dome all over again!
Talk about missing the point. Jesus is the champion of the marginalized. I read the various articles about Sr. Anni, and unfortunately, the paragraphs were filled with double entendres. So it wasn’t just the headline that was sophomoric. It is such a shame that her message had to be spread with such recklessness. There is nothing wrong with sexuality itself, even for a nun, but to put it in those terms…I only hope that some other young woman can read between the lines and realize that she too is redeemed.
Jean:
That’s good to know that she will be dancing with others. It does make a difference.
Sr. Julie:
The other headlines are indeed better!
dee
This is just IMHO, of course, but personally, I really don’t think the other headlines are better, not marginally. They all attempt to “provoke” with imagery which is dehumanizing. The fact that the difference lies in matter of degree doesn’t cut it with me at all. The end result is the same.
Again, just IMHO which, admittedly, tends to be rather black and white.
This isn’t completely on topic, but I don’t really like the depiction of lap dancing as a “sin.” I don’t see why anybody would want to do it, but there are reasons why women turn to that, many of them having gone through things that I can’t even imagine. I’m glad Sr. Anna is happier now, but I have to say it bugs me that she (and some of the commenters) judges her former self (and women who are still lap dancers) so harshly. She speaks of her former life of “sin” as if she were this terrible person – lap dancing isn’t exactly akin to murder. She speaks of her new dance as very different because it’s not about her, but I don’t think that’s a very honest thing to say. She’s still getting attention – even if sex doesn’t come into it anymore. And that’s fine, and dancing is cool, but I don’t think she should pretend that she no longer has an ego, like she’s a much better person than she used to be. That’s how it comes across to me, anyway.
And if the translations that Jean posted are correct, then I find her interpretations of her life change quite suspicious – “Jesus restored virginity”?? What on earth does that mean, anyway? And why is she implying that virginity is better than non-virginity? I don’t get it. I totally agree that lap dancing does dehumanize women, but the purity myth doesn’t exactly help women, either.
I totally agree with Julie. What’s wrong with this attention grabbing headline is that it diverts us from the message and mission of what religious life is all about. If it’s fun, it’s fun at the expense of the mission and message of religious women. I know a number of sisters for whom sacred dance is a powerful form of prayer. As one who does PR for a religious congregation, I can’t help but wonder who was/is managing the PR for this “Holy Dance” event.
The National Communicators Network for Women Religious in the US has as our mission to enhance the image and advance the mission of women religious. I will grant that no matter how skilled one is at doing this, there are always times when something goes off message. This seems to be a stellar example of one of those moments. This article does nothing to advance the mission or enhance the image of this sister, the congregation to which she belongs, or the cardinals who will be experiencing this “Holy Dance” during Holy Week!
Annie:
I don’t have any explicit information here, but it was my impression that Sr. Anna was not just involved in exotic dancing, but illicit sexual behavior. It was not just, or so much, the dance, but the lifestyle her job in that club world engendered.
As far as virginity is concerned, I’m not sure what that comment means either. But from what I know, “viriginity” is traditionally a virtue in the Roman Catholic Church – among religious and unwed females. Sex is a celebrated gift in the context of marriage. After the 1960s, the Church didn’t view the religious life superior to the married life or the other way around. They are just different, honorable vocations.
dee
I tend to agree with Dee about what part constituted illicit behavior. “Sin” is our No to God, our movement away from God. So my understanding of what Sister Anna was saying is that for her, the life she was leading (which included the lap dancing) was hindering, injuring her relationship with God and with her own self. As for issues of ego and other personal demons are ones that we may carry with us throughout life. A spiritual transformation or conversion, however significant, doesn’t mean that we no longer struggle or need healing.
On the topic of virginity, there is a tradition within Christianity that speaks to this idea of restoring one’s virginity spiritually. I’ve heard it a few times over the years, though I haven’t ever studied the idea. America magazine did an article a while back on helping teens “find” their virginity again (Virginity Lost and Found). It notes that pastoral ministers try to let teens know “that although their physical virginity is lost, virginity at its core is a commitment to a certain kind of loving, and that commitment can be recovered and renewed.”
I think the reference to virginity being better is embedded in the Christian tradition all the way back to the letters of Saint Paul. We’ve always struggled in our tradition with some forms of life being considered “higher callings”. The Second Vatican Council challenged that thought by noting that we are all called to serve God fully by virtue of our baptism. Still, the idea that one form or another is somehow better lingers. It’s okay, however, to know that one calling is more suited for you than another, and in that sense — for you — it is the best choice, just as Sister Anna understood that for her, restored virginity was better than non-virginity. But for someone called to marriage and parenthood, non-virginity is the “higher calling”.
I found th Zenit article below from March 2003, which I think is helpful (and there are no translation issues). It speaks to the issue of the broader sinfulness of her previous life, of which – as Dee says – the dancing is just one act.
I also love the additional piece of information about who is served by her order: former prostitutes, which (I think) acknowledges Annie’s concern: this life is, for many women, about survival, economic and otherwise… and always has been. (For some reason, this makes me think of a conversation I had with my spiritual director – a very holy young priest. He recently asked me if I knew what blessing lay within a particular sin of longstanding in my life. “Survival”, he said and “now, blessed with the grace of having survived that trial and suffering, you have the strength – and God’s forgiveness and encouragement – to move forward without relying on that sinfulness”. (Nope, I am NOT a former – or current – lap dancer. Though they must be in GREAT shape).
It does seem – at least from Zenit’s telling – that economic survival may not be where it started for Sr Anna: for her, it seems may have simply been the power of sensuality, as human and intoxicating a pleasure as ever existed, without forces to ground her in a deeper life.
That issue aside (and Annie, I am so glad that you placed that work in its social context), I think Sr Anna is very clear that her sin was not the dancing but the waste and abuse of the deep and joyful life God wanted for her all along.
AND I will go back and translate the whole of the statement about God restoring virginity.
*****
From Disco to Convent: The Story of Anna Nobili – After Years as Dancer, She Became a Religious
ROME, MARCH 9, 2003 (Zenit.org)
Annie – How’s this on the virginity statement? (I am using translation sites and then correcting for the grammar mistakes; my Italian is shot but not so much that I can’t see where the translation site has been too literal).
“Jesus has given me dignity. I gave virginity, that of the heart. The gift of chastity”.
Probably a much more faithful translation of Sr Anna’s words, but I also like the earlier translation: Jesus “restored virginity…” I agree with Sr Julie, and I will add this:
I don’t think Sr Anna meant – no matter the very specific and accurate translation of her words on virginity – to compare consecrated chastity (virginal or not) and married chastity. She is so clear in her understanding that her sexual life was not about love of anything but the sensuality of that life. There was no gift of self in her sexual life; there was a taking of pleasure and there was a profound wasting of self and the creative act of love, sexual and otherwise.
Chaste love – consecrated (virginal or not) and married – is a gift of self, a reverent engagement with God through the act of love, whether that act is religious life or married life. Spiritual sexuality (as we spoke of weeks ago) is natural to both states of life, though differently expressed. She does not mean that, in leaving her former way of life and foreswearing “genital sexuality”, she has been elevated above women whose virginity was “given in married love”. She means that she has been blessed, through her conversion, with the forgiveness and new life God offers us all and, in her new life, she chose to make her total gift of self through consecrated life rather than married life.
My sense is that Sr. Anna is a joyful person, innately and spiritually (there a YouTube videos of her speaking in Italian and then performing a sacred dance, and it is indeed “ballet-beautiful”. She is animated and energetic and delightful, even with the language barrier) and, as such, would celebrate wholeheartedly married love in those who are so blessed. She means only that she herself has learned to love selflessly and j0yfully with her heart and soul and body through religious life and sacred dance.
Another bit of Sr Anna, translated: “Before I danced to possess: now God dances in me through my feet, my body. It is he who has died and is risen in me. I wanted to give him everything, starting with the dance. He has given me everything”.
John 8:36 “If the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed”.
It strikes me, as I learn more about Sr Anna, that the conversion she accepted has freed her to make the total gift of self that is consecrated virginity …. in her very specific and beautiful case.
***Last thought: I hate it that so many of us have been fussed at in such confusing ways about sex that the question of which is “best” – religious life vs. married life – is even an issue. I understand the Pauline context and, still, I think we would do well to remember his context. Where does sex, married or not, fit in if Jesus is due to make an appearance in the next day or so?
Hi Julie, the article in the Telegraph doesn’t surprise me. Any chance to have a go at what they consider ‘liberal’ catholicism will be snapped up. Some very strong and emotive writing comes from the newspaper and associated blogs. Charitable discussion it is not. It can never see beyond right/wrong, win/lose, dualistic thinking. Read some of the articles here, ( http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/damian_thompson )they’ll make your hair stand on end.
Thanks Dee, Jean and Sr. Julie. That does make more sense to me now, especially the part about the issue not really being the dancing, but the emptiness she felt in her former life. Sr. Anna does seem very happy in her youtube clip, even if I didn’t understand a word she was saying!
I think I’d understand “restored virginity” better if it was just called “embracing chastity.” The “restoring” bit, to me, makes it seem more of a judgement of the past, as opposed to a choice for the present or future.
The article in America was interesting. I have issues with the “chastity movement” because I think birth control should be readily available for teens and I don’t think its availability promotes promiscuosity, but I agree that treating sex like a casual thing is also a bad idea.
Yeah, the use of “restored” is a bit odd. When I looked it up on the Internet, most of the references to “restored virginity” were to surgical procedures for women. I just don’t even know what to think of that.
Annie and Sr Julie –
Wow. I will be careful, in the future, about saying I like that mistranslation of Sr Anna’a language (and I do think it was a mistranslation: I don’t think she used the word “restored”; I think that was my sloppy failure to correct for the too-literal translation of the website). I just read some of the stuff about “virginity restoration” in the surgical, physical, genital sense and, to my eyes, that practice is simply another form of genital mutilation of women, only in reverse this time. I would never want my words to be understood as support of such procedures.
While I believe it is essential to be careful with this language because it can be used to manipulate vulnerable women into allowing themselves to be shamed and mutilated, there is a spiritual value in that mistranslation (“Jesus restored virginity”) that is worth keeping when discussing women like Sr Anna. Some ephemeral meaning that floats between consecrated chastity and the choice, as in Matthew 18, to “become like little children” in our spiritual lives.
Mangling a woman’s body so that a man can believe that he “got there first” is repugnant on every level.
But believing that one can cleanse one’s soul so completely through the sacrament of reconciliation that the weight of the past, once confessed and repented, is released and one may then “become like little children” through a new and faithful life in relationship with God and His people? That is beautiful and hopeful.
Again, “Jesus restored virginity” was a clumsy mistranslation but there is beauty in it, I think.
When I saw this article and after reading how this young woman was touched by the presence of God and her life was changed from the world of dance to a holy dance for the Lord, my thought was how beautiful this is, thank you God for saving her soul and giving her a new beginning in heavenly things with You. Angels dance in heaven for God and I believe that those who dance for the Lord Jesus our Messiah on earth will dance in heaven. I also was chosen to dance to draw the lost closer to our Heavenly Father Abba. He approves of dancing for Him in Psalm 150:4 Praise Him with the trimbrel and dance: praise Him with stringed instruments and oragans. v5 Praise Him upon the loud cymbals: praise Hi m upon the high sounding cymbals.v6 Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord. May God our Father the Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirt of God bless this sister with all that she needs to fulfull her destiny for the Kingdom of God. Amen