時尚雙語:意大利媽媽爲兒子真人秀選媳婦

Often seen as mommy's boys, Italian men are now letting their mothers choose their future wives live on television.

Italy's state TV aired the first episode(1) of a new reality show this week in which the mothers of five single men have to pick out prospective(2) brides from a selection of candidates.

Critics said "Perfect Bride" was both insulting(3) to women and showed Italian TV -- already packed with other reality formats such as Big Brother and Celebrity Island -- falling to new depths of banality(4).

In the first episode, the jury of mothers -- called only by their first names such as "Mamma Rosa" and "Mamma Ambra" -- quizzed 18 hopefuls about their suitability(5) as wives.

From next week the mothers will have to live in a Big Brother-style house with their potential daughters-in-law, seeing first hand how they deal with household chores(6). Viewers will be encouraged to vote off the candidates they dislike.

Mamma Teresa said she was looking for "a simple, intelligent, classy girl" for her son Claudio. "I would like someone who's not too ostentatious(7) and who knows how to take care of the family," she said on the program's Web site.

Claudio, viewers learn, is "a really capable person, very affectionate(8) with his family," but suffers from one defect common to many Italian bachelors: "He has too many girlfriends! I want to find him his ultimate woman."

In a country where it is normal for unmarried men to live with their parents into their 30s and "mamma mia!" (my mommy) is a common exclamation(9), the Italian mother figure is revered(10) by society but often feared by girlfriends and wives.

TV critics said the program exploited the stereotype(11) of the overbearing(12) mamma.

"It's the most grandiose(13), caricatural(14), corrosive(15) demolition of the image of the Italian mamma," said Italy's leading daily Corriere della Sera.

La Repubblica daily said Prefect Bride had an out-dated vision of women's role in society. "State TV is going too far in its failure to limit the rubbish, the rudeness, the lying, the lack of manners and the wiping out of social changes which happened 50 years ago," it said.

大利男人常被看作是媽媽的寶貝，如今還讓媽媽爲他們在電視上現場選妻子了。

本週，意大利國家電臺播出第一集選媳婦真人秀。五個單身男人的媽媽需要從一羣候選人中挑出未來兒媳婦。

評論說《完美新娘》是對女人和意大利電視臺的侮辱。它與其他一些正播出的真人秀節目如《老大哥》和《名人島》的形式如出一轍，只是更加庸俗了。

在第一集中，這些媽媽評委們被簡稱爲“羅薩媽媽”、“安姆布拉媽媽”等，考驗18位候選者是否適合作妻子。

下週開始，媽媽們將與兒媳婦們一起住在一套《老大哥》樣式的房子裏，親眼看媳婦們是如何處理家務瑣事。觀衆們則可以通過短信投票讓不喜歡的媳婦下臺。

特里薩媽媽在節目的網站上說她想爲兒子Claudio找一個簡單、聰明、優雅的女孩：“我希望她不要特招搖，知道如何照顧家庭。”

Claudio在觀衆眼中是個“非常有才幹的人，熱愛家庭”，但是和很多意大利單身漢擁有相同的問題：“他的女朋友太多了！我想幫他找到最終歸宿。”

在意大利，三十來歲的未婚男人同父母住在一起是普遍現象，“我的媽媽呀”也是他們常用的感嘆詞。因此媽媽們在社會中備受尊重，但是女朋友和妻子們都很懼怕她們

電視評論說此節目利用了專橫媽媽們的一貫做派。

意大利主要日報Corriere della Sera說：“這是對意大利母親形象最浮誇、諷刺性的詆譭”。

La Repubblica日報說《完美新娘》對女性社會角色的理解太過時了。它說：“國家電臺太失敗了，竟然沒能遏制住這種垃圾、粗俗、謊言、無禮，並對50年來發生的變化視若無睹。”