Italian Court Rules Bottom Slapping Is OK

Jan. 25, 2001 -- The work of Italian feminists isn't getting any easier. The Italian Supreme Court has ruled that an unexpected pat on the bottom at work could not be labeled sexual harassment — as long as men didn't make a habit of it.

The ruling came Wednesday in a case where the male manager of a public health agency was accused by a female employee of sexual harassment after he slapped her posterior.

He was found not guilty of harassment because the court said the act was 'isolated' and 'impulsive.'

A lower court had earlier found the man guilty, sentenced him to 18 months in prison and fined him $3,800 for his behavior.

On Wednesday, the lower court's ruling was overturned. The new ruling stated that a pacca sul sedere or a smack on the rear did not amount to harassment since it was not intended as an "act of libido."

The reaction to the ruling has been deliberate and strong.

The Ansa Italian wire service reported that Alessandra Mussolini, a far right politician and granddaughter of Italian strongman Benito Mussolini, called the ruling a "new cause of humiliation and shame," in parliament today.

"It's a question of respect for women," she said. "We have to continue to react to change this way of thinking. A smack — even if it is isolated and impulsive — is harassment if that is how it is seen by the person who receives it. We have to put an end to this: You can't quantify sexual harassment."

'Like a Farmer With His Cattle'

Mussolini seemed to disapprove of bottom-slapping across-the-board. "I saw [President] Bush give his wife a smack on the bottom," Ansa Italian quoted her as saying, "and I didn't like it one bit. He looked like a farmer with his cattle."

Some columnists snickered at the very definition of a smack on the bottom as "impulsive." In an editorial on the front page of the leading national daily Corriere della Sera, writer Luca Goldoni poked fun at the Supreme Court justices.

"Objection my lord," he wrote. "That the smack was isolated and impulsive seems vaguely obvious: if the employee had not denounced her superior's sexual harassment, it would have meant that she didn't mind the smack and the smack would have then become repeated and prolonged. Poor supreme judges," he said.

But all was not lost for the women's movement, Goldoni believed. "I ascertained after a short telephone poll that the possible future victims of their bosses attentions intend to reply promptly — with a kick in the groin," he wrote.

"I think from time to time they have to deal with a case that they cannot get away from and which forces them to issue sentences which provide comedians excellent material."

Controversial Ruling

Controversy is nothing new for the justices of Italy's highest court. In a ruling that provoked strong reactions from women's rights groups last year, the court ruled that women wearing tight jeans could not claim to be raped.

The court overturned a rape conviction, ruling that the supposed victim must have agreed to sex because her jeans could not have been removed without her consent.

A lower court had earlier sentenced the accused, a 48-year-old driving instructor to 34 months in jail for allegedly raping his 18-year-old student.

Lawyers of the defendant argued the victim's jeans were too tight to be removed without her consent, an opinion the justices of the Court of Cessation, or Supreme Court, upheld.

ABCNEWS' Phoebe Natanson in Rome contributed to this report.