Politics & Power Quote by Silvia Colloca

Colloca’s jab lands because it flatters and scolds at once, using the language of dating to smuggle in a bigger culture clash about agency. She sets up Italy as a place where femininity is coded as selective, even “snobby,” and courtship runs on a familiar script: men initiate, women curate. Then she pivots to America, where the rules feel less ceremonial and more transactional. “If I don’t make eye contact, the guys won’t come over” is a tiny behavioral detail that carries the whole argument: attention isn’t assumed, it’s earned and signaled. In her telling, American men read non-signals as non-interest, not as coyness.

The subtext is not simply “American women are bolder.” It’s that an imported, old-world performance of desirability can misfire in a culture that prizes clarity and mutual pursuit. “American girls just go for it” frames directness as both liberation and necessity, implying that hesitation gets you erased in a faster, more egalitarian marketplace.

The kicker, “You men are spoiled,” is doing double duty. It teases American men for benefiting from women’s initiative, but it also needles them for needing it. It’s a comedic reversal of the usual complaint that women are pampered by being pursued. Coming from an actress, the line also nods to performance itself: dating as stagecraft, where the audience (men) behaves differently depending on the genre (Italy’s flirtation-as-ritual versus America’s flirtation-as-consent-and-clarity).