In Greece, when journalists seek statements from Mpeos, Kougias, and others like them, or invite them onto their shows, they do so knowing full well that something extreme will be said and controversy will follow.
It doesn’t matter how phobic, provocative, toxic, or socially dangerous their utterances might be. All that matters is creating buzz around the show.
This is exactly what Christiana Aristotelous did by inviting former footballer Costas Malekkos onto her show.
There was no other reason to invite him. She was obviously aware of his views.
However, most of those who reacted don’t condemn the host, director, producer, station, or whoever decided to invite someone like Malekkos on television. They condemn him instead.
Yet without being given a platform, he would have been just another man sitting with his like-minded friends and those who tolerate listening to their views, as many others do.
However, by giving him a platform, she brings him into thousands of homes to tell us to our faces that women have taken the wrong path, that men have the right to do whatever they want, even kill if a woman dares to ask for divorce.
That’s what he told the presenter. That if after ten years of marriage she wanted a divorce, he would find her and kill her.
“When you decide to get married, you must accept both parties’ mistakes and stay with your children. So if you now divorce Efrem in ten years, I’ll find you and kill you. I don’t understand, has this become fashionable?”.
And the presenter treated this with laughter, as befitting a so-called entertainment show.
Only at one point did she dare to counter: “Do you think men have stayed on the right path while we’ve gone astray?”.
And Malekkos’s response could only be: “A man has the right, because he’s a man. […] You women must accept that the man is the leader. Period!”
In an era when violence against women is on the rise, a woman with otherwise modern views chooses to broadcast opinions that cultivate gender discrimination.
Without realising (or perhaps not caring) how offensive these statements were first and foremost to herself, and how dangerous they can become. Entertainment, this certainly isn’t.