Desirè Manca dances (alone), posts the video, the criticism arrives and she responds: «I am a free woman».

The social media script is followed. The regional labor councilor posts her usual update on the activities of her offices. At a certain hour, in recent days, she announces a measure that should allow women "forced" to work part-time to secure a reassuring full-time permanent contract. She wears a floral dress dominated by red, matching her shoes.

The same formal, yet not rigorous, uniform that envelops her as, shortly thereafter, she decides it's time to dance. And here's the reel: Desirè Manca, her smile unwavering, performs a rhythmic routine to the tune of "(I've Had)" The Time of My Life, the key song from the cult film Dirty Dancing.

Accompanying text: "Every now and then when I go to the supermarket, someone asks me if the councilors do the shopping too. Oh yes," Manca writes, "and not only that: they also do crazy things while dancing." It's not Baby, and there's no Patrick Swayze-esque playwright Johnny. But the councilor gets by.

The comments on social media are inevitable. Those pile up about the appropriateness of a prominent regional government member publishing that video. Naturally, they do. And Manca knew they were coming. So, inevitably (and also obligatorily), his response arrives, this time accompanied by a photo dominated by black (the dress) and punctuated by the fuchsia of a large flower pinned to her chest, matching her lipstick. Manca doesn't shy away. He revisits the Bible, Ecclesiastes.

"Everything has its season: every event under heaven has its time. A time to weep and a time to laugh. A time to mourn and a time to dance," he writes in a quote. He then expresses his thoughts: "Then there are those who expect those in positions of power to spend all their time crying, or mourning. What these gentlemen don't understand is that I, like everyone else, including them, have a life, affections, feelings, moments of joy and less happy moments."
But above all, "I am free to do and undo, to go out or stay at home, to dance or sing, without having to give explanations to anyone.
Let those moralists who want to know what they're talking about, those who have all the answers before the question is asked, those who have a problem for every solution, face it. I am a free woman."

Enrico Fresu

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