Interrogating the Esso Insignia: Feminised Labour Depictions and the Economic Boom

ABSTRACT This essay analyses the correlation between the infiltration of global capitalism and the representation of feminised labour in the Italian cinema of the economic boom. Specifically, it focuses on the presence of Esso oil company branding, frequently featured in Italian films from the 1950s and 1960s that centre depictions of feminised labour, including but not limited to the sale of sex. The juxtaposition between Esso branding and the visual representations of working women’s stories on screen emphasises the discrepancy between the thriving financial success of global industry and the struggles of working-class Italian women, for whom the promises of the economic boom proved elusive. Yet the juxtaposition also demonstrates the substantial economic role played by women, upon whom Italian society is dependent as a form of both fiscal and cultural capital.