#maneskinweek

[messerdanny]

MÅNESKIN APPRECIATION WEEK — @maneskinweek

Day One • Damiano David

[oretsevs]

måneskin appreciation week | ethan

[thomasraggi]

MÅNESKIN APPRECIATION WEEK DAY 1: DAMIANO @maneskinweek​

Damiano in:

[maneskindaily]

MÅNESKIN APPRECIATION WEEK — @maneskinweek

Day one: Damiano David

[theflowerisblue]

Strict distinctions between boys and girls didn’t sit right with me. When I was six I started to reject all “feminine things”: I went skateboarding, I had short hair, I dressed like a tomboy. I didn’t wear skirts, not because I didn’t like them, but because I wanted to claim the chance to be myself. Rock music embodied that burst of freedom. 

MÅNESKIN APPRECIATION WEEK | DAY 4 - VICTORIA DE ANGELIS

@maneskinweek

[zittiebuonis]

@maneskinweek | MÅNESKIN APPRECIATION WEEK - day four - Victoria de Angelis

[literallymitch]

𝐑𝐞𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐝 || 𝐌𝐚̊𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐤𝐢𝐧

requested: kinda

summary: The reader is a close friend to the band, and after they come home from the promo tour through europe they spend some time at the maneskin house

pairing: Maneskin x Friend!Reader(also GN)

word count: 931

what kind of content: fluff

warnings: none

a/n thank you for everyone that shared an idea for this imagine!! I tried to combine them all. I also changed up theone prompt a bit :) @maneskinweek​​

masterlist        new taglistform

“Hello rock stars.” You greeted them as you walk into the garden of the Maneskin house, where the four of them waited for you.

As soon as they saw you, they all came running to you, pulling you in a group hug. You haven’t seen them in a while now, since they were on a promo tour through Europe. They asked you to join them, but because of your job, you sadly couldn’t join them. Everyone around you called you the fifth member of the band, since you were so close to all of them. Thomas always said that you are free to join them, but you sadly lacked the musical talent to actually do so. Still, you loved to watch them from the crowed or just hang around while they are doing their music stuff.

“We missed you so much Y/n/n”, Ethan said, resting his head on yours.

“I missed you guys too, but you have to stop squeezing me like that I’m running out of air.”, you joked.

They let go of you as they started to laugh.

“Sorry, love, we just really missed you and your dumb jokes.”, Damiano confessed.

“My jokes are the best, I don’t know what your talking about. By the way, we really have to go to an amusement park together now. Seeing all the content of you in that amusement park in Sweden made me jealous. But first let’s go and cook something, I bought some stuff from the local market.”

The five of you made your way inside. Ethan placed the bags full of grocery on the kitchen counter, starting to unpack them. You could see his eyes widen when he saw that you bought fresh bread from his favorite bakery. You just smiled to yourself, because he was just too adorable. After everything laid out on the kitchen counter, you made teams. Damiano and Thomas would make “Bruschetta” and Vic, Ethan and you would cook “Paccheri al Forno”.

“Guys, don’t you dare to ruin the bread!”, you could hear Ethan say to Damiano and Thomas.

After some time, the kitchen already smelled delicious. All of you were having a great time singing along to some classic Italian songs. You were probably acting cliché Italians right now, but who cares, right? As long as they were happy, you didn’t care if you look like the biggest idiots right now. You could tell your friends were tired and glad to be home again. Usually they would never put on some Italian opera, but rather a rock playlist. Who can blame them after travelling a lot of countries in such a short time, having tons of interviews and meeting lots of fans every day.

“You burned the bread, you monsters?”, Ethan pulled you out of your thoughts.

You turned around to see Damiano and Thomas putting two burned slices of bread on a plate. Now you also noticed, the delicious smell of fresh cooked tomato sauce was overshadowed by a burnt smell. Vic watched the scene in front of her, being clearly amused by it.

“Which Idiot does not know how to toast a bread?”, Ethan continued to playfully shout at the two boys.

“The two idiots who haven't toasted bread in a while. Sorry Ethan, I know this is your favorite bread, like ever.” Damiano apologized.

Both Vic and you started to laugh. The way they were being so fake dramatic over the bread was too funny. Ethan helped the other two to toast the bread right, while you and Vic started to set the table. When everything was finished, you but it on the table as well. Damiano opened the bottle of wine you also bought at the market today and opened it.

“God, this is so good and the wine is literally the best.” Thomas stated after he took a bite of his Bruschetta. The others agreed with him. You just sat there smiling again, admiring how happy they all looked. You really missed them.

After dinner, you cleaned everything. At least you tried. Ethan threw a rag right into Damianos face.

“That’s for burning my bread.”, he said

“Hey Thomas also burned your bread”, Damiano groaned, trying to dry his face.

“Well, yes, but I only had one rag, and you were closer.”

“Now I’m fully convinced you never graduated kindergarten.”, you interrupted them.

“Good thing you didn't either.”, Thomas responded.

Now it was you who threw a rag across the room, hitting Thomas with it. You continued to throw the rags at each other, laughing like some maniacs. You started to chase each other through the living room and into the garden. That turned out to be a big mistake, as Vic pushed you into the pool. After you were back at the surface, you gave her a shocked expression, splashing some water at her. Luckily, karma aka Thomas got her back by picking her up and jumping into the pool with her. Damiano and Ethan followed him and also jumped into the pool.

Afterwards, when you all were dry again, you sat on the couch together watching some Italian show. To be honest, you didn't sit on the couch, you were a huge cuddle piled that was placed on the couch. Thomas and Damiano fell a sleep shorty after you went onto the couch. You braided a strand of Ethan's hair.  Vic watched you with a huge smile on her face. The three of you just enjoyed each other's company. You looked at your four best friends and started to smile, being glad you finally had them back.

[taraknowless]

@maneskinweek | Måneskin appreciation week:  - Day 5 |  The entire band | Måneskin for Disney Italia

[ethaneskin]

💘 my love 💘 @maneskinweek

[fuckyeahisawthat]

damiano david and the voyeuristic gaze

(x)

(I started writing this quite a while ago but it turned out to be perfectly timed for @maneskinweek​ so here we go...)

One of the most interesting things to me about watching Damiano David perform is how self-aware he is about being the object of a gaze. As in, he is extremely aware of when, and how, he is being looked at, and he wants you to know that he’s aware of it.

While they obviously wouldn’t have gotten this far without a ton of musical talent and hard work, I think all the members of Måneskin are aware that their looks, style, and public image of self-confidence and comfort with their bodies and their gender expression are all part of their appeal. Simply put...they’re sexy, they know it, and they’re very comfortable and unapologetic about that being part of their public image.

They all clearly put a lot of thought into how they style and present themselves for public appearances, be it a concert or an interview. But Damiano as the lead singer is the most deliberate about constructing a particular performance of sexiness, and subtly (and sometimes not-so-subtly) nudging the audience into looking at him in certain ways.

In general Damiano is extremely good at catching the audience’s attention and then directing it where he wants. This video is a great breakdown of how he does that. On stage he is frequently the center of attention (although he is also very intentional about directing the audience’s attention to his other bandmates when it’s their time to shine) and he seems to quite enjoy doing things that get a reaction from the audience. They don’t even have to be big, obvious things--one of my favorite Lesser Damiano Moments is this trick he does in a few of the Il ballo della vita tour shows of blowing water into the air after taking a drink. (What is this? Is it sexy? Why is it sexy? How does one even come up with this? In any case, you paid attention to it, didn’t you?) It’s a clever way of taking something as quotidian as drinking water and turning it into a little performance.

One thing he does very frequently--in live performances, in music videos, and in unscripted BTS moments--is acknowledge the audience’s gaze. He is constantly doing things that signal: I see you seeing me, and this is a performance I'm putting on for you.

When he’s performing live, and when he’s performing live for a camera, you can frequently see him pointing, gesturing or making direct eye contact with the audience/camera. There are many examples of this but here’s one from a recent performance:

(x)

I wrote a whole other post about the band’s camera-savviness and how I think that contributed to their Eurovision win, but suffice to say that getting a moment like this just right relies on knowing where the camera is and how it’s moving, and being able to keep track of it while not losing the connection to a live audience.

In BTS footage and other unscripted moments you can frequently catch him winking or doing something raunchy, flirty or silly when he realizes the camera is on him (there are at least 4 examples in this gifset). While these interactions may be unrehearsed, BTS, making-of and slice-of-life footage is produced with the knowledge that it’s for public consumption, and thus absolutely part of the public image the band is projecting. Even the content on the band members’ personal Instagrams is made to be shown to an audience. Thus all of this is fair game for analyzing how Damiano presents himself to an audience.

All of these forms of acknowledging the audience communicate a similar message: a sort of playful, cheeky exhibitionism, signaling that Damiano knows you are looking at him and he is not only allowing it but enjoying it, and maybe about to put on a little show just for you. It draws you, the viewer, into a sort of complicity with him; it’s a way of saying, Yeah, I see you looking. It’s okay. I like it, and I know you like it too.

This sort of invitation or direction into a voyeuristic gaze at him is most obvious in the band’s music videos, where the way the band interacts with the camera has obviously been thought out in advance. My absolute favorite example is this shot from the Vent’anni video:

(x)

By looking directly into the camera he creates the sense that he is checking to see if you are watching before he sensually strokes that mic. (He is particularly, uh, handsy with the mic in general but this is one of the more blatant moments and yes you are absolutely supposed to notice it.)

The Vent’anni video is shot in a style that frequently breaks the fourth wall, and it’s therefore particularly rich with these moments. Here’s another favorite of mine:

Thomas is looking back at Damiano (as much as you can look at someone who’s directly behind you) but Damiano is looking at us, the audience.

And of course, you knew I was going to talk about this:

(x)

Watching the band’s frontman make out with his own reflection sounds like it should come off as insufferably self-absorbed, but the way this is shot and framed (and the way we have been primed to look at it by other shots earlier in the video) creates the effect of something private, intimate and a bit vulnerable being put on display for us.

In the video for Morirò da Re, the camera actually becomes the mirror in shots like this:

So now we are watching Damiano watch himself as he assesses the image he is about to show to an audience. (Specifically, the image of his gender presentation...we’ll get into that more in a bit.)

And when we see the final product later in the video, Damiano is once again watching us watch him:

All of these details really stand out to me because this kind of intense awareness of other people’s perceptions of you is, let’s just say, not the mainstream way most straight cis men are socialized to perform their sexuality. You know who is socialized to constantly be aware that people are watching them and think about the image they are presenting for others’ consumption? Women. (Cue Margaret Atwood busting through the wall with that “you are your own voyeur” quote.) Another category of people who spend a lot of time thinking about the image they present in this way? Queer and trans people. We do it for the purpose of passing--as someone you are (ie. being gendered correctly), or as someone you’re not (ie. not looking “too queer” in situations where it’s not safe). And we also do it for the purpose of signaling to other queer people, hey, I’m like you.

I think this kind of self-conscious recognition of the audience’s gaze, just as much as the makeup, high heels or corsets, is what makes so many of Damiano’s performances read as gnc and queer. Even if Damiano himself is not queer...we see something we recognize.

The crucial difference is that in Damiano’s performances, the awareness of others’ gaze is not something hostile or dangerous. It’s welcome, consensual, playful, intimate and fun. It’s acknowledged with a saucy wink and a confident, sultry look. I think that’s a lot of what makes Måneskin, and Damiano in particular, so much fun to watch, and so sexy in the particular way that they are sexy. Even though we know it’s a performance, it’s a performance of what confident gender and sexual expression could look like without fear.

[agapintheskin]

@maneskinweek | Måneskin appreciation week - day one - Damiano David

[messerdanny]

MÅNESKIN APPRECIATION WEEK — @maneskinweek

Day Two • Ethan Torchio

[oretsevs]

måneskin appreciation week | damiano BEFORE & AFTER WINNING

[thomasraggi]

MÅNESKIN APPRECIATION WEEK DAY 3: THOMAS @maneskinweek​

Thomas in:

[maneskindaily]

MÅNESKIN APPRECIATION WEEK — @maneskinweek

Day three: Thomas Raggi

[theflowerisblue]

We’re just ourselves and the message we want to spread is that it is fine to be who you are and you shouldn’t let other people judge you or stop you from being who you feel you are.

MÅNESKIN APPRECIATION WEEK | DAY FIVE  

@maneskinweek