The Hunted Have Now Become the Hunters

In Susan Van Allen's article, "That's Amore", this idea of the role reversal of hunted to hunters represents her perception of the Roman flirting game. When she visited as a young naive girl 30-something-years ago she tells us that it was the men, well-trained in the game of flirtation, who stalked their female prey. When she returned many years later she is surprised, and a bit perturbed to see how the tables have turned. The piece begins with Susan and her friend Carol sitting in a wine bar, Carol opens the piece by commenting that, "Guys like that are better than Zoloft". She goes on to say, "I know a shrink back in New York who sends women who are suffering from low self-esteem to Italy for a month".

Susan continues by explaining who the man is that Carol is so fondly referring to, and why she's referring to him in such a way. While Susan feels that the Italian men have crafted the art of flirtation over the years so that now it's gangs of American women oggling a stray Italian man, I don't know that I share the same opinion. While it is undeniable that the Italians possess a flare for romance I sometimes find their long-held gazes unsettling, but maybe that's just me. Apparently some women disagree. Like the ones Susan describes who give their numbers to bartenders and expectantly turn their rear-ends in their direction to receive a little squeeze after a few too many limoncellos, or the women who ride the boats and somehow end up without tops or bottoms. Susan finds this reversed hunting style almost criminal, she jokes about putting up fliers to preserve the ancient art of romance as it was when she was a girl, banning the previously described women from certain parts to maintain the traditional form of flirting.

She concludes her article by circling back to her lead, in a way that somewhat contradicts the rest of what she said earlier about disliking the role reversal, but not entirely. She takes us back to the scene at the bar where she finishes her glass of wine then turns to meet the gaze of the man dubbed "better than Zoloft"; "He raises an eyebrow to add just the right mischievous element". Recalling a personal memory she referenced earlier in the piece of her trials with Italian flirting as a young American girl, she wonders if he is the same man who "hunted" her so long ago.