(Applause)
Good evening.
I am the first woman
sexual exhibitionist in France.
So, I warn you right away:
I never assaulted a child;
I do not go completely naked
under a raincoat in the subway.
But in December 2014,
I was sentenced for sexual exhibition
by the district court of Paris
one month suspended sentence and 3500 € fine,
for that :
It was the first time a woman was convicted of this crime.
And that, as you can see, it’s me,
at the Madeleine church, Paris, in December 2013.
At the time, the government in Spain
wanted to restrict the conditions of access to abortion
and I was fighting with Femen
and we decided to organize a series of individual actions
in several European cities
to defend the right to abortion.
Because yes, I was Femen.
But I was also Barbue,
I also have Os [é] Feminism.
And I almost was a watchdog.
Because there is not only one feminism, but feminisms.
I started to say feminist when I was 16
when I discovered great feminist intellectuals
as for example the writer Violette Leduc,
but also the American rapper Queen Latifah,
or the Bikini Kill punk band
who is one of the pioneers of the current Riot Girl.
After I waited a few years,
until around the age of 23,
to engage in different movements.
I did several because at the time, I was looking for a structure
which encompasses all feminist issues
every time, I felt that the movements where I was going
were interested in a theme only in particular.
But suddenly, at Dare Feminism, I discovered
a real laboratory of ideas
real debate
especially with their campaign “Dare the clit”
which aimed to break the taboo of female pleasure.
Then with the beard,
the Beard is a group of activists wearing a false beard
denouncing the under-representation or absence of women
in places of power.
With Barbe, therefore, I discovered a caustic and theatrical mode of action
which I liked a lot
like their action at the Cannes Film Festival in 2012
who denounced a selection of 100% male films.
And then I joined Femen
because their topless mode of action
and their use of the body as a political tool
seemed very punchy
and also because I found
that they had a way,
putting feminism on the street,
to make it both more popular
and also more accessible to all.
When we think about it, there is not a single fight,
There are several fights.
There is no woman as an entity but women.
Moreover, on subjects like the veil or prostitution,
do we really know if it’s good, not good,
if we are for, if we are against, we do not really know.
Besides, even between feminists,
we have points of disagreement on these subjects.
We have points of disagreement about wearing the veil,
on prostitution,
we also have points of disagreement about surrogacy.
Because there are many different feminisms.
There are veiled feminists for whom
religion and women’s rights are not incompatible
and who consider that the veil is not a reason for women’s oppression.
There are also LGBT or Queer feminists
who, they consider that the genre is a construction
and is not a natural fact.
There are also afro-feminists
who think that black and Afro-descendant women
are both victims of sexism and racism
and that they are often forgotten by mainstream feminism.
There are also so-called essentialist feminists
who are convinced that there are feminine specificities
such as maternal instinct or empathy.
There are also universalist feminists like Simone de Beauvoir,
no longer present, who do they think
that despite our biological differences between women and men,
it does not justify male domination.
There are still environmental feminists, who they believe
that there is a link between the oppression of women
and the destruction of our planet.
There you have it, there are plenty of different feminisms.
In case you did not know,
not all women think the same way.
So, today, I’m a freelance feminist.
That way, I choose the fights I want,
the projects that I want to defend
and those that fit me best.
For example, in November 2015, I created Counter Strikes,
which is a compilation of 12 female artists
who sing against violence against women,
and all the profits of the disc have been donated to the Institute in Reproductive Health
which is a center based in Saint-Germain en Laye
which welcomes and guides women victims of all forms of violence.
A year ago, I also launched Madame Rap,
which is the first site dedicated to women in rap
and which aims in particular to create bridges between hip-hop and feminisms,
feminisms with an “s” in the plural.
For me, it was important to show
that, contrary to popular belief and all the prejudices one may have,
rap is not the most misogynistic music that exists,
it’s not the most homophobic music that exists
and that even some rappers are true examples of women’s empowerment.
In fact, I also realized that being a feminist is not necessarily
to make demonstrations or to chant slogans.
For example, I think art or culture can be biased
much less cleavants and less frontal
to express a feminist thought.
When we see some artists like rapper Nikki Minage
who, with a hyper sexualized image,
intends to reinvest the sexuality of black women in the United States,
or French filmmaker Céline Sciamma,
who, she, is going
to make women who are not generally visible in society,
or the Nigerian writer Chimamanda Adichie
who advocates inclusive feminism.
All these women are feminists in their own way
and they are completely free
and detached from any political stake.
They propose things, they make things happen,
and they never oppose men and women.
Because, let it be clear, feminism has never been,
and it is not, a fight against men.
It’s a fight against patriarchy.
That is, the integrated codes that dictate our society.
Being a feminist is just saying:
“OK, I’m putting this dominant norm back into question
and I’m thinking of a way to deconstruct it
and to rebuild a society and a more equitable world. “
In fact, frankly, that’s just feminism.
It’s just saying how to treat each other
all and all equally
and how to act in this way.
When you think about it, there are many different ways to be feminist.
One can be a woman entrepreneur who assembles her own box;
a single mother who leads her private life,
his professional life and everything else;
a woman who chooses not to have children and who proclaims it loud and clear;
a woman who has been raped and decides to tell her story,
who tells his rape to inspire other female victims also
to break the silence and repair itself.
It can also be lesbian and come out
to again inspire other women
and become a kind of role model.
In any case, feminism must be inclusive.
It’s really something that I realized a few years ago,
By telling me :
“So that it works,
it really has to include all the under-privileged people in society. “
Whether it’s women, LGBTQIA,
racialized people,
handicapped,
the rounds, the rounds,
the young, the not so young,
poor people,
all religions
and atheists of course!
Men can be feminists in their own way.
They can act in a feminist way.
For example, a boss who decides to pay in the same way
his female employees and her male employees.
A father who decides to ask his day
to pick up his sick child at school
so that his wife stays at work
or a man in a meeting who is conscious of occupying all the space
and talk all the time
and who chooses to keep quiet to let other women speak.
These are examples
but these are behaviors that are already feminist.
The problem is not these behaviors,
it is the feminist term that still bears a pejorative connotation today.
Me, I see it well, for example, in dinners or evenings
where when I say that I’m a feminist,
some people are writhing,
not all of them,
but some are clenching
and take me right away for a kind of hysterical misandre,
castrating and frustrated often,
whereas when I say the same thing differently,
that I am fighting for equality between women and men,
everyone thinks it’s so cool, so cool, too much rock and roll
and I spend a little bit for Mother Teresa or Batman.
So, we must stop
to have such a simplistic definition of feminism
and really accept our feminisms, in the plural,
in all their richness and diversity.
So that the term “feminism” is no longer a dirty word,
all feminists must take responsibility.
For example, tonight in this room, I’m sure there are plenty of feminists
who still do not know it,
who do not take this name.
For things to change, everyone must
we start to say that we are feminists.
In your next dinners or your next parties,
I do not ask you to do like me and to walk barefoot,
or show your breasts as a sign of protest
and possibly risk a charge for sexual exhibition,
but I’m just asking you to say:
“Well yes, I too am a feminist. “
Thank you.
(Applause)
”
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