Love their lines: Women’s March through French Women Books
Whether you go to the Women’s March on Saturday January 21st or not, take some time to read your French sisters!
Young Lady Reading, Mary Cassatt (1878)
‘The US election proved a catalyst for a grassroots movement of women to assert the positive values that the politics of fear denies. On January 21 2017, the first day of Donald Trump’s Presidency, women-led marches, welcoming all participants, will take place across the world, with the largest expected in Washington D.C.’ You can visit the official website of Women’s March London and check out the Facebook event.
Here’s a short list of suggested readings to (re)discover what French women writers have to say about female emancipation… and who knows, maybe find new reasons to go out and march tomorrow.
- The Second Sex (Vintage Feminism Short Edition), Simone de Beauvoir. If the two volumes of the absolute classic from 1949 terrify you, try this beautiful edition by Vintage Classics. Key passages have been carefully selected for those who believe that one is not born, but rather becomes, a feminist Francophile.
- My Escape: An Autobiography, Benoîte Groult, published by Other Press. Born in 1920, Mrs. Groult died just last year after an eventful life (pardon the massive understatement) that spanned decades of major changes in the female condition. You can also learn more about Mrs. Groult in a tribute to her in the New York Times.
- The Conflict: how Modern Motherhood Undermines the Status of Women, Elisabeth Badinter. Published by Metropolitan Books, Badinter has been part of the vanguard of the European fight for women's equality for decades. She offers once more an explosive and controversial look into the Western female condition, this time through the dangers of liberal motherhood.
- So Long a Letter, Mariama Bâ. "It was the privilege of our generation to be the link between two periods in our history, one of domination, the other of independence", states Ramatoulaye, the heroine of this widely-appraised work which explores the inequalities between men and women in Senegal, Islam and African society.
- King Kong Theory, Virginie Despentes. Who doesn’t want to read this manifesto by "the loudest, most fiercely unapologetic misfit writing in France today"? Serpent’s Tail also published her roadtrip thriller, Apocalypse Baby.
And if you like comics:
- Kiki de Montparnasse, Catel & Bocquet. This fun graphic biography presents the bohemian Paris of the 1920s and the muse of a generation. Selfmadehero has announced the translation into English of another work by Catel & Bocquet about Josephine Baker for Spring 2017!
