Denise Bombardier, a great feminist? Throughout her career, the journalist and columnist has been both praised and criticized for her speaking out on women and their rights.
The sudden death of Mr.me Bombardier Tuesday, at the age of 82, resulted in a shower of tributes on social networks. She is called a “pioneer”, a “strong woman”. We emphasize his generosity, his humor, his kindness, his intelligence.
Holder of a doctorate in sociology from the Sorbonne in Paris, Denise Bombardier quickly became a headliner at Radio-Canada. She worked there for more than 30 years, becoming the first woman to produce and host a public affairs TV show. When she left the public broadcaster in the early 2000s, she devoted herself to writing books and chronicling. In particular, she shares her opinions in The duty until 2012, then Montreal Journal from 2014.
“She is part of this generation of women who fought for their place in journalism and paved the way for others. She always stood tall, she defended her ideas against all odds,” says journalist and writer Claudia Larochelle.
Like many, she evokes in an interview her famous passage in March 1990 on the set of the French program Apostrophes, moderated by Bernard Pivot. In front of some three million viewers, the young Denise Bombardier was opposed – alone – to the author Gabriel Matzneff, who boasted of his adventures with minors. “Me, Monsieur Matzneff, it seems pitiful to me,” she replied, criticizing the fact that in France literature could “serve as an alibi” for such confidences. Then to add: “We know that old gentlemen attract children with sweets; Monsieur Matzneff attracts them with his reputation. »
“Denise was never afraid, sometimes at the cost of her discomfort, to speak her mind. She rushed into the heap. Not to show off, but because there were causes to defend, ”comments his great friend Lise Ravary.
“Women who have the nerve like her, there are not tons of them”, adds the journalist and author Pascale Navarro, still impressed by this confrontation with Gabriel Matzneff. Denise Bombardier was however the target of many criticisms and insults in the following years. At least, until the Matzneff affair broke out in 2020, with the publication of Vanessa Springora’s book, THE consent.
Whether through her speeches or her career in the media, Denise Bombardier was the embodiment of feminism, in the opinion of many interviewees. Even if she never claimed this label. “He’s not someone who liked to define himself and even less to be defined. But you don’t need to read all her books to know that she was a feminist,” insists Lise Ravary.
Solid, brave and polarizing
“She was a solid, courageous woman, a model for many. But she was also a polarizing woman, whose right-wing and moralistic feminist positions were much criticized,” notes Isabelle Boisclair, professor of literary and cultural studies at the University of Sherbrooke.
“She sometimes lacked solidarity and benevolence towards young feminists and young journalists”, regrets Claudia Larochelle. In 1998, Denise Bombardier accused young journalists of preparing poorly for interviews, which earned her a scathing reply from Marie-Louise Arsenault, who was then working at Flash. “It was my generation that she was targeting, her words were harsh, I found it revolting”, recalls Mme Larochelle.
By displaying more conservative ideas, Denise Bombardier has thus alienated the feminist majority, more on the left, underlines Professor Boisclair. “The feminist movement, here as elsewhere, is above all a socialist movement. It is a left-wing feminism, more inclusive, more open, for the free choice and self-determination of subjects,” she says.
She recalls the controversy that Mme Bombardier had raised in 2017, denouncing the fact that a trans woman – Gabrielle Bouchard – finds herself at the head of the Fédération des femmes du Québec. She also gives as an example her opposition to same-sex marriage or her pro-secular position.
Francis Dupuis-Déri, who teaches political science and feminist studies at UQAM, notes that the columnist “shared the masculinist thesis of antifeminists according to which feminism has caused terrible disarray among men”. “Such talk is not only wrong, but it undermines the legitimacy of feminism,” he insists.
“Who loves well punishes well”, proclaims her friend Lise Ravary. “She said things to women that are not good to hear, that are shocking, but that are necessary. She was not looking for unanimity.