It is a “beautiful baby” in large format and of 328 pages which has just been published, divided into several chapters, chronological and themed. He looks back on several highlights of the fight for women’s rights in France: abortion, contraception, but also the look at women at home, at work, and through religions. The opportunity to remind, or learn, the general public that Charlie hebdo has always supported these fights over time, as Alice tells us: “We had the idea of showing how Charlie has been up to date with questions of feminism and women’s rights for fifty years. We had a lot of material, I think we have enough to do a second issue or even a third! We kept the best to make this book. “
Several personalities, former or current contributors to the newspaper, sign the prefaces, including the journalist Caroline Fourest who mentions “the feminism that Gérard Biard has always defended”. Was the interested party a precursor? His answer : “When in 1992 Philippe Val took over the newspaper he immediately wanted to break this image, false moreover, of ‘Charlie gang of guys’, a little room atmosphere. We often confuse Charlie hebdo and Hara-kiri. I consider myself to be pro-feminist but I think feminism is a political idea, so yes I am a feminist. ”
“Charlie has always been a political newspaper that cares about politics and therefore the status of women from the start.”
Gérard Biard, editor-in-chiefto franceinfo
An atmosphere confirmed by Alice, who joined the editorial staff in May 2018: “Irather feel like I’m in a big playground with girls making as many jokes as guys. What I like about Charlie it is that I am not recognized as a woman but as a designer. What is important to Charlie it is having ideas, knowing how to draw, knowing how to write for journalists. I have never been sent back to my status as a woman, we spend our days laughing. “
But precisely, as it is the subject of the book, what is this vision of feminism according to Charlie ? For Gérard Biard, “it is a universalist feminism since today feminism is confronted with a whole bunch of controversies just like anti-racism. There is what is called an intersectional feminism (convergence of several discriminations and struggles) which is a deviation from the idea of intersectionality, which is rather what I call a sectoral feminism. “
This does not prevent, especially in recent years and in the wake of the #MeToo movement in 2017, that opinions may diverge and several visions from clashing, even if the newspaper sticks to its universalist line. As Alice recalls, “these debates exist in the editorial staff, we take topical issues, when feminism is in it we debate it, everyone has their specialty, opinions diverge, the journal is created thanks to our debates. “
Finally, even if the newspaper looks back on chapters of these struggles over the last fifty years, the fight is far from over, and all is not rosy for women in France, in 2021. Alice concludes: “There is still progress to be made, the fight for women’s rights is never over. Riss (the editor editor’s note) says that democracy is a horizon, a point towards which we must go. I think that the fight for the rights and freedoms of women is the same, a horizon towards which we must also go, always. “
“Charlie Hebdo liberates women, half a century of articles and drawings on women’s rights” published by Les Echappés, 328 pages, 39 euros.