“My daughter and her 10-year-old friend no longer want to come home from school and conservatory alone. » Louise (first name has been changed) decided to take action with the Héroines 95 collective. “The gentlemen stare at me, make facial expressions and gestures,” her daughter told her. So, rather than putting up with street harassment once again — and once too often, this mother decided to sit at these café tables from which some men think they can do anything.
“Since I have lived in Argenteuil, I no longer dress the same,” confides Manon, sitting opposite Louise this Saturday morning. This tall, 24-year-old brunette talks about her daily life while sipping an espresso at the table of a café on Avenue Gabriel-Péri. She met members of the Héroines 95 collective for the first time during one of these “feminist cafés”. Around the small group of residents, men of all ages come in and out. Here, as in many other establishments in the city, few women dare to cross these doors to take a break.
It is precisely to remedy this reality that Héroines 95 has decided to launch these somewhat special meetings in this month of October. “We noticed that there were fewer and fewer women in public space,” points out Eina, one of the pillars of the Val-d’Oisian feminist collective. “They are just passing through. So we decided to occupy this space, and cafes are important. »
“At some point, we try to become invisible”
For Louise it was urgent. “My 10-year-old daughter is afraid of walking past cafes. » This is where she actually experiences inappropriate gestures, looks or words. “For the moment, my husband and I are going to pick her up after school. But it is here, in this city, that it will grow, I do not want this to continue,” confides the energetic Argenteuillaise.
The forty-year-old has long noticed that women had deserted the bars. “I sometimes go in with my husband who is going to buy a scratch card ticket. Everyone stares at me, there is silence. Even my husband finds it weird. » The mother believes that the situation has deteriorated in recent years. “Before, on Wednesdays, mothers often dropped off their child at the conservatory and came to wait at the café. Now we see them waiting standing in front of the music building. »
Héroines 95 is also increasing poster operations in Argenteuil to try to raise awareness among the population about street harassment.
Manon admits to “feeling much less alone” upon hearing these testimonies. As soon as she moved to the city two years ago, she says she immediately felt the weight of the overly insistent stares. “The first week, a car followed me down the street I was walking on. With the window down the man was talking to me. He ended up blocking my way in the car on the pedestrian crossing because I didn’t want to give him my number, I had to climb over his hood,” the young woman remembers. “There were people there, no one intervened! There is a humiliating dimension, I was really very embarrassed. »
Over time, and because the inappropriate arrests in the street did not stop, Manon confides having put in place a whole range of avoidance strategies. “Before I would never have gone out jogging, now I often do it voluntarily. And I noticed that when I wear black I attract less attention. At some point we try to become invisible. »
In an attempt to raise awareness among the population, the Héroines 95 collective is increasing its poster operations. The activists leave to stick evocative slogans, “I am not free access” or even “I am not here to please you. » The collective also offers feminist self-defense workshops precisely so that women know how to react in the event of street harassment (the next session takes place on November 25).
Héroines 95 also hopes to raise awareness among cafe owners, “there is one near the station who told me that he could no longer stand what was happening on his terrace,” points out Eina. We think everyone stands to gain if women return to cafes.” There was a time when the populations who frequented the bars of Argenteuil were much more heterogeneous. “I came here upstairs to revise my baccalaureate when I was 18,” continues the activist, pointing to the staircase of the Café de l’Avenue. Today, we no longer see any students in these establishments. »
The collective intends to perpetuate its feminist cafés, the next meeting is scheduled for Saturday November 4 at 10 a.m. at the Michel café on rue Paul-Vaillant-Couturier. Currently, the only initiative of the same type to have seen the light of day in the department was in Sarcelles. Héroines plans to extend the initiative to other municipalities without being limited to Argenteuil. “We will go where necessary. »
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