Lauren Bastide explains why in her latest book

FEMINISM – We get up, we break … And then? Five years after the start of the #MeToo revolution, what observations can be drawn from a world where crises are multiplying? While inequalities are exacerbated, what positive projections are still emerging to build a more egalitarian and inclusive society? And above all, why will feminism, a plural movement, sometimes praised, sometimes insulted, more necessary than ever, save this world in flames?

These broad questions crystallize within futurethe latest essay by journalist Lauren Bastide, creator of the podcast The dust. An intimate book (dedicated to his sister Julia, victim of a femicide) that confronts both of them “The PPDA affair” that the evidence of ecofeminism, the “cradle of domination” which is incest and “the power of solicitude”, in other words, empathy. A cure that does not imply denying another force, that of indignation, which pulsates on these chapters, arousing a multitude of questions.

Lauren Bastide is convinced: the future will be feminist or it simply won’t be. In unison with Virginie Despentes’ latest novel, her abundant essay reconciles personal convictions and more global, intimate and political mobilizations to propose a dialogue. An invitation to listen, understand and make the voices that bring today’s anger resonate better.

The author tells us everything.

Terrafemmina : future appears as a more personal book than the previous one, gift (Allary Editions). Do you see it this way?

Lauren Bastide : Absolutely. I give myself much more in this book. Particularly because I realized that the best way to convey and illustrate all the feminist theories I discuss was from my own experience.

This intimate side also stems from the desire to take stock, five years after the launch of the #MeToo movement and six years after the first episode of your podcast The dust ?

More than a budget, I would speak of perspective. The question I ask myself is: where do we go now? How do we imagine what awaits us? How do we convert the test? The book opens with the observation of a human collapse, symbolized in particular by the climate crisis and the rise of fascism …

But beyond that, I find so much hope in feminist thinking that I wanted to share it with others.

In this book you write: “#MeToo is running out of me”. Specifically, it is the media coverage of these stories that exhausts you. Suggest that the media tend to sexualize rape, to forget that it is “domain”.

In fact, I think the media have their responsibility in this, in this narrative that bothers me. But the media is a reflection of society and a way of thinking that revolves too much around rape: “Did it really happen? “. We will always question rape, in fact. To insist on this very question, we forget to question what is around the rape, what allowed it to happen.

By dint of telling rapes, we forget to tell everything around. We forget to remember that rape is an instrument of domination, that it can be a weapon of war, that rape is a systemic violence that is exercised on minorities, on families, on children.

The feminist future she designs passes through a questioning of heterosexuality. A question that more and more wise men propose, such as the collection of Victoire Tuaillon. Why is this such a big problem?

A large movement like #MeToo poses a problem that directly questions heterosexuality, questioning a tool of heterosexual domination, as it is mainly used by men over women: rape. It is no coincidence that many feminists (such as Victoire Tuaillon, Mona Chollet, Fiona Schmidt, Judith Duportail) have taken up the question of heterosexuality. Feminism questions the relationship between men and women. So, inevitably, it can only question heterosexuality.

This question prompts us to question the couple, sexuality, but also motherhood, cultural constructions … It is not new because the heterosexual model has obviously been the subject of the reflections of the authors and activists Monique Wittig and Christine Delphy over the years. ’70.

You mention lesbian feminist writer and activist Monique Wittig to talk about “Political lesbianism”. That is to say, being a lesbian in reaction to the heterosexual system and the violence it generates.

The notion of political lesbianism and the work of Monique Wittig have made a comeback in recent years, in books, on Instagram. I think of the recent publication by Emilie Noteris: Humorous, published by Les Pérégrines, a very beautiful book. We are starting, like a certain fringe of activists in the 1970s, to see lesbianism as a way to escape sexism. And it is true that it is a valid solution!

In this book I explain how within current feminism we see opposition on the one hand to the heteroriformists who seek at all costs ways to form a social body with men, and on the other hand a more radical lesbian movement that may suggest secession as valid. political solution.

Personally, I would like us to accept that these two movements coexist, and that we do not expel the most radical positions from the movement, which unfortunately has already happened in the history of feminism.

This idea of ​​coexistence evokes the Dear asshole by Virginie Despentes, which shows that we can listen to others without denying them “radicality” feminist. Similarly, beyond the theories you produce, write: “I would like to listen to men”.

In fact, more than listening to men, I would like to question them. I don’t want to leave them in control of a narrative that serves their own interests above all, I would like to encourage them to become aware of their approach to gender, of this evidence: we are not born men, we become one.

We were talking about heterosexuality and I see that most of the men who directly question their performance of masculinity are not heterosexual: the director Xavier Dolan, the writer Edouard Louis, the doctor Baptiste Beaulieu, very active on social networks. we managed to convince as many men as possible that sexism also affects them, as they are the actors, we can move on.

I had just mentioned this idea. “listen to men”, or rather compare them with their generalities to admit their mistakes, to Virginie Despentes … And she replied: “you still hear a lot of men!” “. Their moods, their pain of living … Since literature has become literature, in particular. And you are clearly right on this point!

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