Translator: Ana Cecelia Barajas Reviewer: Elisabeth Buffard
Flash-forward: The year is 2250,
and the feminists have taken power.
Woo-hoo, we've won!
So we decide to gain requite from men.
We decide, to begin with,
that women will do no more than 20% of the household chores.
We'll not make necklaces of your family jewels
because that's a little too ... just too trite.
Nonetheless, we will be paid 27% more.
In compensation for four millennia of domination,
that's not too much to pay.
Then, we will make up 76% of the National Assembly,
86% at the Polytechnique.
(Laughter)
We will control 99% of the world’s wealth.
Every three days, we will shoot down a man,
in memory of all the battered women.
If we want to reassure ourselves of the power of our femininity,
we'll violate 75,000 men a year in France.
The scientific community, mostly composed of women,
has found a means of grafting uteruses into men's bodies,
poor men who get paid to have babies instead of us.
Actually, baby girls, because baby boys are expensive,
and then, beyond that, it's a shame to have a boy.
A bit scary, huh?
Seems a bit potty, not really acceptable, revolting.
It's a little oppressing, right?
This is the life women experience today.
But do you really think that’s what feminism is about?
No ... no! Just so. (Laughter)
But no, that's not feminism.
To me, the feminism I have in mind, in which I believe,
and the world that I imagine when I predict its success,
it is not that at all.
The world I imagine when I predict its success
is a world where there is equality, simply that,
a world where there is peace,
the war that is led against women today ended.
And equality, for example,
it’s the equality to be able to develop one’s talents, one’s skills,
whether you are a man or a woman.
Imagine what that would mean for humanity,
50% more brains to discover planets,
to create works of art, masterpieces.
Imagine how many cured diseases, how many fewer tragedies,
how many more little pleasures for everyone.
I began my feminist fight six years ago,
because I realized it was the revolution of the 21st century.
And a revolution that, by the way, has never killed anyone,
while male chauvinism kills every day.
A revolution that has never carried out any attack.
At Osez le Féminisme, [Dare go for feminism]
starting out, we were just a few young women
particularly revolted by the inequalities they suffered,
and who said to themselves they had to get up and do something.
Do not think that a small group of aware and engaged people
cannot change the world;
that is how it has always happened.
At Dare Feminism, to change the world,
we will tackle rape, murders of women,
sexist jokes, sexist ads,
lack of equality in pay.
Now, I hear you think, because we often get this:
"Miss, don't you think
some things are a bit more important than others in that list?
Mightn't you get your battles in order, in order to be effective?"
Well, to that, I say: " First, address me as ma'am" and then
"Well, no. It's necessary to take it all on,
sexist ads,
as much as rape, as much as the murder of women."
To continue, I'm going to explain why, in fact,
a sexist ad kills women.
It begins with a slogan:
"Download as quickly as your wife changes her mind." Ha-ha!
(Laughter)
It's subtle, it's funny, it's okay!
It infuses, it diffuses.
Little girls hear it; little boys do too.
Adults believe it.
It forges the idea that depending on our sexual organs,
we have abilities, skills,
drastically different personalities,
according to those sexual organs.
Adults ingeminate this.
For example, that slogan forges the idea
that women can't really make decisions,
since they change their mind all the time.
And someone who can't make firm decisions
cannot manage a business, an army, or a country.
Women hear that and end up believing it
since they've heard it ever since they were little.
And they do not feel they have a right
to claim to lead a country or a company.
And then, if you think about it,
if you think that a woman changes her mind all the time,
then when she says "no" to a guy, she, in fact, probably means "yes".
And when she says "no", but her body seems to suggest "yes",
and seeing as you know she cannot really make good decisions,
you might make the decision for her.
That is why rape, equality,
or such trifling things as sexist ads,
are linked.
All of that forms a continuum:
a continuum of violence against women.
And I'm also going to explain
why we can go so far as to say that it kills women.
Another slogan, another advertisement.
The Publicis Conseil agency created this ad for Tefal.
It shows a woman on the ground
threatened and hit by the clothes iron she was using to iron a shirt.
And one sees a slogan:
"Respect your clothes!"
After we complained having seen the ad, Publicis Conseil told us:
"Well no, it's only a try-out,
it was never really passed for broadcast,
it's just an idea."
It's a funny idea, though.
But let's pick another ad that was distributed everywhere.
Babette! You remember Babette?
"Babette, you can make her stand,
you can whip her, and sometimes she's for cream pie."
It's the same, it's light: whipped cream.
It associates women with the kitchen, with home economics, with the home,
and with violence.
It forges the idea
that a woman needs to be punished if she doesn't show respect,
or that she gets whipped, because that's being Babette.
10% of women in France are victims of domestic violence,
violence acted out by men on their family,
by men who, when young, have seen or heard these types of ads, these speeches.
By men who also maybe saw their father hit their mother.
In the world today,
the main cause of death for women between 18 and 44 years old
is male violence.
Babette, she's still funny?
Good, now that I have well darkened the mood,
we are going to try and reflect on what we can do
to change all of that.
Imagine another society, what can we do together?
What can we do together?
The first thing is to realize that sexism,
like antisemitism, like racism,
is an ideology.
An ideology of hate that leads to murder.
Then what we can also do,
more concretely, in our everyday life,
if you are a man, for example,
is put this equality into practice.
So we will begin with the basics:
one shall not rape, one shall not hit, one shall not buy women.
Another thing you can do, for example, is if you listen around you,
typically when you are in a bar,
you hear some men being overly chauvinistic next to you,
you can turn around, tell them that you do not agree with it,
that what being a man is, is certainly not that.
Or, if you are interviewing a woman for a job,
you can keep in mind
that from little, she's been told that ambition wasn't for her.
Ambitious women, they're not so nice.
Ambition is for boys.
So, you can remember that their talent
is probably much greater than their skills at selling it.
And if you are a woman?
That was a lot about guys, but us, we women?
If you are a woman,
you can go and get that raise you deserve,
you can go forth and run for the office you want,
you can stop feeling ashamed for having been raped.
And then together, what we can do,
is maybe to try not to say:
"I am not a feminist,
but then again, it's true that there are still problems."
That, that is not acceptable.
Not so long as one woman is discriminated against, is belittled,
not so long as one woman is raped,
not so long as one woman is killed or mutilated.
If you don't do it for yourself, do it for her.
Stop being afraid and dare go for feminism.
(Applause)