Female rivalry, medical violence, #MeToo: three books to read this month

How medicine mistreats women

Expect to see red after reading this alarmingly needed essay. With Patients of Hippocrates (Philippe Rey, 10/2022) journalists Maud Le Rest and Eva Tapiero demonstrate the systemic nature of medical violence, detailing the gender biases affecting women’s health and the dramatic consequences that can result. Infantilisation, lack of interest in female body ailments, minimization of pain, reference to a psychological factor, sense of guilt…: women have always been subjected to ill-treatment by a medical profession steeped in sexist ideas. Because they are hysterical, anxious, hypochondriac or even overly sensitive, women and their health continue, at best, not to be taken seriously.. Based on official reports, quantified studies, but also on threads of testimonies, the book deals with both medical digressions in the face of endometriosis and delays in the diagnosis of heart attack or autism, including gynecological and obstetric violence. We are frozen by the hell Marie went through during delivery, forced to bed by a midwife who doesn’t explain anything, tries to manually open her cervix even though she doesn’t have an epidural and screams at her that she doesn’t have it he doesn’t know how to push and will end up killing his baby. But also from Anne-Marie’s wanderings, her suffering and comments about gross misogyny that she has to endure before she is diagnosed with vestibulitis (an acute inflammation of the vulva). A revolting panorama that reveals that sexist prejudices sometimes mate with racist prejudices, imposing a double penalty on racialized women. ” Karima had been told by a receptionist when she calmly showed up at the birthing clinic that she was “very calm because people like her usually roll over on the floor.” Then, as she was moaning about the pain of an injunction, she’d heard a nurse tell her that “Those, they always do too much “, so the authors report. An investigation that seems like an electric shock, tackled with a lot of pedagogy and which, beyond the denunciation of this discrimination, offers lines of thought to finally change things.

*Hippocrates’ patientsby Maud Le Rest and Eva Tapiero, Philippe Rey, 224 P., €20.

#MeToo, five years later

Five years after #MeToo exploded, Rose Lamy – whose first book we already loved Cancel the sexist discourse in the media (Lattès) – brought together a collective of nine women and authors who all have a unique perspective on this feminist revolution. Everyone brings his own reflection Me too, MeToo beyond the hashtag, recently published by Lattès, questioning the limits and horizons of the movement, but also what has changed in our societies. From Camille Froidevaux-Metterie to Louz, via Rokhaya Diallo, Angèle, Lexie or Christelle Murhula, this choral essay, between intimate testimony and investigation, is far from the classic “anniversary book”. Resistance of cultural environments, analysis of the reproaches to the “media court” of social networks or the appeal process of Amber Heard, recovery of the movement by the extreme right, rehabilitation of the legacy of Tarana Burke, decentralization of our gaze on #MeToo…: The book raises fascinating questions about a movement that is far from exhausted. “We are only at the elitist moment of the current liberation, a moment reserved for youthful, urban and privileged categories. We still have to make the transition towards inclusiveness to extend the dynamic of emancipation to all layers of society. writes Camille Froidevaux-Metterie especially when Rokhaya Diallo remembers it “The liberation of all women will go through the liberation of those who face the most serious exclusions “. A sparkling book to read in one breath or to peck, to think together about the continuation of this revolution.

*Me too: MeToo, beyond the hashtag, directed by Rose Lamy with texts by Angèle, Rokhaya Diallo, Elvire Duvelle-Charles, Camille Froidevaux-Metterie, Rose Lamy, Lexie, Louz, Christelle Murhula and Reine Prat, 195 P, €19.

End female rivalry

“There is nothing worse than women among themselves”, “Women are the tongue of vipers”…: we have heard these statements throughout our lives. Because this idea of ​​female rivalry, stereotypical as it may be, is deeply rooted in society. With Rivals (Flammarion, 10/2022), the journalist Marie-Aldine Girard – former author with her twin sister of the bestseller, The perfect woman is a bitch (Flammarion) – dissects this concept and its manifestations, thus lifting the veil on a taboo. In a time of necessary sisterhood, addressing female jealousy or rivalries could feel like an act of betrayal to the feminist cause. However, writes the author talking about this symbolic violence finally puts women at the center of our thinking “. Based on numerous testimonies, but also on his own story, he updates the roots and mechanisms of this rivalry which can be expressed since childhood, then, in our sentimental, family, friendship, but also work life. The keystone of the concept is obviously based on the patriarchal society. Even if times change, the latter induces distrust and perpetual competition between women – to be the most beautiful, sexiest, best mother… – of which men would be the eternal arbiters. Thus aggravating a lack of trust, imbued with the sometimes paradoxical injunctions that are fed to us, which fuels this need to constantly confront each other. Furthermore, in a professional world still dominated by men, ” we fight over a tiny piece of the pie (…) the other women then become rivals, it’s systemic “. With this touching book, which puts its feet on the plate, Marie-Aldine Girard signs a very interesting reflection – of which we do not share all the analyzes – on a little discussed topic. And it offers a multitude of clues for a true brotherhood. Remarkable on the subject also a perfectly complementary work, published at the same time, End female rivalry (Les Arènes) by Elisabeth Cadoche and Anne de Montarlot.

*Rivalsby Marie-Aldine Girard, Flammarion, 217 p., €18.