Three books to survive the holiday season

Ha Noël… its procession of gifts and chocolates. Her syrupy thematic TV movies and her endless family meals where loved ones come together, but sometimes, and that’s putting it mildly, painful.

Different and varied disapproval of sexual orientation, pressures about whether or not to have children, clichés that are worn out but still have their effect – “Are you hysterical, are you menstruating or what? » or «we know who wears the panties here» – but also comments on this moment in which «we can’t say more» and where feminists are too radical, especially with poor men who have clearly scientifically proven that they have desires to satisfy. ..

The possibilities for tensions (and slippages) are numerous and, in the moment, we are sometimes helpless, unable to use our sense of retort to turn the discussion around and get our point across. What also often generates in the days following annoying meetings of furious lucubrations with blows of “if I had said so” or “I should have”. To prepare yourself in a good mood for this type of situation, you will find in this selection formidable weapons that will allow you to dismantle – with humour, class, pedagogy and/or erudition – the arguments and clichés that are thrown at us.

3 books to survive the holiday season

“Clarifications of feminist culture to shine in a patriarchal society by Sabrina Erin Gin

Did you know that already in 195 BC women were demonstrating for the right to dress as they wanted? That in 2020, in France, a woman who refused her husband’s sexual relations saw the judges of Versailles pronounce a fault divorce because of this absence of carnal sharing? Or that we owe Ada Lovelace (1815-1852) the very first computer program without which the computer would never have seen the light of day? With his Extract of feminist culture to shine in a patriarchal society (Leduc editions), Sabrina Erin Gin gives us a gallery of little-known stories that have shaped the great history of feminism. The author continues here the dissemination work on women’s rights that she conducts on her Instagram account of hers, very popular, @olympereve. Constructed in thirty short chapters, which can be read separately, this book is a mine of sometimes eccentric anecdotes which, while painting the portrait of misogyny, provides us with the weapons to brilliantly counter it. Let’s say bravo!

*Summary of feminist culture to shine in a patriarchal society, by Sabrina Erin Gin, Leduc editions, 208 pages, 17 euros

“Surviving ordinary sexism”, collective work

They are small phrases that we know well. “We know who’s wearing the panties” (often said with a gruff laugh); “Do you have your period or what?” » ; “You can no longer take the elevator with a woman”; “But what do they want in the end?” » ; “Feminine! » ; or the classic “Hysterical”. Taking hold of these sexist jokes that have the gift of driving us crazy – and therefore sometimes losing our legendary sense of retort – eighteen feminist personalities offer their analyzes and their advice to knock them out in one super small book, Survive ordinary sexism. Published by Librio last year, at the modest price of 5 euros, it is a real combat guide that mixes humor and impertinence. We find there the writings or illustrations of Evie, Marie Kirschen, Valérie Rey-Robert, Lauren Malka, Ovidie, Kiyémis or Pauline Harmange. We particularly like her participation with a story of vinaigrette around the famous “Wait, I’ll explain how to do it…”. We also give you a small excerpt, as funny as it is well-felt: “I stamped a frosty smile on my marble face and replied, ‘I’m fine, I think I can handle it, thanks. » Unhappy! This cold kindness, this little thought and this thank you: what open doors where the condescending man has hastened to rush! Men are good at ignoring sarcasm when it suits them. “You have to mix well, but don’t forget the mustard, otherwise it won’t make an emulsion,” he added good-naturedly. My Physics-Chem teacher PLS under his desk. The four-Oscar actress in me is waking up. I clap my forehead and burst out laughing. Hahaha! Thank you very much ! Good thing you’re here, my friend, I almost replaced the mustard with gravel! Fioulala, we were hot, what a relief! “.

* Survive ordinary sexismcollective work, Librio, 96 P., 5€.

” Our mutinies, unstoppable responses to received ideas about feminism by Eve Cambreleng and Blanche Sabbah

From her, we had already liked the blow A body and screams: the feminist revolution of bodies (Albin Michel) whose committed, incisive and uninhibited tone echoes posts on his Instagram account, @aboutevie. After dealing with the endless injunctions on women’s bodies, the illustrator this time sets out to deconstruct the consolidated ideas on feminism (but not only!) in a cheerful comic. Signed together with the designer Blanche Sabbah, Our mutinies, unstoppable responses to received ideas about feminism (Mango), brings together multiple stories designed around the clichés that often get slammed in our faces, in a “one point is all” mode. “It’s trendy to be LGBT+”, “Men have impulses”, “I’m not a feminist, I’m a humanist”, “We can’t say anything anymore”… By dissecting these ready-made sentences and exposing the springs that underlie them, the authors bring food for thought, but above all explanations that will allow those who throw them at us to put down the giggle. We love this beautiful comic even more because it manages to evoke hot topics with precision, and it must be admitted that it creates some confusion, such as the compatibility between feminism and religion or the question of the separation between man and the artist. A feat.

*Our mutinies, unstoppable responses to received ideas about feminismby Eve Cambreleng and Blanche Sabbah, Mango, €17.95.