Questions of gender identity have now taken over the feminist debate.. In the history of mankind, no other struggle has progressed so rapidly.with so many resources and so much visibility such as the queer movement, o transactivismwhich has been calling for transgender people for about ten years.
Environmentalists, anti-specialists or simple left-wing activistsno one is immune from the advance of transactivism. However, the most affected activism by this problem is that of the fight for women's rightsto the point of invisibilising women and excluding activists with violenceto include men who identify as trans.
This is what usfeminist activists, survivors of prostitution and pornography, rape, women with disabilities, migrants and refugees, apostate women, victims of religious dictatorships, victims of female genital mutilation, lesbian women, bisexual women, women with dysphoria, transgender men, and also women in detransition, we want to convey. Especially for women who have been harassed, raped, lynched, humiliated, censored, threatened with death and now excluded from feminist circles for our ideas, our stories and our experiences.
The collective "Nous Toutes", created in 2018 riding the wave of the #metoo movement, has imposed itself with problematic positions since its inception. We have seen the break of the collective with historical feminist values since the first marches, when Caroline de Haas and her allies agreed to let transvestites from organisations openly fighting for the decriminalisation of prostitution march in the front row. (Strass and other organisations united under the symbol of the red umbrella). We could also mention the 10 November 2019 parade alongside Islamist associations, entrepreneurs of the Islamic-based radicalisation and fundamentalist imams (Rachid Eljay) who explain that women without veils have no honour and that it is possible to dispose of their bodies.
"Nous Toutes still claims to fight against sexist and sexual violence. However, we notice their deafening silence when rapes and assaults are committed by transgender people (attacks on women during the 7 March 2021 in Place de la République), when the victims survived the prostitution system (8 March 2020, two activists from the CAPP collective, one of whom is a survivor of prostitution, were beaten up at a demonstration in Paris), when the victims are lesbians and reject 'women's penises'. (attacks on the women of the Lesbian Resistance collective) or when the victims of cyber harassment are radical feminists. To make the connection between all these attacks, we could summarise by saying that "Nous Toutes" tolerates violence when the victims are women who express a criticism of this ideology that is imposed everywhere as a dogma, the gender ideology.
But a further step was taken when the 5 October, 'Nous Toutes' published a visual on his Facebook page claiming to exclude women called 'TERF'. by the march organised on 21 November in Paris.
"TERF' is a degrading, defamatory and insulting English acronym, which incites hatred and violence against women. In fact, tweets, collages and tags that inciting to 'shoot, kill or burn a TERF' have become sadly commonplace.
This acronym ('Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist') accusing feminists of referring to genderand not to the subjective feelings of individuals, in their analysis of the relations of domination of men over womento exclude trans people from feminism. Thus, when a feminist says a man cannot be a womanor that lesbians do not like penises, is immediately considered 'transphobic', threatened and ostracised.
A large majority of women cannot so more fight for their rights for the simple reason that it is now a taboo to state that gender is a socially constructed hierarchy through sex-specific injunctions imposed on individuals from birth. It has even become dangerous to refuse to define what it means to be a woman or a man based on whether or not we adhere to sexist stereotypes. What until recently was the basis of all feminist theory has become a heresy which justifies for some a sentence of burning at the stake.
Likewise, Women are now forbidden to reject men in their spaces and struggles simply because they say they 'feel like women'. On the contrary, they are forced to give in to all their demands, as trans people are considered more discriminated against than women in society.
Le Feminists referred to as 'TERF' do not deny the existence of trans people and do not fight against their rights.. We understand the deep unease of people who do not recognise themselves in the sexist stereotypes assigned to their gender. However, we believe the solution lies in abolishing these oppressive norms, not in legitimising them as a deep, innate and unquestionable identity.
Unlike organisations like We All, we fight with and for 'trans men' who have experienced sexism from birth because they were born girls.
We also do a rational distinction between the fight for women's rights and thewhich represent just over half of humanity, and the fight for the rights of trans people. On the one hand, because they are different issuesand on the other, because we see that the latter, since it concerns men, inevitably takes precedence over the former.
Today we want to share our Concern about the influence of organisations such as "Nous Toutes". or Caroline de Haas's company 'Egae', which impose on thousands of women, on pain of being accused of 'transphobia', the definition "a woman is anyone who 'feels like a woman'".refusing to question the origin of this feeling and the consequences of this definition for women's rights.
We dare to say, despite the reprisals we have been suffering for several years and which continue to worsen, that the woman is a person who has an adult female human body with any personality and not 'a female personality' with any body. We affirm that any other definition is sexism.
Theincrease in physical and verbal violence at events or on social networks, of which thousands of women are victims because of their disagreement with queer ideology. Finally, we denounce the complicity of 'Nous Toutes' in the recent establishment of a climate of terror and repression of freedom of opinion and expression within feminism.
It has become impossible for us talk about gender issues without being labelled as 'transphobic'. It has become impossible to talk about menstrual precariousness, gynaecological and obstetrical violence, female genital mutilation, forced marriage, the right to abortion, gender-based neonaticide, deportation and trafficking for sexual exploitation, clitoral and breast cancer, even within the very movements that should be fighting to make visible and condemn these male abuses. This absurd situation must end.
We will not be excluded from our struggles.
First signatories:
Rosen Hicher, prostitution survivor, initiator of the World March of Survivors of Prostitution
Daria Khovanka, prostitution survivor, member of the CAPP collective
Joana Vrillot, founder and coordinator of the CAPP collective
Marguerite Stern, creator of collages against feminicide
Dora Moutot, creator of the @tasjoui account
Marie-Jo Bonnet, historian, writer
Alexine Solis, abolitionist survivor
Ibtisamme Betty Lachgar, clinical psychologist, CAPP feminist activist
Brigitte Bianco, author
Francine Sporenda, editorial director of the Révolution féministe website
Valérie Pelletier, prostitution survivor and feminist activist
Sophie ROBERT, director and documentary producer
Emy.G, videographer of the @antastesia account
Dr. Ingeborg Kraus, psychotraumatologist
Gluing collective L'AMAZONE PARIS
Lady. K, painter
Esther Cannard - teacher
Arielle Constantieux, barmaid
Laure Greene, employee
Anna Martin, Director of Operations
Anna Le Boucher, survivor and abolitionist
Collective of gluers l'AMAZONE Haute-Savoie
Flo Marandet, teacher
Anissia Docaigne-Makhroff, lawyer and feminist activist
Pauline Makoveitchoux, photographer
AMAZONE Arlysère Collective of gluers
Victoriane Patraud, graphic designer
Sarah Mounzouni, graphic designer
Marfa Docaigne-Makhroff, consultant
Audrey Arendt, philosopher
Mélanie Telle, heritage conservation student
Maureen KAKOU, poet
Manon Didier, Health Prevention Officer
Manon Lassalaz, specialised teacher and owner of an M2 Gender Studies
Noémie Huart - feminist in-service training facilitator. Feminist activist
Sofia Recham, real estate agent
Ana Lebón, geriatric assistant
Laurie Briand, student apprentice construction supervisor
Catalina Roth, receptionist
Clara Delattre, student
Anne Palmowski, journalist and director
Sandrine Beydon, pharmaceutical delegate
Camille Thibault, student
Graziella Florimond Pouvait, teacher, writer and Afro-feminist
Lucie Calmels, commercial
Maeve Laveau Northam, radical lesbian feminist activist
Carole Barthès, graphic designer
Raquel Oliveira Coelho - animator
Magali Salvadori, payroll manager
Aurore Benard, feminist, LGBT and anti-species activist
Gloria Martinez, pastry chef
Alice Gonnet, director of an ALSH
Déborah D'Imperio, Artistic Director
Andreea Nita, student
Kim Jacques, support technique
Julie de Frondeville, painter
Noellie Barailles, diving teacher
Julia Guerrois, translator
Melissa Roche, author
Ophélie Grange, agricultural worker
Clara Noizet, teacher
Laurence Martin, retired, universal radical feminist
Aurea Tellier, student
Camille Girard, radical lesbian activist, ally of Detrans and FTM
Sidwell Rigade, biological engineer
Laure Zajac Fouissac, flight attendant
Cassandra Bidois, student
Paolino Lisi, student
Milène Rault, student
Anabelle Debiève, lawyer and CM
Ana Minski, eco-feminist activist
Laetitia Wider, journalist
Lucie Dorat, teacher
Sandra Besson, entrepreneur
Anaïs Martinez, visual artist
Jeanne Gut, saleswoman
Khady Toure, Social worker
Zélie Marie, psychomotor therapist
Rosalie Amara, Human Resources Manager
Aurélie Doriani, computer engineer
Lyse Nicoud, dental surgeon
Marion Av, feminist activist
Pauline Amélie, photographer
Hisaé Yerlikaya, activist and lawyer
Anaïs Lenal, artist and feminist activist
Pauline Maulmont, student and feminist activist
Charline Beauvais, feminist activist
Jessica Moreau, bookseller
Anna Wolska, feminist activist
Valérie Bardin, accountant
Mélissa Parmentier, in retraining
Liv Simonet, master's student in medieval history
M. Minier, environmental engineering student
Yasmina Mounir, engineer
Rendu Emeline, student
Lea Dubois, student
Aza Ninarova, lawyer
Silas Lang, unemployed
Leïla Rojas, psychiatric assistant
Original text here
Translation of Valeria Nicoletti
