After the flood of reactions on social networks, outraged as euphoric, a complaint of elected LR for sexual exhibition which has just been closed, debates galore on TV sets such as the recent "stroke of genius or stroke of
rassrah
?
(
anguish, Editor's note
) ”in the program“ Touche pas à mon poste ”, a question arises: what could have shaken so sensitive the actress Corinne Masiero, known for her role in the series Captain Marleau?
She had chosen to appear naked at the Caesar ceremony on March 12, thus alerting to the difficult situation in the cultural sector.
The body, an instrument of political protest
All of a sudden, it has trampled on three tacitly accepted rules, even in our Western societies which nevertheless brandish, with each controversy, the banner of freedom of expression.
Which ones?
First, the actress exposed her naked body as an instrument of political protest.
“The reactions to this event show, once again, that women's bodies do not belong to them.
This was also the case for these middle school and high school girls who recently mobilized to claim the right to show their navel.
The body of women, in a patriarchal society like ours, has two main functions: sexual and maternal, certainly not political ”, analyzes Camille Froidevaux-Metterie, feminist philosopher, professor of political science and in charge of equality-diversity mission at the University of Reims (Marne).
🔴 [PRESS RELEASE]
Classification without follow-up to my report with 9 parliamentarians of Corinne Masiero's demonstration of nudity during the César 2021: I take note, not without astonishment, of the speed of justice.
pic.twitter.com/TeqDGZ8vzh
- Julien Aubert (@ JulienAubert84) March 22, 2021
The Femen know something about it.
"During this ceremony, the body of Corinne Masiero was not an object body but a subject body, and that is prohibited", adds the author of "Breasts, in search of a liberation" (Éditions Anamosa ).
Noémie Aulombard, doctor of political science, specialist in social movements and issues related to gender, body and sexuality, drives home the point.
“It is always difficult to consider women's bodies as a vehicle for a political message.
Let us remember that, in the collective imagination, the public man is the politician, the great man;
whereas the public woman is the prostitute.
It shows that, in the public sphere, women's bodies are seen as a sexual object, and not as a political subject.
"
Corinne Masiero on the Césars stage.
BERTRAND GUAY
Nudity in public, “is to break with all the social codes that assign it in the private sphere.
It is an extremely strong gesture which means that we only have this means to be heard ”, specifies the latter, who recently defended a thesis on nudity as an instrument of political protest.
She also recalls that on June 10, 2014 in Guise (Aisne), intermittents and intermittents of the show had questioned the then Minister of Culture, Aurélie Filippetti, on the precariousness of their social situation by presenting themselves to her in the simplest device.
The same claim was made in 2015 during the Molières ceremony by Sébastien Thiéry, actor and playwright, when he came onto the stage completely naked.
Did this spark an uproar?
No.
This is where Corinne Masiero's second prohibition comes in: displaying an aging body, that of a 57-year-old woman, which does not correspond to the aesthetic canons disseminated in particular in advertising.
“She decided to show an outdated body in terms of social standards.
It is accepted to see bodies considered beautiful, firm, thin ... The others are unbearable, protests Camille Froidevaux-Metterie.
However, it is important to see women's bodies as they are.
We see a lot of bare breasts, for example, but we always see the same one: the half-apple which is held high.
"
Women aged 50 and over, long invisible
And it is true that it is not the political message proclaimed by the actress which was debated, even criticized, but well her "old buttocks in ruins" and her "breasts which fall", as she pointed out during her intervention on the set of "In the open air", March 17 on Mediapart.
She has, moreover, denounced the sexism and misogyny of numerous remarks of which she is still the target.
The invisibilization of the bodies of women over 50, it had already been discussed during the release of the writer, Yann Moix, in 2019 in an interview for the magazine Marie Claire: "To love a woman of 50?
That is not possible.
I find it too old.
[…] They are invisible.
I prefer the body of young women, that's all.
Point.
I will not lie to you.
A 25-year-old woman's body is extraordinary.
The body of a 50-year-old woman is not extraordinary at all, ”he replied to the journalist.
READ ALSO:
Who are the "quincados", these very teenage fifties?
“What must be understood is that female nudity is, paradoxically, a little more socially acceptable if it corresponds to a sexualizing imagery.
A woman's body can only be shown if it corresponds to the standards of beauty and to a hypersexualized femininity to which advertising imagery accustoms our gaze, states Noémie Aulombard.
However, it is generally the bodies of very young women that are shown and valued, according to the imaginary heterosexual patriarchal schemes.
"
A turning point in feminism
Third taboo pulverized by Corinne Masiero: showing off a bloodied female body with, instead of earrings, periodic tampons.
“Here she shows a woman's body in its physiological reality.
A body as it functions, bleeding every month.
Which, for many, is abject.
Corinne Masiero, no doubt in passing, refuses the hut of the menopausal woman, ”suggests Camille Froidevaux-Metterie.
Morning essentials newsletter
A tour of the news to start the day
Subscribe to the newsletterAll newsletters
It is therefore all these realities, which suddenly appeared on our TV screens, which aroused these violent reactions of rejection.
“She couldn't have done it just three or four years ago.
We are really at a turning point, which I call the genital turning point of feminism, which made this possible.
It is a feminism which relates to the intimate body ”, develops the philosopher.
And the latter to cite the question of rules in the public debate (concerning menstrual insecurity for example), or the first thesis in sociology on menopausal women soon presented.
All this feeds "a rather irresistible dynamic which makes that the taboos fall one after the other", warns Camille Froidevaux-Metterie.
