Recherches féministes est une revue scientifique francophone à visée interdisciplinaire et internationale. Elle a pour objectif de contribuer à l’avancement de la recherche féministe par la diffusion de résultats inédits de recherche, particulièrement de recherche empirique. La revue publie des textes de réflexion théorique, méthodologique et épistémologique, des comptes rendus de livres et de pratiques féministes novatrices, et d’autres informations pertinentes à la recherche. La revue publie aussi des dossiers sur les grandes questions débattues dans le mouvement des femmes. Les numéros sont thématiques et comprennent des articles hors thème. Recherches féministes constitue une source d’information essentielle pour l’enseignement, la recherche et l’action féministes. Elle s’adresse à toutes les personnes qui s’intéressent au changement dans les rapports sociaux de sexe et dans la production des connaissances. La revue Recherches féministes paraît deux fois l’an, au printemps et à l’hiver. La revue est disponible en libre accès (à l'exception des deux derniers numéros) sur le portail Érudit, à l’adresse suivante : https://www.erudit.org/fr/revues/rf/
Un cadre d’analyse féministe intersectionnel à visée décoloniale de la coopération internationale
Alors que la communauté internationale a adopté une série d’instruments depuis les années 1980 pour rendre la coopération et la solidarité internationales plus inclusive et équitable, force est de constater que tant le milieu de la pratique que le milieu de la recherche en coopération internationale continuent de reproduire des systèmes d’oppression, notamment patriarcaux, colonialistes, racistes, etc. Dans ce contexte, le présent article tente de consolider un cadre théorique intégrateur des perspectives féministes, intersectionnelles et à visée décoloniale en coopération internationale, en reconnaissant les rapports de pouvoir en cause.
Copyright (c) 2024 Recherches féministes
Femme-Chôra : exclue ou exclusive? Limites de la critique butlérienne de Luce Irigaray
Judith Butler dénonce la pensée de Luce Irigaray qui reproduirait le sujet femme et une conception binaire exclusive de la représentation de l’humanité. Cet article montre que la critique de Butler non seulement réduit la portée émancipatrice de la philosophie d’Irigaray relativement à la diversité sexuelle, mais qu’elle produit des formes d’exclusion de sujets possibles d’énonciation. L’enjeu tourne autour d’une référence partagée mais disputée à la chôra de Platon, de sa représentation sous une forme humaine, femme, ou défigurée, ainsi que de sa capacité subversive.
La psychologisation des violences conjugales : quelques éléments sur ses fonctions sociales et psychologiques
Abstract; The objective of this contribution is to show how the general public and victims produce psychologizing explanations on intimate partner violence. By analyzing the results of three studies from a psychosocial and feminist perspective, we show the social regulations at stake in psychologization as well as the psychological motivations that may underlie its use. These observations illustrate the relevance of understanding the complexity of the psychological and social functions underlying the psychologization process in order to support survivors in a feminist clinic.
Does the battered women's syndrome help the cause of French defendants who are victims of domestic violence?
This contribution provides information on the modalities of the recent (re)appropriation in France of the legal argument of the “Battered Women Syndrome”. It presents the legal projects and defence strategies aiming to support the interests of victims of domestic violence who are prosecuted by the justice system, which it has inspired there since 2015. It contrasts them by taking into account the North American experience of the BWS defence and its feminist critiques. It highlights the subjective models on which this argument is based and the implications it has with regard to the dual and gendered functioning of the (neo)liberal criminal justice system.
Les diagnostics psychiatriques reçus par des femmes ayant vécu de la violence sexiste : une réponse adaptée à leurs besoins?
This article looks at experiences of obtaining psychiatric diagnoses by women who also lived through experiences of sexist violence, as well as the effect of said diagnoses on their care trajectories in public services in Quebec. We discuss the ways in which different diagnoses, sometimes divergent or potentially erroneous, influenced their access to services to which they were entitled or that seemed better adjusted to their needs. Analyses are grounded in 20 semi-directed interviews conducted in 2021 with lived experience experts, a project done in partnership with the Regroupement des groupes de femmes de la région de la Capitale-Nationale.
Using interviews and private archives gathered between 2016 and 2020, the author will evaluate how the departures of wives of colonists for Senegal contributed to a recomposition of family relationships. First, she will try to determine whether their activities held in the Senegalese trading posts drove them into seclusion or, alternatively, provided them with new found freedom. In order to better understand how they prioritized specific roles, she will then explore their relationship with motherhood. Finally, based on a reconstruction of some women's life paths, she will explain how widows in difficulty were also at the origin of new migrations.
The avatars of the destiny of the African woman in La mémoire amputée by Werewere Liking
The present study establishes a similarity between the journey of African women and that of the African continent. By describing the fight of African women against the injustices of which they are victims, La mémoire amputée by Werewere Liking reveals, how, like women, the African peoples left a situation of subjection that put them out of society and shake, over time, their torpor by asserting their being to the world. Beyond that, this novel is above all a contribution to the information of as many people as possible about the preponderant role of African women in the Renaissance of Africa.
The queerized indeterminacy of Simon Boulerice
Multidisciplinary and prolific author Simon Boulerice affirms his belonging to the LGBTQ2+ community not only in his works, but also in his media appearances. The purpose of this article is to identify the ways in which the queer auctorial image is edified in the Quebec media space by the dyad composed of the author and the interviewer, which sometimes does not identify with the LGBTQ2+ community. More precisely, two interviews — a television interview and a radio interview — given by Boulerice will be analysed in order to measure the contribution of each interlocutor in the construction of the auctorial image.
Scripts homosexuels et sport en contexte postcolonial : expériences sportives « au pays » d’hommes gays originaires d’Afrique francophone et demandant l’asile en France
Based on sociobiographical interviews with men seeking asylum in France on the grounds of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity, this article explores the plural role of ludo-sport practices in sexual and gendered socialisation processes. The authors show how sports experiences are sometimes the site of the imposition of a heterosexist cultural script inherited from the colonial period and reinforced since, and sometimes the site of the construction of homosexual interpersonal and intrapsychic scripts. These two a priori contradictory movements can coexist and feed off each other. Respondents either submit to them or control them according to their individual dispositions.
Copyright (c) 2023 Recherches féministes
Running in an LGBT association: inclusiveness or homonormativity?
The French LGBT sport movement, institutionalised and recognized by political and grass-root organisations but also by sports federations and networks, promotes both activism and sports in a very broad “safe” and inclusive way. The study of one of these associations by a carnal approach and an active participation demonstrates the reproduction of social hierarchies and traditional norms and categories operating in the sport sphere. The masculine hegemonic will of integration and of adaptation to heterosexist norms, as well as the will to always reach a consensus, driven by this association, testify of and build a process of depoliticization of the visible “LGBT identity”, thus inducing perpetuated inequalities in the access to their social and sport spaces.
La psychologisation de l’avortement en France
Based on the joint analysis of three doctoral research projects, this article sheds light on the evolution of the legal system, the discourses and the healthcare practices that constitute the psychological framework of women seeking abortion. It shows how the essentialization of abortion as a psychically difficult, dramatic and even traumatic experience is not a direct reflection of women's experience, but the product of historical and political conflicts surrounding the right to abortion and questions its concrete and obstructive effects on access to abortion.
This article aims to question the respect of human rights by sports organizations, by studying the paroxysmal case of the respect by World Athletics of the rights of sexed, sexual and gender minorities during the process of categorizing athletes. By mobilizing the standards applied to women and “persons with disabilities”, the text shows that the World Athletics categorization rules violate the human rights of these minorities, so that substantial modifications of norms governing categorization are necessary.
sexed and gendered minorities - categorization in sports - human rights
Expériences de (non-)signalement des violences sexuelles en milieu universitaire : des parcours minés et des issues mitigées
Sexual violence on university campuses (SVUC) is highly prevalent yet remains vastly under-reported. This article describes reasons for (non-)reporting of SVUC, and for those who did, the institutional response and outcomes. Qualitative analysis of 197 testimonies reveals the following challenges: fears for self and others, assessment of anticipated costs and potential benefits, the influence of violence normalization, and power dynamics. Results support the need for mandatory training and awareness-raising messages that could improve victims' trust in academic institutions.
sexual violence – sexual harassment – university – reporting – disclosure – complaint
From Hostility to Security: conceptualization of a safe space to address barriers to physical activity among elderly women.
Historically, the world of sports was not created to welcome women, especially elderly ones. One of the ways to ensure that promoting physical activity does not come at the expense of gender equity is to create a safe space. However, the common and often controversial use of this notion makes its own theorization fragmentary. A comprehensive literature review of barriers to women’s physical activity has identified four dimensions that must be considered in the conceptualization of a safe space to address generational and gender inequities experienced by older women. Amongst these are: physical security, body image, self-representation, and financial security. Although they have been identified, these dimensions have yet to be validated by women themselves to ensure that they meet their definition of a safe space for physical activity.
« Sir… um, Miss ? » Interactions and careers in refereeing of women in handball and rugby
This article studies careers of women who are officials in handball and rugby. It questions the experiences in their sport environment and their prospects within the officials’ hierarchy. The way their start the activity of refereeing shows particularities between handball and rugby referees but interactions during games and trainings courses represent shared experiences. They explain how these women adjust to the other actors’ gendered behaviour within the sport environment. This gendered particularisms also appear in the management of the feminization process by the institution and the division of labour within the family space. These aspects influence the continuation of a referee career toward the highest level of competition.
Locker rooms, discomfort and initiation ritual: sports journalists at the heart of hegemonic masculinity
Locker rooms have a special place in the imagination of sports journalism. After a long struggle, women were able to enter these sanctuaries of hegemonic masculinity in the 1980s. The regularization of their presence, however, did not suspend the heteronormative gendered power relations that prevail in this private and public environment. In this article, we will look at how Quebec sports journalists negotiate their presence in the locker room over a time frame that spans from the 1970s to 2015.
Locker Rooms, Sports journalism, hegemonic masculinity, initiation
Independent hip-hop dance in the light of social relations: between resistance and reproduction
Hip-hop dance has historically been the preserve of young men from working-class urban neighbourhoods who use it as a means of 'emancipation' from the social injustices that they experience. This study analyses the social relationships and socialisation processes at work in independent hip-hop dance. It forms part of a theoretical study that sets out social relationships in terms of gender, class and racialisation and was based on biographical interviews (6(no)) and 6 months of ethnographic research in two independent dance venues in a French city. The results show a variety of outcomes from the socialisation processes present within independent hip-hop dance. On the one hand, independent hip-hop dance is perceived by dancers (both men and women) as a liberating activity in which they express resistance to daily experiences of racism and/or sexism. But on the other, due to the masculine physical and moral stances it calls for and the interactions it brings about, it paradoxically reproduces social norms and relationships of gender, class and racialisation.
Martine Chartrand: an animation filmmaker in search of a legacy for the Black people
This article on the work of Martine Chartrand, who is one of the most acclaimed Quebec animation filmmakers around the world, aims to show that her works constitute a unique feminist look at the recognition and transmission of the heritage of Black peoples. We are interested in the agency of Martine Chartrand who makes her films by transmitting knowledge with a view to contesting the power relations to which Black people are subjected.
Sexual Violence Experienced by Student Athletes from Five Collegial Establishments Throughout Quebec
This study approaches sexual violence towards student athletes in a collegial setting. The principal objective is to document the experienced sexual violence in a collegial setting (SVCS) of student athletes from five collegial establishments throughout Quebec and look at the differences between genders. The online questionnaire was completed by 218 student athletes, including 39,9 % who reported at least one experience of SVCS, with women being more likely to be the object of SVCS behaviors. More then 9 victims on 10 never disclose the situation to their college.
Archives affabulatoires, engagisme queer et ZOM-FAM de Kama La Mackerel
L’auteure avance que le recueil de poésie ZOM-FAM, de Kama La Mackerel, constitue une archive affabulatoire de l’engagisme queer (queer indenture). Elle situe d’abord son recueil dans le contexte des histoires d’esclavage et d’engagisme de l’île Maurice, pour observer ensuite la façon dont ZOM-FAM offre une optique queer par des approches décoloniales au langage, ainsi qu’une esthétique qui éclaire de nouvelles généalogies d’engagisme queer et de genre décolonial.
Sovereign Fictions: The Kahina as a Feminist Heritage
This contribution studies the mechanisms of formation and transmission of a feminist heritage around the Kahina, an Amazigh queen who opposed the Arab invasion of North Africa in the seventh century. Although her life and identity remain uncertain, the Kahina has lent herself "to all sorts of recuperations" since the Middle Ages (Modéran), in turn a symbol of Berberism, feminism, nationalism, Jewish identity, and class struggle. For Berthe Bénichou-Aboulker, Magali Boisnard and Gisèle Halimi, the authors discussed in this article, being part of the contested heritage of the Kahina corresponds to a "search for origins" (Halimi) that emancipates and connects women from different backgrounds to cross the symbolic border of the Mediterranean. Through such mechanisms of transcultural identification, this article proposes to consider feminist (re)appropriations of the Kahina as acts of anti-imperial resistance, turning her instrumentalization by the French empire on its head and offering a reinterpretation of history through fiction. The Kahina becomes the figurehead of a transcultural feminist pantheon, constantly reinvented.
Games and issues: sexuality-pleasure and sexuality-responsible, a (un)compatible relationship?
Through the analysis of occasional protected and unprotected heterosexual sex, this article examines how women deal with two types of injunctions: pleasure and responsibility. In the heteronormative context, the quest/injunction to sexual fulfillment goes hand in hand with the need to prevent sexual risks (sexually transmitted infections, unwanted pregnancies). Sexuality-pleasure may be little (or not) compatible with sexuality-responsibility. The results suggest not only that the fear of infection during casual sex has taken a back seat, but that the affirmation of female desire and pleasure may take precedence over preventive behaviours.
This article focuses on the experience of women who are active or retired from high-level ice hockey. Ten interviews were conducted to analyze the obstacles they encountered along the way and how they were able to build and maintain their careers in a traditionally male discipline. The analysis of their stories, through the lens of gender relations and the concept of deviant careers, shows that hockey in Quebec is still a practice strongly marked by inequalities between men and women.
Pratiques d’intervention favorisant la reprise du pouvoir des femmes sur leur sécurité : perspectives d’intervenantes en maison d’aide et d’hébergement
Cet article présente les résultats d’une recherche menée auprès de 18 intervenantes en maison d’aide et d’hébergement . La question de recherche auquel il tente de répondre est la suivante : Quelles pratiques d’intervention contribuent à la reprise du pouvoir des femmes sur leur sécurité pendant un séjour en maison d’aide et d’hébergement, selon la perspective d’intervenantes dans le domaine? Un total de huit thèmes a émergé de l’analyse thématique de contenu. Ces thèmes ont permis de générer trois hypothèses sur les pratiques en maison d’aide et d’hébergement qui sont détaillées dans le présent article.
« D’ailleurs, bien des femmes ont écrit avant moi » : le cas de Laure Conan, à la fois pionnière et héritière
Dans cet article, j'effectue une relecture d'Angéline de Montbrun au prisme des études brontiennes pour sonder le rapport à l'histoire littéraire de Laure Conan.
La laïcité et l’héritage féministe religieux au Québec : du refus à la réappropriation
In Quebec, equality between women and men was at the heart of the debates on secularism, while concealing religious feminism, even though it constitutes a heritage whose reappropriation makes it possible to conceive a radical secularism. Presenting the concreteness of this heritage, then elements of the context leading to its refusal will precede a presentation of the position of the Conseil du statut de la femme negating this heritage. This refusal has led it to defend an androcentric vision of secularism that preserves the religious freedom of men to dominate women in the Catholic Church. The reappropriation of the religious feminist heritage opens up new possibilities.
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Complex feminist heritages ? The question of domesticity in Paulette Nardal
The question of domesticity is little addressed in the history of feminism in France. How were domestic servants perceived by feminists, particularly when they themselves employed them? This aspect is most often passed over in silence, particularly in the biographies of famous feminists, and calls into question the elements of knowledge left behind. This is the case in the writings on Paulette Nardal, which mainly deal with her contribution to the emergence of the negritude movement, the salon she held with her sisters in Clamart during the interwar period, and her militancy for women's suffrage in Martinique through her association, the Rassemblement féminin. The question of domesticity is nevertheless present in her actions. She questions within the global fight for women's rights, the improvement of the female condition, her view on this category of women who bring answers to the professional and/or comfort needs of other women.
Abstract This article investigates the decolonial opposition of Restless River (Ivalu et Cousineau 2019). This remediation of the eponymous novel of Gabrielle Roy (1970) allows the Inuit filmmakers’ reappropriation of their representations and to dismantle stereotypes. Furthermore, the subversion of the war film genre emphasizes the increase of colonial measures in the Inuit Nunangat and the violence against indigenous women. Most importantly, the creation of an Inuit female gaze indigenizes the cinematographic medium while denouncing rape culture, colonialism and systemic racism.
Représentations télévisuelles des basketteuses lors des championnats du monde et des Jeux olympiques : une incarnation de la nation contextuelle et ambivalente
The media reproduce gender stereotypes in sport by under-mediatising women's sports performance and discrediting sportswomen who do not conform to the norm (Montañola 2011). In contrast to these findings, women basketball players compete in outfits that do not reveal the curves of their bodies (shorts and large tee-shirts) and stage themselves in rivalry situations where physical contact is the norm. In order to analyse the representations of high-level female basketball players in France, we studied a corpus of the TV broadcastings from the World Championships and the Olympic Games over a ten-year period, from 2005 to 2015, in a diachronic way in order to grasp the moments of ruptures and discontinuities (Foucault 1969).
Archiving Friendship: The Analysis of Absence in France Théoret’s Biographical Practice
France Théoret has dedicated herself to preserving the memory of her friend and colleague Louky Bersianik. Her work is shaped by three type of absences: a symbolic absence of recognition for Bersianik’s work, a material absence due to lack of access to her personal documents and a physical absence after Bersianik’s death. The analysis of absence reveals that beyond archiving Bersianik’s oeuvre, Théoret’s biographical practice documents her attachment and admiration for her friend, a definition of intimacy between friends as an informal pact, and the role of witness played by friends, in end of life and after death.