One of the things that bother me about modern feminists is the shallowness of what they do compared to the activism done by the French feminist collective, l’Amazone and their violent fight for women’s rights.
Because liberal feminists or choice feminists have an intense desire to ‘be kind’ either out of socialisation or for social points, they have managed to whitewash all the violence perpetrated against women and girls and have made it harder for groups of radical feminists like l’Amazone and Collectif Abolition PornoProstitution – CAPP to criticise the harms of porn and the sex trade by counter-protesting and attacking the women involved.
Below is an interview with one of l’Amazone’s members.
1. On the 8th of March 2021, we saw videos online of feminists in France being attacked by trans/queer activists—first and foremost, can you tell us about your group and who you are.
Our collective’s name is l’Amazone. L’Amazone was founded by Marguerite Stern. Marguerite has been a feminist activist for 10 years and 2 years ago, when she was living in Marseille, she had the idea to stick big black letters that were painted on white paper on the streets of the city. The focus of these messages was to denounce the femicide epidemic in France. She did that by herself for 6 months and after moving to Paris called on other women to join her. The movement grew throughout a year and last June she founded l’Amazone with a group of women and opened a place that became the Amazone HQ, where women could gather in a safe space to paint collages and plan feminist actions. We’re a group of women from different backgrounds and ethnicities, some of us are artists or work in corporations, others are still students.
Unfortunately the Amazone HQ is no more, we had to leave it because of safety reasons and now we’re actively looking for another space for us to meet and organize our feminist actions.
2. Tell us what happened to you on the 8th March.
We’ve suffered two attacks for International Women’s Day.
The first one was on March the 7th when we attended a feminist protest organized for International Women’s Day in Paris. CAPP (the Collective for the Abolition of Pornography and Prostitution) which is a collective run by prostitution survivors, planned and organized this action and we at l’Amazone joined them to protest alongside them. They climbed onto the statue in the middle of the square and flyposted large collages which read “prostituted minor, guilty adults”, “pimps and clients are criminals”, “prostitution clients are rapists”. They also had many banners which they fastened to the statue and to floating balloons – “prostitution is a war against women”, “we demand funds so that women can exit prostitution”, “no clients no prostitution”, “porn producers pimps”, “porn prostitution is racist sexist and capitalist”, “porn teaches rape”, “if you promote prostitution as work you are on the wrong side of history”, and details of the court accusations against porn producers Dorcel and Jacquie et Michel…
CAPP were standing on the statue with their banners and chanting various slogans. So the women of l’Amazone stayed around the statue, protecting the CAPP activists. At some point, a woman came, yelled and ripped a banner, but she was rapidly ushered away. After a couple hours, things began to get tougher. An “antifa” group (including many men) and a queer feminist collective merged together and approached the statue to attack the CAPP actvists. They yelled insults, did middle fingers, threw dozens of eggs, graffitied “save 1 trans, kill 1 terf”, spray painted masks faces and jumpers, punched, yelled “whore” and “slut”. One “antifa” man aimed at an activist standing on the statue with a glass beer bottle. He was discouraged to throw it, and did a “quenelle” instead – an antisemitic hand gesture which is a clear reference to fisting, and used by the alt-right as a reverse nazi salute.
Chants were made specifically against Marguerite Stern, and an egg was thrown in her face. The video was widely shared by queer activists online.
When they decided to leave, CAPP and L’Amazone activists had to be protected by a cordon because we were scared to be physically attacked by the crowd.
On the other side of the square, FEMEN activists were also attacked by antifa. As well as the mother of Julie, the woman who was raped by 20 firefighters when she was a teenager.
The second attack was on March 10th.
For International Women’s Day, March 8th, feminist activist and artist Pauline Makoveitchoux inaugurated the exhibition of her photography series “Women are not Afraid”. This series consists of photos of women in the streets of Paris and its suburbs at night and in spaces where women are usually afraid of being alone. For a year and a half she has shot over 140 women of different backgrounds and ethnicities, showcasing their strength, determination and authenticity. The goal of her series was to empower women while rejecting the patriarchal codes that have been imposed on them where their image has to be sexual and fragile and photoshopped and also put into perspective women’s legitimacy to exist in public spaces, and denounce the daily harassment and sexist and sexual assaults which are committed amidst general indifference.
Two days after the exhibition, on March 10th, a group of people who are part of a queer feminist collective defaced her exhibition and wrote “Sisters not cisterfs”, “Feminism has to be inclusive”, “Trans women are our sisters” and “No feminism without sex workers”.
3. We heard this is not the first time you’ve been attacked by these extremists. Can you tell us about the previous occasions you were attacked?
The backlash directed at abolitionists of the prostitution system started after the 2016 law was passed to punish men who consider themselves clients of women in prostitution, effectively criminalizing the act of “buying sex”. Sex work organizations heavily criticized this law and have been spreading the lie that with this law women in prostitution are even more in danger, and that abolitionists are entirely responsible for all the violence and death of women while in prostitution.
The rhetoric was carefully constructed to highlight the voices of those who were financially impacted (pimps mostly) as the injured party. Of course they present themselves as sex workers and not pimps, effectively confusing the general public of the real nature of the work they do.
So it’s an atmosphere of resentment and guilt that has built up for over 2 years and then the attacks against abolitionists started. The first one was in November 25th of 2019 in Toulouse during a feminist protest, when a prostitution survivor who was carrying an abolitionist banner was violently attacked and received no support other than from fellow abolitionists.
Then last year in March 8 2020, 2 women (one of whom is a prostitution survivor) from CAPP (collective for the abolition of pornography and prostitution) were marching while holding a huge banner with the face of every woman who has died at the hands of the prostitution industry. Their banner was confiscated by an Antifa group who violently attacked them as well. They ended up in the hospital with serious injuries resulting in 27 days of complete incapacity for work after their attack.
On November 25 of last year, there was no significant violence thankfully but that was mainly due to the fact that the feminist gatherings were kept minimal due to Covid. Nonetheless, abolitionists from CAPP who were protesting in Montreuil (Parisian suburb) were intimidated by pro prostitution activists who tried to take away and cover their abolitionist banners.
And then on this year, March the 7th and 8th the violence grew dramatically and was demonstrated not only in Paris but also in Toulouse, Montpellier and other cities in France.
4. It seems dangerous now to be a radical feminist or to be anti porn and anti sexual exploitation. How are you keeping yourselves safe and how do you mobilise when there are extremely dangerous people attacking your members?
I can’t say we have a strategy when we’re violently attacked. The only thing we can do when it happens is try to film the violence and the attacks so we can hopefully show the public how we’ve been wrongfully demonized and that the violence is never on our part. Some of us have their identity displayed on social media so they face harassment and death threats every day. Right now it’s hard for us to effectively organize and plan our actions because we no longer have a space to meet. We still try to gather in small groups in each other’s homes to discuss the attacks we suffered and allow a safe space for our members to express their resulting trauma and heal together.
5. Lastly, how can radical feminists and other people from other countries support you in your campaigns and activism?
Please speak up. We’re higher in numbers but they have managed to convince us that we’re only a minority who believes that men can’t be women. Women have been wired to feel empathy towards any oppressed group and they take advantage of that. They victimize themselves then turn around and beat us up when we dare to speak up.
You can also follow us on social media and help make our voices heard.
L’Amazone
Twitter : @l_amazone_
Instagram : @l_amazone_paris
Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/lamazonesquad
CAPP:
Twitter : @CappRadfem
Instagram : @capp_radfem
Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/collectifabolitionpornprostitution
We are grateful to l’Amazone for allowing us to share their story and we are sending our solidarity to our sisters in France and everywhere else in the world who are experiencing threats and violence for speaking up.
There is absolutely no excuse for this kind of behaviour. Women should be able to organise and campaign based on issues that concern us without being intimidated and bullied. Because it isn’t about inclusivity anymore—it’s about pushing an ideology that we don’t agree with and harassing us to centre identities with narcissistic tantrums.
We reject gender identity ideology and queer theory the same way we reject the Catholic Church. You are free to believe whatever you want to believe and you are free to go to mass and say your prayers to your priests. We are not the ones spreading hate. We are the ones being attacked.
Leave us alone. We have work to do.
REMEMBER, RESIST, DO NO COMPLY.
I’m going to ask you to remember the prostituted, the homeless, the battered, the raped, the tortured, the murdered, the raped-then-murdered, the murdered-then-raped; and I am going to ask you to remember the photographed, the ones that any or all of the above happened to and it was photographed and now the photographs are for sale in our free countries. I want you to think about those who have been hurt for the fun, the entertainment, the so-called speech of others; those who have been hurt for profit, for the financial benefit of pimps and entrepreneurs. I want you to remember the perpetrator and I am going to ask you to remember the victims: not just tonight but tomorrow and the next day. I want you to find a way to include them — the perpetrators and the victims — in what you do, how you think, how you act, what you care about, what your life means to you.
Now, I know, in this room, some of you are the women I have been talking about. I know that. People around you may not. I am going to ask you to use every single thing you can remember about what was done to you — how it was done, where, by whom, when, and, if you know — why — to begin to tear male dominance to pieces, to pull it apart, to vandalize it, to destabilize it, to mess it up, to get in its way, to fuck it up. I have to ask you to resist, not to comply, to destroy the power men have over women, to refuse to accept it, to abhor it and to do whatever is necessary despite its cost to you to change it.
– Andrea Dworkin, Remember, resist, do not comply (1995)
