“In chosen co-education (without cis guys)”… Still marginal not long ago, the formula is appearing more and more in Rennes. And not always where you expect it to be. Back in October. The Roof, Maison de l’escalade Rennes, plans to organize its first “mixed-sex evening”. And details on his networks: “On the evening of October 16, we reserve the rooms for women, transgender, intersex and non-binary gender! (…) ”The event, reported to Facebook moderators by Internet users, nevertheless took place. Today, the room draws a rather positive assessment. Not so much financially, since it had welcomed “about thirty people, much less than a classic Friday evening, estimates Olivier Lhopiteau, coordinator. But new people have discovered the room. It also made it possible to sensitize people on the subject ”.
Questions of single-sex (or chosen) are controversial in France. However, the phenomenon is far from recent. “The chosen mix was especially known in France by feminist movements after May 68, but it dates back to the French Revolution”, recalls Aurélia Décordé Gonzalez, director of the popular education association Déconstruire. However, this form of activism, little known, often arouses incomprehension and rejection. But what is it all about? This consists of reserving, occasionally, speaking or meeting spaces for groups of people who feel oppressed because they are who they are: women, people of color, people with disabilities or the LGBTI + community for example. .
People considered to belong to a dominant social group are not invited, so as not to reproduce patterns of social domination. The most commonly chosen mix is to find oneself between women and sexual and gender minorities. And therefore to temporarily remove “straight cisgender guys” from a space, which would not be open otherwise.
“Meeting with peers”
The question of the chosen mix remains “touchy” to say the least. On April 1, an amendment known as “Unef” was adopted by the Senate within the framework of the separatism law, in order to be able to dissolve associations holding racialized single-sex meetings. However, the chosen mixed spaces had already given rise to controversies before this recent episode.
Françoise Bagnaud, member of the History of Feminism Rennes association, knows this all too well: “This approach – to have, for people having points in common that discriminate them from the majority, the need to find themselves among peers to a certain time – has always existed and been maligned. When I was at the CFDT, we set up a women’s committee to be able to discuss within the organization, to make proposals to the joint assembly. And just this idea, it was almost an insult that we did to men ”.
For its detractors, excluding part of the population from discussions or meetings in the name of equality does not hold water. They see in it an identity drift, the sign of a community withdrawal, contrary to the principles of equality and universalism. Arguments considered hypocritical for the supporters of the method. “We hear a lot that the chosen mix divides, but it is the social and political system that divides by wanting to act as if everyone is equal. Single-sex is a fact, you just have to look at the photos of national and local authorities … And that does not bother anyone, notes Françoise Bagnaud. It is when diversity is chosen and chosen by women that she questions ”.
In Rennes, the strategy is also debated, as illustrated by the conflict between the CGT spectacle and the feminists of the intersectional group in mixed gender chosen within the framework of the occupation of the TNB. And at the same time, if it remains criticized, it seems better accepted than before, as it has infused beyond militant circles in recent years. Up to being used by local businesses and associations, internally or for their members, for “empowerment” or commercial purposes – the Leroy Merlin store in Chantepie, for example, organizes “DIY between girls ”since 2017 – or even by the public authorities.
The association L’Armada productions, in partnership with the Department, is thus organizing at the beginning of July a “Music girls camp” intended for “eight young volunteer girls aged 15 to 18 supported by social assistance for children” in Saint-Erblon. Another sign of openness: the dialogue between the City and associations on the theme of equality. “Many are proactive on these issues. They want to act better when they realize that they are not representative of diversity, observes Rozenn Andro, deputy delegate for associative life. Hence our decision, in conjunction with the BUG association, to carry out a resource program on these issues, in particular on the issue of inclusion on boards of directors (CA) ”.
« Safe »
“People go to mixed groups chosen out of necessity, not to exclude others! », Insists Françoise Bagnaud. “I often say that people who do not understand the chosen mix either do not feel or do not measure the oppression of others because they are in a position of domination; not in their head, but at least socially and politically ”. For this feminist activist, the debates around these questions today are “biased” because they do not address the reasons why these people need to meet together. So what issues can these spaces address? And what use for society?
For those who use it, the chosen mix is above all a way of expressing themselves in a space called “safe”, reassuring. “It is a tool for modifying the framework of an exchange and offering a certain emotional security. First, because people come without being identified as concerned or in questioning on a theme, then because they are between concerned, explains Élian Barcelo, president of Iskis, LGBTI + center in Rennes, which includes a group in particular. co-education chosen for bisexual, pansexual or questioning people. Behind, it makes the exchange with people not concerned possible. We see it as a suspension of diversity in order to achieve a better mix – real this one – thereafter ”.
Aurélia Décordé Gonzalez, director of Déconstruire, which fights against sexism and racism, speaks of “parentheses of respite to share experiences, anger, moments of indignation, but also solutions”. The association, hosted at the Bocal, has already organized a co-education workshop chosen around textured hair and other times on access to employment. “Once again, this is not a social project. It just responds for a moment to a need for self-assertion and mental preservation ”.
Knowledge and skills
Another aim: to open up the field of possibilities, in particular for women and sexual and gender minorities in so-called masculine disciplines. This was one of the objectives of Les Bâtisseuses, an association founded “by women and for women in 2005”, by offering workshops to exchange knowledge in mechanics or participatory building projects. Another example, La Cyclique: the monthly permanence for “women and people who identify themselves other than as a cisgender man” of the associative bicycle self-repair workshop La Petite Rennes.
“On Saturdays (mixed), there are almost only guys and we don’t have time, someone will quickly say ‘I’ll do it to you, I’ll show you’… describes Chloé, who has some animated several. So if a person is already not very comfortable, they turn around. Whereas the Cyclic is a little cocoon where you can discover what you are capable of ”. The results after seven years of practice? A “quasi-parity among the approximately 1000 members, in particular thanks to La Cyclique, gauges a member of the CA, far from being equal: 7 women out of 26 members. It also allowed men to question their behavior ”.
The same state of mind at the Modern Garden, which hosts Salut les zikettes, an “empowerment and music workshop for women, transgender and non-binary people”. The event, supported by the City of Rennes, took place on June 12 and 13. “There is already a single-sex relationship: out of some 1,000 members, there are around 15% of women,” observes Juliette Josselin, co-director of activities and practices. The chosen mix will allow participants to familiarize themselves with the place, the instruments, the collective practice… The goal being that they can feel at ease in our place afterwards ”.
“Gender police”
Still, the practice finds its limits. What We All 35 experienced during the demonstration of March 8, 2020, whose leading procession had been decided in a mixed mix chosen “without cisgender men for security reasons and to highlight those concerned”, dixit two members of the feminist collective. But on the spot, difficult to filter. “A gender police force – telling someone: ‘your place is not here since I am assigning you this genre’ – has been set up and people wrongly considered to be cis men have had to leave. the head of the procession ”. This year, to avoid it, the instructions were given before the march, supplemented by “humorous signs”.
Same problem at the feminist library in Rennes, housed at the Bocal feministe, and the same observation: “Our permanent co-education is open to people who do not identify with the notion of” straight guy “. Afterwards, we are not there to judge what people feel to be, specifies Adèle, volunteer of the association Lilith & erasures. In fact, they are seldom confronted. Then it is above all a question of protecting oneself from certain behaviors, so if the person is not in his mix, but is respectful, well… ”
Suspicion of communitarianism
Finally, a final challenge concerns the chosen racial mix: getting rid of the specter of communitarianism, which makes it deemed unacceptable in France. “A lot of people have not seen the adjective ‘racial’ in the Unef amendment, although it is central. It means that black women who organize themselves, for example, is unthinkable. And therefore that some struggles are considered more legitimate than others, concludes Aurélia Décordé Gonzalez. In Rennes as elsewhere, there is a discourse that praises the merits of living together, but if this living together is not egalitarian, there is no reason to be in an idea of social justice ”.
Rozenn Andro, deputy delegate for associative life, is reassuring: “For me, the separatism law refuses the complexity of giving a framework of expression to people who claim to be dominated. I hope that this law, in what it reduces in terms of associative freedom, will not go to the end. Today in Rennes, the framework for dialogue and recognition of associations is the Charter of reciprocal commitments, which is being updated. And these associations, as soon as they recognize themselves in the set of established values, subscribe to our charter without any problem, whatever the means they use to allow freedom of expression for all ”.
Article extracted from the file on New militancy, extension of the fields of the struggle, to find in number 136 of the Monthly of Rennes and from July 1 and 2 on the Telegram site.
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