As part of "Gender Month", the University of Angers is organizing three workshops proudly presented as "non-mixed". These are the " Verbal Feminist Self-Defense Workshops » from March 17 at the IUT of Angers and from March 23 on the Cholet campus, as well as the « #Negotraining Workshop » on March 23, co-organized with the Audencia business school on the Belle-Beille Campus. The announcements of each of these events on the official website of the University of Angers are followed by the hashtag #Non-mixed.
This hashtag is a link to a page on the University of Angers website (“Non-mixed / chosen mixed”) where, under a heading "Concept", non-mixing is unreservedly praised. Criticism is delegitimized in advance in these terms:
This practice is the subject of much criticism, its detractors, often indifferent to situations of de facto non-mixedness within dominant groups (boards of directors of large companies, for example), considering that it creates discrimination or reverse racism. However, non-mixedness and chosen mix have no other objectives than those of equality between all, whatever their identity or social position.
https://moisdugenre.univ-angers.fr/2022/02/24/non-mixite-mixite-choisie/
The Verbal Feminist Self-Defense Workshops » are explicitly “reserved for women (cis and transgender), students and staff of the UA [University of Angers]”.
The content of the announcement also confirms the impression of a sectarian drift: all those who identify as women will be able, thanks to the workshop, “realize their power to act, by experiencing sound”…Is this “verbal feminism” expressed through experimental sounds? Or is it an amusing typo for sorority…? In this case, we must probably blame a patriarchal spell checker, still not accustomed to ideological lexical experiments.
"Women" are not considered in this workshop as beings endowed with reason, but as prisoners of their resentment ("unlearning not to fight back") and their introverted and hypersensitive psychology ("by working on trust [...] in their feelings"). It's as if the "Popular Feminist Education Collective" has made it its mission to maintain and disseminate the worst patriarchal stereotypes!
You can get an overview of the workshop content by following the link given after the announcement: Around verbal self-defense. "Women's violence" (promoted as a “concept” on a dedicated page) is exalted. This radicalization which assumes to exercise "terror" and this uninhibited separatism which advocates exclusion in the name of inclusion are a real insult to women as much as to men and certainly have no place in a University.
Verbal Feminist Self-Defense Workshops
https://moisdugenre.univ-angers.fr/2022/02/21/ateliers-dauto-defense-feministe-verbale/
Thursday March 17 – from 12 p.m. to 14 p.m. – Angers (IUT) –
Wednesday March 23 – from 12:30 p.m. to 14:30 p.m. – Cholet Campus –
Free, registration required –
Reserved for women.
On the occasion of Gender Month, the Equality Mission of the University of Angers is offering two verbal feminist self-defense workshops, one in Angers (Belle-Beille campus), the other in Cholet.
The challenge of these small group meetings is for women to realize their power to act, by experimenting with sound and working on self-confidence, in their feelings, by training themselves to define and set their limits and unlearning not to retaliate. This workshop allows women to speak out about the sexism that these people may be victims of and an awareness that their experience is part of a collective reality.
Both workshops will be led by the popular feminist education collective Régalons-nous!
They are reserved for women (cis and transgender), students and UA staff (20 places max). #Non-mixed #SexualAndGenderViolence
Around verbal self-defense
https://moisdugenre.univ-angers.fr/2022/02/28/autour-de-lautodefense-verbale/
Elsa Dorlin traces in To defend oneself a genealogy of political self-defense of minority groups.
Aurélia Léon leans over in his article on feminist self-defense courses and the participants' experiences.
In " Feminist self-defense: between self-work and collective transformation », Anne-Charlotte Millepied examines the dialectic between self-work and collective transformation at work in these courses as well as the question of the use of the body and violence as political weapons.
To fuel a reflection on the place of violence in the fight against patriarchy, Irene tells us in Feminist Terror the history of violent women.
In his podcast, Myriam Prévost attends a training course where girls scream, blow and hit.
The practical guide by Irene Zeilinger offers a series of simple and easy tips to set your limits and get out of difficult situations. Against all the stereotypes that usually prohibit women from taking their safety into their own hands, you have to learn to say no and dare to defend yourself.
#ViolenceOfWomen
References:
Dorlin, Elsa. Self-Defense: A Philosophy of Violence. Zones, 2017.
Irene Feminist Terror: A Little Praise of Extremist Feminism. Divergences Editions, 2021.
Leon, Aurelia. “Against their sexist violence, feminist self-defense!” About feminist self-defense courses and what they teach us ». Gender, sexuality & society, no. 25, July 2021.
Millepied, Anne-Charlotte. Feminist self-defense: between self-work and collective transformation ». New Feminist Questions, vol. 36, no 2, 2017, p. 50-65.
Prevost, Myriam. Feminist Self-Defense. Arte Radio, May 31, 2011.
Zeilinger, Irene. No Means No: A Little Self-Defense Manual for All Women Who Are Tired of Being Hassled Without Saying Anything. The Discovery/Pocket, 2018.
