Read moreReason, morality or even truth have little importance when it comes to standing up, ideology slung over one's shoulder and eyes fixed on the brighter future - no matter the corpses sown along the way, no matter the collateral damage. Sabina, a Czech exiled in Paris, a magnificent character of a foreigner in The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera, cannot stand the demonstrations of support for Czech political opponents: she cannot differentiate them from the Stalinist demonstrations of May 1 in Prague. The mass of undifferentiated faces reaching for the same goal, fists raised with the same conviction, disgust her with the same force. Sabina would have hated both neo-feminists and left-wing radicals. She is said to have laughed with Frédéric Beigbeder and rolled her eyes at Jean-Marc Rouillan (the co-founder of Action directe), before turning her back on him in dismay. These are the two characters in my column. Frédéric Beigbeder has a sense of humor. Worse: he exercises his humor despite the times. By writing a new book, Confession of a Slightly Outdated Heterosexual, he dared, the rascal, to have fun with the demonetization of the white heterosexual man in the name of his many victims – women, all women, the colonized man, the climate, nature and goldfish… – by turning the attack around: “I did not choose to be a man, nor to be white, nor to desire women, nor to be born in 1965. To criticize the straight white male over 50 is to be racist four times over. I'm fed up with heterosexuals being called assholes, rednecks, pigs, and brutes everywhere. Amen. But be careful, Beigbeder is not crazy: he has taken all the usual precautions by lining up like a good student all the figures that talk about violence against women, etc., which he repeats ad nauseam during interviews thinking he will protect himself from accusations from neo-feminists... Just think! Worthy heirs of the mothers of 19th century morality, they roll their eyes and explain to him like a child that, despite these pledges, these figures and these declarations, he cannot help but be the patriarchal asshole that he is deep down. Maybe Frédéric Beigbeder is an asshole, maybe he's not even likeable, but he doesn't advocate rape, he doesn't deny women their rights, nor does he want to establish an unequal society where heterosexuals dominate others with laws or the scaffold. This is why it is crazy that he had to go under police protection on April 21 to a meeting at the Mollat bookstore in Bordeaux, after the front of the bookstore was covered in outrageous and even threatening insults ("be afraid of our murderous desires"), and that he had to leave quietly to avoid the incident. I was hoping, after the Iranian uprising against a truly patriarchal state or in the face of the demonstration of abject patriarchy in Afghanistan, for a readjustment of the discourse of our neo-feminists, who benefit from the full extent of the rule of law, choose their life and their work without risking anything. These excesses of spoiled children (and often: bourgeois) always left me speechless. On the other hand, no attack, no demonstration, no insulting inscription came to taint the conference that Jean-Marc Rouillan gave at the University of Bordeaux less than a month before (on March 28). A figure in the terrorist group Action Directe, sentenced to life imprisonment for the murders of René Audran and Georges Besse, Rouillan even allowed himself the luxury of showing no regrets, and continued with his rage the Republic and peace – as evidenced by his defense of Islamist terrorists: "I found them very courageous, they fought courageously, they fight in the streets of Paris, they know that there are two or three thousand cops around them. The Kouachi brothers, when they were in the printing plant, they fought to their last bullet. "Finding courage in killers who shoot into an unarmed crowd on a terrace, in a concert hall, a supermarket or the offices of a newspaper, demonstrates how much Rouillan deserves a place in prison. But the students of Bordeaux preferred to applaud him, inviting him to speak about the state dictatorship in France and other such absurdities that only a true democracy can tolerate. Abnousse Shalmani, writer and journalist committed against identity politics.
Reason, morality or truth are of little importance when it comes to standing up, ideology slung over one's shoulder and eyes fixed on the bright future - what do the corpses sown along the way matter, what do the collateral damage matter. Sabina, a Czech exiled in Paris, a magnificent character of a foreigner in Milan Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being, cannot stand the demonstrations of support for Czech political opponents: she cannot differentiate them from the Stalinist demonstrations of May 1 in Prague. The mass of undifferentiated faces reaching for the same goal, fists raised with the same conviction, disgust her with the same force. Sabina would have hated both the neo-feminists and the radical left. She would have laughed with Frédéric Beigbeder and made big round eyes at Jean-Marc Rouillan (the co-founder of Action directe), before turning her back on him in dismay. These are the two characters in my column.
Frédéric Beigbeder has a sense of humor. Worse: he exercises his humor despite the times. By writing a new book, Confession of a Slightly Overwhelmed Heterosexual, he dared, the rascal, to make fun of the demonetization of the white heterosexual man in the name of his many victims – women, all women, the colonized man, the climate, nature and goldfish… – by turning the attack around: “I did not choose to be a man, nor to be white, nor to desire women, nor to be born in 1965. Criticizing the white heterosexual male over 50 is being racist four times over. I am sick of the heterosexual being treated everywhere as an asshole, a redneck, a pig, a brute.” Amen. But be careful, Beigbeder is not crazy: he has taken all the usual precautions by lining up like a good student all the figures that talk about violence against women, etc., which he repeats ad nauseam during interviews thinking he is protecting himself from accusations from neo-feminists... Can you believe it!
Worthy heirs of the mothers of the 21th century morality, they roll their eyes and explain to him as if they were a child that, despite these pledges, these figures and these declarations, he cannot help but be the patriarchal asshole that he is deep down. Maybe Frédéric Beigbeder is an asshole, maybe he is not even likeable, but he does not advocate rape, he does not deny women their rights, any more than he wants to establish an unequal society where heterosexuals would dominate others with laws or the scaffold. That is why it is crazy that he had to go under police protection, on April XNUMX, to a meeting at the Mollat bookstore in Bordeaux, after the front of the bookstore was smeared with outrageous and even threatening insults ("be afraid of our murderous desires"), and that he had to leave quietly to avoid the incident. I was hoping, after the Iranian uprising against a truly patriarchal state or in the face of the demonstration of abject patriarchy in Afghanistan, a readjustment of the discourse of our neo-feminists, who benefit from the full extent of the rule of law, choose their life and their job without risking anything. These excesses of spoiled children (and often: bourgeois) have always left me speechless.
On the other hand, no attack, no demonstration, no insulting inscription came to taint the conference that Jean-Marc Rouillan gave at the University of Bordeaux less than a month before (on March 28). A figure of the terrorist group Action Directe, sentenced to life imprisonment for the murders of René Audran and Georges Besse, Rouillan even allowed himself the luxury of showing no regrets, and continued with his rage the Republic and peace – as evidenced by his defense of Islamist terrorists: “I found them very courageous, they fought courageously, they fight in the streets of Paris, they know that there are two or three thousand cops around them. […] The Kouachi brothers, when they were in the printing press, they fought until their last bullet.” Finding courage in killers who shoot at an unarmed crowd on a terrace, in a concert hall, a supermarket or the editorial office of a newspaper, demonstrates to what extent Rouillan deserves a place in prison. But the Bordeaux students preferred to applaud him by inviting him to speak about the state dictatorship in France and other wild ideas that only a true democracy can support.
Abnousse Shalmani, writer and journalist committed to fighting identity obsession.
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