by Roland Piochet

Here is another fascinating site. Logoted National Education, obviously: we will come back to it.

This site presents itself as an educational documentation site. Childish presentation, font "white chalk on blackboard" and division into class levels ("from primary to high school and post-bac"). The presentation of the site is attractive, with garish colors. The site defines itself as:

More than 80 videos, accompanied by educational resources, on the themes of gender equality, in all areas. Matilda is also a collaborative platform that allows the exchange of ideas, questions and achievements.

https://matilda.education/mod/page/view.php?id=194

Let's take just one example: a public video "general and technological high school, vocational high school and post-baccalaureate level". https://matilda.education/course/view.php?id=116 .

The first times of those who believe in love are not great, because they neglect the technical aspect of the thing, explains learnedly the speaker who gets involved squarely in what does not concern her, and besides what does she know about it? We will not know: legitimacy is created by the site. And in terms of pleasure, we cannot be certain that the university diploma is very valid…. But let's move on.

She dares to invoke Mauss for to encourage students, who would never have thought of it without her, to explore “sexual body techniques”, that is to say masturbation ("Obviously, in a school setting, it's perhaps a little difficult to teach," she admits, but the teacher must be able to get started...). We can imagine the faces of teachers when faced with a suburban class discussing "the technical nature of the act of love, and masturbatory methods."

"There is a lot of work to be done in society so that men and women have equal access to knowledge of their pleasure, and for that, it requires equal visibility of women's pleasure and men's pleasure and we are far from that, at least in our cultures."

"It's not just a question of privacy, and that's why the school, and the family, have a role to play, uh... at that level."

“Enjoyment is political.”

Well yes, masturbation is not intimate and should be left to families to deal with together.

Regardless of the militant orientation, the statement is first of all appalling in its ineptitude. The video is in fact the fruit of "research work" produced in partnership with the Cité du Genre/Sorbonne Paris Cité University.

But in the presentation video of the Cité du Genre [https://citedugenre.fr/fr/], It is a view of the Matilda site which illustrates the sentence, hold on tight:

"We put our research serving the youngest, in middle and high schools… »: 

https://youtu.be/jN8SVjNHERg?t=56

The Cité du genre is interesting because it claims to be an activist network for young people. Its statutes define it as:

The Cité du Genre is an interdisciplinary institute for research and training in gender studies. Led by University of Paris in partnership with Sciences Po and Sorbonne Paris Nord University, its co-founders, its aim is to promote gender studies within the SPC Alliance.

https://citedugenre.fr/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Statuts-de-La-Cité-du-Genre-VF-15102020.pdf

Let's talk money

This provision in the form of an institute allows university funding – research credits – to be redirected to the association. We find in DELIBERATION No. 2019-01 of the Board of Directors of the Comue “Université Sorbonne Paris Cité” Meeting of March 6, 2019 the mention of the funding of the Cité du Genre. The Comue is an old structure, now dissolved, which aimed to pool universities within competitive “super organizations”. The structure has disappeared, but not its budgets in 2019 which had to be distributed. The three “co-founders” were members of the same Comue and were therefore able to work together to pool funds. On the share of one of them only, we therefore see the following appear:

You have the proposal for the breakdown of these 97 euros which is on this slide. […] 22 euros for the Cité du genre […] This does not mean that These (sic) are the only amounts that will benefit these interdisciplinary programs.

http://www.sorbonne-paris-cite.fr/sites/default/files/ca20190306_deliberation_01.pdf, p. 23

It is easy to imagine that each co-founding institution will therefore have contributed the same sum, i.e. 66 euros in total (this is an assumption).

Now let's take a quick look at "v.ideaux", the association that publishes the site matilda.education. It is an educational platform largely subsidized by the State. Here are the State subsidies received by "v.ideaux" in 2020 alone:

• €10.000 under budget programme 224 (“Transmission of knowledge and democratisation of culture” – Ministry of Culture and Communication), with the following subject: “Artistic and cultural education policies”
• €10.000 under budget programme 137 (“Equality between women and men” – Prime Minister) with the aim of: “Support for the dissemination or production of an associative media”)
• €5.000 under budget programme 230 (“School education: Student life” – Ministry of National Education), with the aim of: “Extracurricular activities and student support”
• 1000€ under budget programme 129 (“Coordination of government work” – Prime Minister), with the subject: “Call for decentralised projects”

These €27.000 obviously do not include the subsidies granted by local authorities... obviously.

It is therefore hardly surprising that with between 50 and 000 euros of annual operation (90×000 euros + the comfortable base of 3 euros per year from v.ideaux) the educational system allows for the dissemination of educational advice to teachers on the teaching of "love techniques" which make "first times less disappointing". They also benefit from the provision of premises, resources, and certainly also other sources of funding... But nowhere do we find financial statements or even activity reports.

But no matter: the message is being conveyed to "the service of the youngest, in middle and high schools."