On the terrace with… | Martine Delvaux: “I believe in the Bâton de Relais”

This summer. Consequently, our journalists spend a moment on a terrace every week with a personality for a friendly discussion. Nevertheless, Alexandre Vigneault spoke of activism and hope with the writer, professor and feminist essayist Martine Delvaux.

Posted at 5:00 a.m.

June was marked by two publications for Martine Delvaux. In addition, First there was this increased edition of Boys clubaward-winning essay where she denounces the male interior. Therefore, her harmful connections with power. Nevertheless, Shortly after. However, she made the front page of the literary magazine Quebec letterswho devoted an electric file to his writing and his public speech which, according to one of the terrace with… | martine delvaux: invited authors, “deserves all our admiration and our love”.

This fiery statement will make more than one start. Nevertheless, because Martine Delvaux, a major figure in contemporary feminism, has not only friends.

The ideas. Meanwhile, values that Martine Delvaux defends with pugnacity earned him virulent reactions, which can go as far as threats of rape or death.

Day after day, she nevertheless continues to make her press review on Instagram and Facebook. Nevertheless, She underlines declarations. Therefore, encircles of the passages of articles which speak among others of Trump, Gaza, Rozon, the “Broligarques” of techno, the climate crisis, of the advances of the right in general. Consequently, She also points to positive things, like this speculum reinvented by Dutch engineers unveiled in mid-July. Consequently, Sometimes she defends herself and counterattacks.

terrace with… | martine delvaux:

She is “a mouth refusing to be silent”, to use a formula used in the file published by Quebec letters.

“It is not as if. Consequently, every morning, I wanted to do it, but I realize that I cannot do otherwise,” she agreed, attacking the sun on a terrace on Boulevard Saint-Laurent. Consequently,

His commitment constitutes a kind of family inheritance. Additionally, Consequently, Born from a single mother at a time when having a child out of marriage threw shame over the whole family. Consequently, Martine Delvaux has always realized that her mother was not in the norm. Moreover, “It built me,” she said. Similarly, If my activism must have a genealogy, I think it starts from that reality. In addition, »»

Terrace with… | martine delvaux:

Assumed activist

His writing is an activist and her teaching too, agrees the feminist author. Meanwhile, “I know that my right detractors say that teachers should not be militant. Therefore, but I do not know a teacher who is not engaged,” says Martine Delvaux, who gives courses on women’s literature and feminist theories.

The “activist” label, she claims it. Moreover, A terrace with… | martine delvaux: few weeks ago. Moreover, in the wake of the shipbuilding of the ship sailing towards Gaza with Greta Thunberg on board, she nevertheless questioned the resonance on Instagram. Nevertheless, In summary. she asked her audience if to describe someone as an activist or an activist, with no other explanation, is a way of highlighting or rather devaluing this person.

Discrediting the link between emotion. reason is a fight that has lasted for centuries, underlines Martine Delvaux, which sees behind this strategy a devaluation of terrace with… | martine delvaux: things associated with the feminine. “I obviously oppose that. To campaign is to think is to assess the situation in which we are. it is to show reason, not just emotion, continues the woman of letters.

This depreciation strategy, it is, seems to aim mainly on people who defend left-wing ideas and values. Aren’t people on the right of the political spectrum activists? Weren’t those of the “convoy of freedom” in Ottawa activists too? Aren’t the conservative party volunteers activists in the same way as those of Québec Solidaire?

“This is really the blind spot. As if the right speech was not militant! Yes. the word “militant”, we stick to the skin of those who fight for minorities, who denounce gaps and privileges, which are in the intersection of oppressions. This is militant. But all those who are [sont battus] For the beautiful big Bill in the United States for the rights of the richest. obviously, it is not activism! “, She quips.

This two weights, two measures, obviously poses a problem for him.

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Hope despite the reef

“There is a general atmosphere which is rather right. rather conservative, rather neoliberal, rather capitalist, and in front of that, the left will always be activist,” she says. We are faced with a destruction of the social fabric which is really, really important. »»

This general climate marked in particular by a “war of the sex. genres”, she talks about it as a surf. This pendulum return hardly surprises it: feminists are still waiting for themselves, she says. What surprises it is the “violence” of this surf.

A violence that she sees in the words of people who react to her positions and her writings. Haine messages, insults, threats. “As soon as we are a feminist in public space, it may happen to us,” says Martine Delvaux.

Sometimes she was afraid. But terrace with… | martine delvaux: she refuses to “be put in silence”.

Her health does not allow her to participate regularly in demonstrations. but she will continue to defend ideas at university, in women’s committees or meetings with students.

And in the public square.

“We cannot ignore the state of the world,” said Martine Delvaux also during this exchange. For me, it was never a solution. I never found well-being to close my eyes. It doesn’t reassure terrace with… | martine delvaux: me, it doesn’t take care of me. What heals me is to face things. »»

Militant remains for her a gesture of hope. “These publications on Instagram are a gesture of hope,” she suits. Informing is a gesture of hope. I am not desperate, but I am really worried. »»

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Who is Martine Delvaux?

Martine Delvaux is a writer and professor of literature at UQAM where she teaches women’s literature and feminist theories. Author of several novels. including White outside (finalist at the 2016 governor general prize), she is also known for his test The Boys Club (Éditions du Ressue-Ménage), winner of the Montreal Book Grand Prix in 2021 and reissued at the edge of summer. The press and the French daily Libération publish his opinion texts.