FRENCH 349C
Liberty, Equality, Sexualities

An examination of sexualities and genders in France that addresses the questions of why the French seem so comfortable with sex while at the same time so constrained by gender roles and why French movements for gay rights and women’s rights have had such difficulty cooperating. The answers lie in the paradoxical relationship between France’s relative indifference toward sexuality, on the one hand, and its fixation with gender difference, on the other. At the end of the semester, the course will focus on recent changes in discussions of gender and sexuality and address the issue of whether traditional paradigms for explaining gender and sexuality in France still apply or whether the French might be entering a new sexual era. 

A central theme will be the paradoxical relationship between France’s relative indifference toward sexuality, on the one hand, and its fixation with gender difference, on the other.  There is no doubt that with regard to homosexuality, France has been a tolerant place.  French homosexuals have largely escaped the kind of legal repression seen in other countries over the last two hundred years – in fact, France was the first country in Europe to legalize sodomy as early as 1791.  Since at least the Belle Epoque, a tacit tolerance of homosexuality has been a part of French society, particularly among its cultural elite. However with regard to gender, France has not been as indifferent.  French women were not granted the right to vote until 1944, and in the decades since, gender has remained one of the most important and widely accepted criteria for social distinction in France.  This explains why French homosexual movements have been most harshly criticized precisely at those moments when they were perceived as a threat to gender difference and the “symbolic order” that it supports.

A second theme in the course will be the values of the French Republic and the possibilities they have offered for social change. The French Republic’s core values of secularism, separation between public and private spheres, liberalism, and universalism have been responsible for keeping a variety of sexual practices legal in France. But French republicanism has also created constraints. The strong separation between public and private spheres, in particular, has meant that the American notion that “the personal is political” has resonated differently in the context of France and that French people have been inclined to express sexual identity more discretely and to embrace identity politics with less enthusiasm than their American counterparts.

Some of the questions that students will explore include:
-     How are issues of gender and sexuality framed differently in France and America?
-     Why have French movements for gay rights and women’s rights cooperated at times and diverged at others?
-     Why, from an American perspective, do the French appear so comfortable with sex, while at the same time, so constrained by gender roles?

At the end of the semester, students will analyze recent changes in French discussions of gender and sexuality and address the question of whether France might be entering a new sexual era. Recent events provide reason to doubt some of our basic understandings of French society, and in particular the notion of an absolute separation of public and private spheres, as issues of gender and sexuality increasingly “come out” in French public debates.

Works studied include:

• Scott Gunther, The Elastic Closet: A History of Homosexuality in France, 1942-Present, New York: Palgrave-Macmillan, 2009
• Michèle Riot-Sarcey, Histoire du féminisme, Paris: La Découverte, Repères, 2002.
• Florence Tamagne, Histoire de l'homosexualité en Europe, Paris: Seuil, 2000.
• Clarisse Fabre and Eric Fassin, Liberté, égalité, sexualités, Paris: Belfond/Le Monde, 2003

Assignments include short writing assignments, one oral presentation and one final paper.