"There is a lesbian know-how to explode space and standards"

Alice Coffin, elected EELV of the 12th arrondissement.

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• Alice Coffin journalist and elected EELV of the 12th arrondissement publishes this Wednesday

  Le genie lesbien

  (Grasset).

• "Activism makes it possible not to be afraid of disturbing and transgressing", she explains a few days before a new Council in Paris.

• PMA, MeToo, LGBT + rights, patriarchy… In her book, she traces her struggles, her personal journey and presents the concept of "lesbian genius".

• “Now we are outside and inside.

  It's because Adèle Haenel and Céline Sciamma are inside that they blow up the system, ”she says.

“Paris is a very beautiful city in which to fight and sow panic,” smiles Alice Coffin.

In a few years, the journalist has become the voice of a range of fights: the PMA, the MeToo movement, LGBT + rights.

Without forgetting the fight against patriarchy.

“The power is in a few hairs,” she recalls, proudly.

A feminist activist in the La Barbe collective, she was elected on behalf of EELV in the 12th arrondissement last June and made the first Paris Council of Anne Hidalgo's term of office, season 2, waltz in a few seconds.

On the occasion of the release of her book

(Grasset) this Wednesday, she answered questions from

where she was a journalist until 2015 (see box).

On July 24, on the occasion of the first Council of Paris, you shouted “Shame!

"On the benches of the town hall when the prefect of police, Didier Lallement, decides to express a" republican salute "to the address of Christophe Girard giving rise to a tribute from almost the entire assembly .

How did you feel at that precise moment?

I was very surprised.

I was not expecting that at all.

I thought they were going to keep a low profile and finally there is the intervention of Prefect Lallement, who is out of his role, and who even eliminates on this occasion a topical question on a LBD shot asked by an elected representative.

My reaction is spontaneous.

I shout “Shame!

".

Which is not trivial.

These are the same words as Adèle Haenel at the César, because we are facing the same system.

While there is a feminist fight which is carried out and which relates to pedophilia, a room supports a camp which tries to maintain a leaden cover and applauds.

It is horrible what they did.

Since then, have you been able to discuss with the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo and in what state of mind are you a few days before the opening of a new Council of Paris?

I sent Anne Hidalgo a copy of my autographed book, offering to see her.

I haven't had any feedback.

But I owe to the past observation of the incessant attacks against Anne Hidalgo my conviction that it is always better to avoid, as a feminist activist, attacking a woman in a position of power.

Others are already doing it for me and it contributes to sexism.

But the situation has not improved.

There was no discussion or support in the face of cyberstalking of which I was the target, socialist elected representatives even contributed to it.

Some have used fascosphere methods with truncated videos.

Still others admitted that they were ashamed to stand up.

But in reality, Raphaëlle Rémy-Leleu and I are still excluded from the majority and they refuse to sit in cultural organizations on which we are entitled to sit.

Our names, for example, have been deleted at Tipp-Ex.

It's always the same system: when people dare to speak, we choke them, we crush them, we exfiltrate them.

It's a shame that Paris City Hall operates in an anti-feminist and anti-democratic way.

In your book "Le Génie Lesbien" you say that "activism is an excellent school of journalism", your previous profession.

Is it also for that of politician?

Yes, it allows you to be able to react in an assembly and to face places that can be impressive.

It allows you not to be afraid of disturbing and transgressing.

As in journalism, activism makes it possible to be able to quickly understand that a situation poses a problem and to react to it.

Isn't it moving away from the very essence of activism to be an integral part of such and such a state system?

Or does it ultimately make things happen from within?

I don't believe in the story of people who lost their souls because they went from activism to another sphere, especially politics.

What worried me at first before I started was that there is less efficiency possible.

We are so used to hearing that things are frozen that we integrate it.

This is not wrong but all the same it gives a power of action.

Now we are outside and inside.

It's because Adèle Haenel and Céline Sciamma are inside that they blow up the system.

You say that you have been "gagged" as a feminist journalist and a lesbian as a journalist, are you afraid of being also at the town hall of Paris?

This is what is happening.

There is an attempt to silence and deprive me of the means of action.

But that doesn't scare me.

Today, we need an ability to enact reality as it is, not to take precautions, to send back to the face of society what is happening.

And to say: here is the massacre committed on the women.

You talk about "the soft farandole" of these men in a loop in the media, "mediocrity" in the French editorial staff ... How to explain all this numb system?

It is because there is an inability to grasp all of the things that are happening in society.

And that results in the very redundant intervention of the same people who run in a loop.

After a while, they are dried up.

Let's hear other voices.

The idea is to have as much distance behind the keyboards as possible.

An editorial office, like a company, must fight against discrimination.

If we only have white men in a box, there is a problem.

And we do our job very badly, our mission, when there are in the ranks, people who have the same vision.

Skin color matters, social class matters.

Being a lesbian gives me access to fields and still being an activist to others.

Alice Coffin, in Paris in September 2020 - JACQUES WITT / Sipa for 20 Minutes

As a former journalist for "20 Minutes", how do you view the title today and the press in general when you say "never want to work in an editorial office again" after your experience?

It was exhausting.

Being an activist should not be an argument for being disqualified from working as a journalist.

A specialist and fan of Paris-Saint-Germain, that was not a problem while a homosexual person could not deal with LGBT subjects.

They are always the same people who are accused of having journalistic bias.

After that, there was an evolution, in particular in the people hired and the way of dealing with certain subjects.

In general, things have changed a bit, I see more and more journalists declaring themselves to be feminist activists.

But the structure remains in place and imposes a certain vision of the company.

Can you explain the title of your book "The Lesbian Genius"?

This is the title I gave to a conference of the European Lesbian Association.

It indicates the fact that in many historical moments and social movements, if we dig a little deeper we find a lesbian in the game.

Events would never have been so powerful if lesbians had not contributed.

There is a lesbian know-how to explode space and standards.

You say the word "lesbian" is scary, why?

Yes, there is a fear that the lesbian arouses with her speeches.

But they are right to be afraid.

It is an ultimate transgression against the patriarchal system.

We were also dissuaded from using the word lesbian when we wanted to create associations and on the Internet, until recently, writing lesbian only referred to images of the ass.

It is to say the usurpation and the inivisibilisation of the word.

"Macron, there is only that at the head of our political, economic or cultural media institutions ... That they release.

Let them leave their place.

They sow misfortune.

We want joy.

Being a lesbian is a party.

They won't spoil it, ”you write.

How do you get there?

It will still take time.

We must approach this fight with a maximum of points of impact so that the patriarchy gives way.

And don't let the speech be confiscated.

Some lesbians ironically call the 20th arrondissement "Gouinistan".

Do you think like David Belliard, ex-EELV candidate for mayor, that it is necessary to create in Paris "zones of benevolence for the LGBT community"?

One should not think only of intramural Paris for these places, and besides, so much the better if it goes beyond the Marais.

We must think wider than a strict Parisian perimeter on the issue.

But, the Parisian space is still very focused on the eye.

We are in a very harsh city, which judges women and lesbians.

Afterwards, Paris is a great city to be an activist.

It forged me.

It is not very extensive and it concentrates a maximum of powers.

The dream for activists.

Paris is a very beautiful city in which to fight and sow panic.

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20 seconds of context

Alice Coffin was a journalist in the Culture and Media department at

from 2007 to 2015.

• Lgbt

• Activism

• PMA

• Lesbian

• Media

• Paris