Harassment in the world of comics: "We were pioneers of #MeToo"

There is this CEO of a publishing house more inspired by the "freshness" of his illustrator than by his work. This designer who knocks down his sister on a dance floor, during a festival evening, forcibly keeps her on the ground by "imitating a greyhound for more than a minute". There are still these hands on the buttocks, these caresses on the thighs in full professional meeting, these remarks at best paternalistic, at worst insulting, these indecent proposals, these trials in illegitimacy or these questions just "to laugh": " Who sucked you to be published? "

These testimonies are not new. In 2015, the collective of creators of comics against sexism was formed to denounce ordinary sexism in their environment. Then, in 2017, 250 authors created the page "Pay your bubble", echoing #PayeTaShnek, to denounce, by name or not, sexism, but also violence and harassment. Nearly 70 authors had testified there, with their faces uncovered or anonymously, without making much noise outside the landerneau of French comics.

At the Angoulême festival, "isolated but serious facts"

This year, the publication of Vanessa Spingora's "Consent" - an autobiographical novel in which the author recounts her relationship under the influence, at 14, with the writer Gabriel Matzneff - as well as the publication on February 6 of a column on FranceInfo denouncing the harassment in the world of literature and publishing, revived wounds left gaping among the authors of comics.

"We were pioneers of #MeToo", explains to France 24 Marie Gloris Bardiaux-Vaïente, screenwriter and co-founder of the Collectif. "Since then things have improved, if only at the level of freedom of speech," she continues, "but the issue of harassment clearly remains a problem. I do not know an author who has not not a story like this to tell. "

It is not her sisters who will contradict her. After several telephone interviews with different comic book authors, the observation is shared: since 2017, authors and publishers have been more aware of the issue of moral and sexual harassment of women, but the facts persist. "I was 20 years old for my first Angoulême. At this age, one has the impression of being like a lamb. One must suffer derogatory comments on her breasts or pretend to find it 'funny' to be fiddled with an old man, "says 27-year-old author Mirion Malle. "Today, nothing has changed, it is always the same names that are spinning, we know very well who the predators are, but they are still there", continues the young woman.

"There is still a long way to go. During the last FIBD [Angoulême festival, from January 30 to February 2, editor's note], we were told isolated but serious facts", confirms Christelle Pécout, designer and vice -president of the BD grouping of the National Union of Authors and Composers (Snac-BD).

Moral harassment: "It demolished me psychologically and professionally"

In this small professional environment, the revelations of 2017 had been an internal "cataclysm". "'Pay your bubble' made it possible to shatter the a priori of the authors who thought they were evolving in an environment spared by sexism, many fell from the clouds," recalls Gally. This author and illustrator herself had testified openly on this page, a relief after years of moral harassment imposed by her male peers.

"When I received the public price in Angoulême in 2009 for 'Mon gras et moi', it was a surge of hatred: I was a young woman, blogger BD (understand 'sub-author')", she explains to France 24.
"Artists often have impostor syndrome, when you are a woman in comics, you experience twice as much pressure. There is always a man who comes to tell you that you are not in your place. bullying demolished me psychologically and professionally, "she said.

Psychological violence that she is not the only one to report. Illustrator Emma, ​​strong in a community of more than 350,000 followers on Facebook since her publication on mental load, tells us of her mistrust of an environment, part of which can turn out to be "extremely violent ". Her feminist drawings, posted online, have earned her loads of rare violence from some of her peers, going as far as physical threat and the call to hatred.

"I am often told that I don't know how to draw, people come to explain my work to me on the pretext that I am a woman and I feel that my feminist positions are disturbing", says the young woman, who admits avoiding Angoulême because she would feel in "too hostile environment". "These approaches emanate from a desire to break up women, but I am independent, I earn my living, so it protects me," explains the activist author, who is also pursuing her engineering activity.

Greater precariousness, greater sorority

The greater precariousness of women in the world of comics makes them more vulnerable. According to the figures of the Estates General of the BD published in 2016, "in the comic strip sector, 67% of the authors have an income below the gross annual minimum wage and 50% of them receive income which places them below of the poverty line, this rate being 36% for men ". The report points to the erosion of the income of authors and more particularly "young people and women".

"Our job is very precarious, very fragile and even more so for women. Our contracts are linked to networks. Each one counts what it has to lose and to gain", estimates Marie Gloris Bardiaux-Vaïente. Hence the difficulty for young authors to testify with open faces - it is above all the "well-established generation", as they say themselves, who agreed to speak to France 24.

Making a complaint is all the more inconceivable. "It is completely excluded. The victims are afraid of being identified with a simple testimony," says Valérie Mangin, screenwriter and co-author of the report of the Estates General. "Our current society does not protect enough those who testify to their attacks", adds the vice-president of Snac-BD, Christelle Pécout

Today, these women protect themselves from them. The revelations of 2017 had the merit of creating a network of solidarity between authors. "Since 2017, not much has changed, except that there is a particular attention to young authors. We take care not to leave them too isolated because they are easier prey", continues Valérie Mangin. And Mirion Malle concluded: "Men benefit from a form of impunity. Faced with that, our weapon is sorority". Yes, there is still a long way to go.

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