"Homos en France" on France 2: the evolution of television in 40 years

Bruno Donnet 09:48, May 17, 2023

Every day, Bruno Donnet observes the media factory. This morning, he chose to evoke an archive, completely crazy, that he discovered last night while watching the documentary dedicated to homosexuals broadcast by France 2.

Today we celebrate an important anniversary, the tenth anniversary of a law wanted by a certain François Hollande, who, as proclaimed from the perch the President of the National Assembly, Claude Bartolone, on May 17, 2013, authorized marriage for all: "After 136 hours and 46 minutes of debate, the National Assembly adopted the bill opening marriage to same-sex couples."

So on the occasion of this tenth anniversary, France 2 broadcast last night, in prime time please, an amazing documentary, entitled "Homos en France", directed by Aurélia Perreau and narrated by the actor Vincent Dedienne: "My name is Vincent Dedienne, I am 36 years old (...) I am gay. Homosexual what. »

It was about societal evolutions, progress but also archaisms that have long weighed in France on the way homosexuality is evoked. And the theme that was probably the most brilliantly addressed, was that of the famous coming out.

How to say, how to reveal, to his family, to his entourage that one is homosexual?

With great acuity, a young black man, Mfaomé, had a remark that said a lot, very much, on the subject: "What was the most complicated for me was being gay. It wasn't being black. »

A remark that he immediately extended with this absolutely terrible little sentence: "At least when you're black, you don't have to tell your mother!"

This, in a few words, is all the difficulty, but also all the injustice of "coming out" was summed up here very brilliantly.

And on the front of coming out and its media staging, the authors of the documentary got their hands on a pearl!

An excerpt from the American soap opera Dynasty. The series was broadcast in the United States between 1981 and 1989 and in 1983, in France, it was F.R.3 who took it over on its antenna.

But only 40 years ago, France and its media were obviously not very focused on representation and discourse around homosexuality.

Because the documentary filmmakers revealed in their film a totally incredible archive that showed the original version of the series, then the French translation, which was made.

Listen to how, in the American version, Steven's character comes out, in front of his family: "I'm gay dad. I am gay. I want you to admit it and say it. Tell it, Steven is gay. »

Faced with his father's silence, he implored the other members of his family to say so, in his place, and it was his sister who complied:

That is the original version. But listen now, the translation or rather the adaptation that French television, made: "I am not like all of you Dad, you have to believe me and accept the truth. Come on, say what you think. Come on, say it: Steven is sick. »

And yes, at home, FR3 had translated the word "homosexual" by the word sick:

That was just 40 years ago. Television was very bad at the time. She has since treated herself, translating, as often, with a little delay, the evolution of society.