The Sexual Revolution in France (la Libération sexuelle en France)
Egalité! Liberté! Sexualité!
The sexual revolution began at the end of the 1950s in Paris through 2 films and 2 great movie stars of the era, Brigitte Bardot through Et Dieu… créa la femme (And God Created a Woman) and Jean-Paul Belmondo on À bout de souffle (Breathless). This revolution was a political and cultural movement against patriarchy and moral order in the society that governed gender roles. The patriarchy and moral order were politically and culturally opposed which showed that the sexual revolution was the struggle of women and homosexuals to gain freedom. This struggle happened due to the counter culture (la contre-culture) that had occurred in the Netherlands and the United States. Hippie and Summer of Love movement in 1967 and 1968 in the United States also became the reasons for the emergence of a wave of protest in 1968 in France. Hippie movement was an action against the lack of freedom. Marc Lemonier, a French journalist, in his book ‘’Egalité! Liberté! Sexualité!’’, observed that sexual revolution that happened for years as a period of conquest and an exercise of new freedom.
In the 1960s, the sexual revolution was related to the disclosure of the female body, films that featured topless women, the finding of miniskirts in 1965, and the emergence of contraceptive pills in 1967 in Europe. During this era, le Mouvement du 22 mars 1968 happened in France where young people demanded freedom over their own bodies and they condemned all forms of sexual repression. The movement was started by Raoul Vaneigem, a situational philosopher who wrote, ‘’ Le déchaînement du plaisir sans restriction est la voie la plus sûre vers la révolution de la vie quotidienne’’ that ignited the spirit of the youth to leave their ‘’armor’’ (the restraining rules) of the bourgeoisie and to read La Lutte sexuelle des jeunes (1931) by a psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich who supported them. The impact of le Mouvement du 22 mars 1968 is the youth resistance that could be found on the walls of l’Université de Nanterre saying, ‘’Notre corps nous appartient’’ and various expressions that condemned sexual repression. After this movement, students of l’Université de Nanterre started le Mouvement du mai 1968 to claim specifically their rights of visiting the opposite sex at their university dorm rooms. They had felt that there was no freedom to visit others where they were required to leave their student ID cards to the guards. The students who joined the movement screaming, ‘’Faites l’amour, pas la guerre’’ or known as ‘’Make Love, Not War.’’ The result of le Mouvement du mai 1968 is the youth got access to the contraceptive pills who had been perceived taboo and prohibited before the 1960s. Finally, the young people were allowed to use contraception. However, the publication through advertisement was prohibited, except for medical journals. The law granting permission to use contraception is Loi Neuwirth.
Entering the 1970s, the sexual revolution became a commonplace. It became a form of democracy and was free from puritanism (church interference). Oral sexuality became a common thing to talk about. In the world of cinema, there was no only a kissing scene or naked women, but there were also scenes of having sex. Erotic movies started to rise such as Emmanuelle (1974), Histoire d’O (1975), and le Dernier Tango à Paris (1972) that made film censorship abolished. However, the classification of film X (pornograph) created in France in 1975. The 1970s were also the years of the struggle for the homosexuals. In Europe, Le Front homosexual d’action revolutionnaire (FHAR) was formed in February 1971 in Paris. This front filled with lesbian feminists and gay activists who were led by Guy Hocquenghem and Françoise d’Eaubonne. FHAR was known for their radical visibility for the homosexuals during the 70s, their fights for women's freedom, for the workers’ rights, and various social issues. In the 1980s, the law of anti homosexuals was revoked and the World Health Organization (WHO) clarified that homosexuality is not a mental illness.
References:
Fournier, M. (2016, April 7). Mai 1968 et la libération des moeurs. https://www.scienceshumaines.com/mai-1968-et-la-liberation-des-moeurs_fr_22190.html
Haines, H. (2015). Modernizing the Marianne: The French Feminist Movement and Its Effects on Gender Equality. University of Mississippi. http://thesis.honors.olemiss.edu/324/1/ThesisFinalDraftHoco.pdf
La Marseillaise. (2017, May 28). La libération sexuelle en France dans les années 1960. https://www.lamarseillaise.fr/culture/la-liberation-sexuelle-en-france-dans-les-annees-1960-BHLM060573
Messager, D. (2018, March 23). Mai-68 ou la libération sexuelle. France Inter. https://www.franceinter.fr/emissions/le-zoom-de-la-redaction/le-zoom-de-la-redaction-23-mars-2018
Slate.fr. (2018, September 5). La révolution sexuelle a-t-elle tout changé?http://www.slate.fr/story/166814/la-grande-table-revolution-sexuelle-france-culture
