Marine le Pen: a fake feminist?

When Marine Le Pen took over the leadership of Front National from her father in 2011, she decided to take the French party into a new direction. The party was known for belonging to the extreme right: they fiercely opposed European immigration, strived for economic protectionism and several members of the party were accused of minimalizing the Holocaust. Marine Le Pen has been trying to distance the party away from this radical image it once had (Chira, 2017).  

Despite her efforts to 'de-radicalize' the Front National, Marine Le Pen and her party have faced a great amount of criticism and resistance. An interesting force of protest against Le Pen is the feminist movement FEMEN. This group of women oppose one way in which Marine has been detoxifying the party: positioning herself as a feminist.

In this article, I will analyze the ways in which Le Pen has been using her feminine side and what goal she is trying to reach. In order to do this a campaign video and speeches will be analysed. Next, we will look more closely into what it is FEMEN is resisting against and in what ways they are protesting. Lastly, we will analyse the friction between these two parties by using the concept of the discursive battle of meaning (Maly, 2016).

Marine Le Pen and feminism

As has already been explained, Marine Le Pen has been trying to 'de-radicalize' the Front National by constructing a different image. ‘Image is not necessarily visual; it is an abstract portrait of identity fashioned out of cumulating pattern of congruence across all manner of indexical signs including visuals that addressees and audiences can imaginatively experience, like a hologram.’ (Silverstein, 2003, as quoted in Maly, 2016). As a politician, you carefully organize and construct this: ‘it may be consistent within an event, or over a series of them, or even across a whole biography.’ (Silverstein, 2003, as quoted in Maly, 2016). The image that Le Pen created in her campaign is that she is a strong-minded and well-educated woman, who has been successful in politics.

This image has been consistently constructed by Le Pen and her team in the media. In an official campaign video, we can clearly see this. She says: “I am a woman …  I am a mother … I am a lawyer” (Le Pen, 2017). Le Pen is waving the flag of women and is also positioning herself as highly educated. These indexical signs point toward someone strong, professional and hard-working, but above all a woman.

Marine Le Pen has thus been pushing her femininity to the surface, which we also see on this poster, pictured above. While she normally wears pantsuits, she (most likely, deliberately) wears a skirt for this photo that also shows a part of her leg. Her position and the way she is holding her hands index towards being more professional and hard-working, while the gentle smile makes her come across as more approachable.

The image that Marine Le Pen has created is that of a modern, diligent woman who does politics. She is constantly trying to show that she can be a great political leader. The highlighting of her feminine side is used to distance herself and her party from the old macho male image the party had when her father was in control. Le Pen is not only highlighting this feminine side, she is also claiming to fight for the equality between men and women. The form of feminism that she is promoting is about the idea that woman should work hard and stand up for themselves in a world that is dominated by men. Especially in French politics it is very difficult to be successful as a woman, since it is still very much a male-dominated business (Chira, 2017).

FEMEN’s protest

It is this claim 'to be feministic', that is among other issues one of the target of the protest of FEMEN. FEMEN positions itself as an international feminist movement “that carries out aggressive awareness-raising and information campaign in the Internet.” ("About us", n.d.). FEMEN is most known as these women who protest topless. This form of protest is adopted and argumented with a discourse on complete control of their own body. Their ultimate goal is ‘complete victory over patriarchy’ (“About us”, n.d.).

FEMEN has heavily criticized and has protested against the image that Le Pen has created. The movement has labelled the French politician as a fake feminist. In February, disrupted one of Le Pen’s speeches whilst shouting “Feminist fictive” (= fake feminist) (Franceinfo, 2017). On May Day, various activists disrupted a speech by Le Pen, with the texts “Heil Le Pen” and “Stop fascism” written on their topless bodies (Lajka, 2015).

The movement is not only protesting offline, but is also active online. In March, Inna Shevchenko, leader of FEMEN, wrote an article in which she accused Marine Le Pen of false feminism. She wrote that Le Pen “disguises her xenophobia as a fake advocacy for women’s rights” and that “Le Pen is an anti-woman candidate as her political agenda is built on sexist, discriminatory policies which threaten abortion rights and funding for family planning centers” (Shevchenko, 2017).

These previous quotes capture the essence of FEMEN’s criticism. FEMEN activists are claiming that Le Pen is not pro-(equality for) women, but that she is using feminism as a cloth to hide her anti-Muslim and anti-immigration agenda. In her article, Shevchenko points towards the first time Le Pen publicly defended women’s rights, which took place after the New Year’s Eve sexual assaults in Cologne. She saw this as an opportunity to blame migrants for problems in Europe. “Marine Le Pen preaches anti-migrant, anti-Muslim and xenophobic sentiments, claiming she is the one to protect French women from an Islamist onslaught.”. FEMEN is thus labelling Marine Le Pen’s image of being pro-women as fake.

Different kinds of feminism

We can analyse the conflict between these two sides by using the concept of the discursive battle of meaning. In order to understand this we also need to take a look at intertextuality. “Whenever we speak, we speak with the words of others. Language always comes as ‘a structure of givens’ (Foucault 1972: 98). That means that every utterance has a history of use and abuse” (Maly, 2016). Language, and especially in politics is never made up but is always connected to a certain historical tradition. The discursive battle is thus about people attaching different meanings to words as they use it connected to different discourses.

Marine Le Pen and the FEMEN activists have a different take on what feminism is about. FEMENout ic  to the discourse of post-feminisicm.iceagainst

the emen, nakedAlthough postfeminism is difficult to define, certain characteristics can be attached to this discourse. One of them, and the one that is most applicable to FEMEN, is that the body can be a form of empowerment. Gill (2007) writes that within postfeminist media culture 'obsessional preoccupation with the body' is an important aspecte,emenh. The body is a women’s source of power and identity . FEMEN emphasises the importance of women being in control over their own body as they believe that in today’s society a woman is “stripped of ownership of her own body” (“about us”, n.d.). They thus use nakedness as a form of protest and see this as the “new aesthetics of women’s revolution”.

emenicBut whereasemenicthe discourse of

The kind of feminism that Le Pen has been promoting is not so much about equality between men and women and releasing women from forms of suppression. Le Pen’s feminism can be connected to anti-immigration and anti-Islam discourse. She uses it to position Muslims and other immigrants as dangers to society. They threaten the Western culture in which women and men are equally treated.

Who wins?

mageThe important question that needs to be asked is who the winner of this discursive battle actually is. In order to determine this, we will take a look at other sources that are vocal about Marine Le Pengood for or FEMEN’s appropriation of feminism.

Various alt-right twitter users believe that if you are truly a feminist, you should want Marine Le Pen to become president, since she would be the first female president of France (Valens, 2017). Paul Joseph Watson, editor of Infowars (a ‘news’ website owned by conspiracy theorist Alexander Jones), tweeted about a FEMEN protest, calling the activists “so-called ‘feminists’” who “are trying to block people for voting for a woman” (Valens, 2017). Later on, he also called out feminist Christina Hoff Sommer for not supporting the possible first female president of France. Watson, and various other users that agreed with him, believe that you cannot call yourself a feminist if you do not support Marine Le Pen. They are thus pointing at a supposed hypocrisy in FEMEN’s appropriation of feminism: they stand up for women and their rights, but do not support a female politician.

Many journalists, prominent feminists and politicians accuse Marine Le Pen of ‘fake feminism’, hereby agreeing with FEMEN’s stance on the matter. Valerie Precresse, who was a budget minister in former French President Sarkozy’s government, said about the Front National’s leader that the new, softer image of her and her party is not about feminism, but about nepotism (Chira, 2017). 

Precresse is not the only one questioning the authenticity of Le Pen’s feminism. In April, Laurence Rossignol (2017), a French politician who served as the Minister of Families, Children and Women’s Rights, wrote a blog about how she will not support Front National. She claims that the rights of women are at danger, if Le Pen were to be elected as president. Rossignol writes that the rights won by women are “fragile” at the moment and that Le Pen would not be able to protect them. She also mentions the mobilisation of feminists as a necessary thing, but not enough to fight the threat. According to her, they need the government to back them up and Macron would be the right person to do this. Although Rossignol does not mention FEMEN specifically and this piece can also be seen as a propaganda strategy for Macron, she believes resistance against Le Pen organised by feminists is necessary. And it is not only Rossignol who supports feminist activists like FEMEN. The article is signed by many public figures; French politicians, writers, journalists and presidents of various organisations that protect women’s rights. We can thus say that FEMEN’s criticism on Le Pen’s appropriation of feminism is more widely accepted and supported.

If we would have to appoint a winner for the discursive battle, it would be FEMEN. It is more widely accepted and supported by public figures that Marine Le Pen’s feminism is false and FEMEN’s appropriation is a better form. But we should remember that in politics language and message always needs to be seen in relation to a certain discourse. Therefore, words can have different meanings to different people. An the discursive battle to define feminism and to appropriate it is an endless battle. 

References

About Us. (n.d.). Retrieved December 13, 2017, from https://femen.org/about-us/

Chira, S. (2017, May 04). Marine Le Pen’s Canny Use of Gender in Her Campaign. Retrieved December 13, 2017, from https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/04/world/europe/le-pens-campaign-strate…

Franceinfo. (2017, February 23). VIDEO. "Marine, féministe fictive !" Une Femen aux seins nus interrompt un discours de Marine Le Pen. Retrieved December 13, 2017, from https://www.francetvinfo.fr/elections/presidentielle/video-marine-femin…

Gill, R. (2007). Postfeminist media culture: Elements of a sensibility. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 10(2), 147-166. doi:10.1177/1367549407075898

Lajka, A. (2015, May 01). Video Shows Topless Femen Activists Disrupting Marine Le Pen's May Day Speech in Paris. Retrieved December 13, 2017, from https://news.vice.com/article/video-shows-topless-femen-activists-disru…

Le Pen, M. (2017, February 05). Official campaign video | Marine 2017. Retrieved December 13, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYWnuQc5mYA&t=54s

Maly, I. (2016). ‘Scientific’ nationalism. Nations and Nationalism, 22(2), 266-286. doi:10.1111/nana.12144

Rossignol, L. (2017, April 27). BLOG - Féministes, nous ne voulons pas du Front national. Nous votons Emmanuel Macron ! Retrieved December 14, 2017, from http://www.huffingtonpost.fr/laurence-rossignol/feministes-nous-ne-voul…

Shevchenko, I. (2017, March 10). Marine Le Pen is a Fake Feminist. Retrieved December 13, 2017, from https://femen.org/inna-shevchenko-marine-le-pen-is-a-fake-feminist/

Valens, A. (2017, July 25). Twitter's alt-right wants feminists to vote for Marine Le Pen because she's a woman. Retrieved December 14, 2017, from https://www.dailydot.com/irl/alt-right-feminists-marine-le-pen/