Le pli du corps : les « carrières » militantes féministes Femen dans la France contemporaine

Abstract

This article analyzes the activism behind the Femen movement, a group of feminist activists that protest topless. As part of their mobilization strategy, the activists have politicized the body. These protests in which bare breasts are exposed have drawn intense media coverage. The politicized body is split in two, the body-subject becomes body-object, and the latter becomes the focus of attention. Drawing on the “careers” of Femen activists, this article recentres the body-subject rather than the mediated body to analyze the different stages of activist practice: engagement, transformation, and disengagement. Activist practice—what activists do and how they do it—and feminist socialization, the author argues, impact the bodies of these women and the different spheres of life: a body conscious of itself, which transforms itself, reshapes the activists’ careers and affects their social relations. The politicized body resides within this capacity for change.