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“Your Brain Is More Feminine than Your Cellulite”: A Study of the French Magazine Causette (2009-2018)

« Plus féminine du cerveau que du capiton » : une étude du magazine Causette (2009-2018)
Raquel de Barros Pinto Miguel and Gilmara Joanol Arndt

Abstracts

This article contributes to discussions on the interconnection between feminism and the women’s press. For this, 27 issues of the French magazine Causette were studied. From the resulting analysis, it has been possible to construct a framework about the magazine and the feminisms present on its pages, as well as gain a better understanding of the difficulties of commercially maintaining a feminist publication. In looking at the history of Causette, a complex relationship between the media, feminism, and activism, emerged, revealing the magazine’s limits and potentials.

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Introduction

1Feminism, as a political and social movement, has undergone continuous change since the fight for suffrage. Thinking about the place of the media in the production of gender stereotypes is a topic that has been part of feminist debates for some time and has been present more during certain waves. The arguments presented throughout this text are based on the idea that the media contributes to the construction of subjectivities by prescribing and perpetuating ways of being in the world. In the same way that standards of masculinity and femininity are perpetuated, the digital environment, in particular, opens up the possibility of using the media to transform stereotypes, as well as a platform for feminist activism.

  • 1 Liliane Kandel, “L’explosion de la presse féministe,” Le Débat, no. 1 (1980): 104-119; Amy Farrell, (...)

2The use of the media as a form of activism by feminist movements is not new. Historically, the feminist press has manifested itself in different ways, from pamphlets, printed newspapers, zines, as well as sections in some traditional periodicals that addressed issues of gender equality. Authors that focus on this topic have highlighted the various difficulties encountered by women that produce these media, from financial questions to the censorship of certain subjects.1 It is in the midst of these “ups and downs” that the history of the feminist press has been written.

3Today, publications that adopt a feminist perspective have grown in form and content, coming to include online and printed magazines, blogs, and even posts on social networks. This dissemination of feminist discourse has had positive effects, such as the popularization of the movement and the opening of new spaces for feminist performances, but the mass marketing of feminism can also neutralize, appropriate, and commodify the movement, which ends up neglecting the true aims of feminist struggles.

  • 2 Gilmara Joanol Arndt and Raquel de Barros Pinto Miguel, “Para todEs: reflexões acerca do femvertisi (...)

4In the current neoliberal context, which advocates for “post-feminism,” or a “market-driven feminism” promoting an economically liberal and individualistic agenda, feminist beliefs sometimes end up being co-opted for market purposes. Feminist discourse becomes, in its most palatable and neoliberal version, a space where autonomy, freedom, and “empowerment” are thought of only from an individualistic point of view and linked to the elevation of self-esteem.2

5It was in this fertile milieu that the French magazine Causette appeared. First launched in 2009, Causette was a widely circulated magazine that spoke from a feminist perspective, but still shared space on newsstand shelves with traditional women’s periodicals. Causette was published monthly, both in print and online and was sold in France and other French-speaking countries. It sold around 70,000 copies per issue in 2013 and 2015. Causette’s history has been marked by both success and scandal. Between 2013 and 2018, the magazine received intense criticism for its questionable approach to topics such as sex work and rape.

  • 3 Marie Kirschen, “Pour rien au monde je ne voudrais retourner travailler à Causette,” BuzzFeed News, (...)
  • 4 Challenges. “En grand danger, le magazine féministe Causette pourrait disparaître,” October, 2017. (...)

6In addition to its controversial treatment of certain subjects in its pages, the magazine was sued by former employees who claimed they had endured harassment in the workplace. The magazine was taken to court and fined a large sum as compensation for the plaintiffs. This event is portrayed well in the article “There’s no way I would go back to work at Causette,” which features an interview with an ex-journalist of the magazine.3 At the beginning of October 2017, the article, “At great risk, the feminist magazine Causette may disappear” announced the great crisis experienced by Causette that would result in its sale to the Hildegarde group in March 2018.4 Causette is a magazine that adopted an outspoken feminist perspective, yet at the same time, it was going bankrupt because it had to pay former journalists for harassment in the workplace.

7This article therefore intends to address the history of this magazine from its creation in 2009 to the moment of its great crisis, which culminated in the magazine’s sale in 2018. Two sources were used to obtain the information needed for this study: issues of Causette magazine and articles circulating on the internet about the magazine during this period. The first source comprised a sample of 27 issues of Causette magazine, published between 2009 and 2018, chosen randomly (two issues for each of the first three years, as the magazine was published bi-monthly during this period, and three issues for each of the remaining years, as the magazine became monthly from 2012 onwards). This information was coded as certain elements were deemed integral to the analysis process: the covers (image, slogan, and headlines), editorials, sections that make up each issue, advertisements, letters from readers (quantity and themes), as well as the themes of the articles distributed in the different sections.

  • 5 Google was chosen as the search tool because, at the time, it was the most easily accessible mechan (...)

8The articles published on Causette were accessed via the Google search engine.5 Using “Causette” as the search term, it was possible to access a series of references to the magazine. In consulting the first fifty results, an information network emerged. Some sites provided information about the magazine more frequently than others, especially cultural magazine Les Inrocks and feminist web magazine Madmoizelle.

  • 6 Michel Pêcheux, “Análise automática do discurso (AAD-69),” in Por uma análise automática do discurs (...)
  • 7 Marie-Anne Paveau, Les Prédiscours. Sens, mémoire, cognition (Paris: Presses Sorbonne Nouvelle, 200 (...)

9In order to analyze the information contained in these two corpora, I used French discourse analysis developed by Michel Pêcheux according to which discourse/speech is seen as a social practice, built in the dialectic between intradiscourse and interdiscourse.6 As such, its object is the materiality of the discourses produced, situated in their social, historical, and cultural contexts.7 In analyzing the discourse in the pages of Causette and that of the articles about the magazine, it was possible to establish a dialogue between the two, which helped to elucidate the history and the paths taken by the periodical, as well as the place occupied by Causette in the French women’s and feminist presses.

Dear Reader... A Brief Walk through the History of the French Women’s and Feminist Presses

  • 8 Maria Celeste Mira, O leitor e a banca de revistas: a segmentação da cultura no século XX (São Paul (...)

10According to the Brazilian researcher Maria Celeste Mira, from a historical perspective, the magazine is the media with the best relationship with women.8 The origin of the intimate relationship that women have established with women's magazines began at home. This is particularly evident when we think about the women of past decades, especially those whose lives were focused on domesticity. For these women in particular, the magazine can be seen as the media that least interfered negatively with their domestic work as reading magazines has been associated with moments of relaxation and rest during a working day, especially at home. It is the kind of reading that can be easily resumed and that does not require as much concentration as a book.

  • 9 This article is the result of postdoctoral research carried out at Université Paris 13 - Sorbonne P (...)

11Despite the place that this press has occupied in the lives of women throughout history, this is a subject that could be given more prominence in academic studies. In both Brazil and France, there have been few academic productions on the theme of the women’s press.9 In French studies, it is worth mentioning feminist writer Evelyne Sullerot’s iconic work, La Presse féminine, published in 1963, as well as the book Femmes-femmes sur papier glacé by Anne-Marie Dardigna, published in 1974. Recently, the works produced by scholars Claire Blandin, Bibia Pavard, and Sandrine Lévêque can be also mentioned.

  • 10 Bibia Pavard, “Presse(s) féminine(s): le poids du genre,” In Manuel d'analyse de la presse magazine (...)

12If one looks at the periodicals whose target audience is women, the heterogeneity of these publications becomes obvious. In France, for example, the emergence of the women's press dates back to the 17th century, associated with the start of literary and fashion journals aimed at elite women.10 It was mainly during the period known as the Belle Époque (during the late 19th and early 20th centuries) that the women’s press started to address a general public. This type of publication attracted investors who saw the women’s press as a good business opportunity. Magazines diversified and new titles continued to appear throughout the 20th century. Since the 1980s, this sector has continued to grow and has come to be dominated by four large corporations: Lagardère, Mondadori France, Prisma Presse, and Marie Claire.

13Simultaneously, although on a smaller scale, there have also been publications with more political motivations aimed at women. Among these more militant publications, the feminist press stands out. The same plurality that exists in feminist movements is found in the feminist press. A brief stroll through history allows us to identify French periodicals engaged in the struggle for suffrage, women’s political participation, women’s emancipatory education, sexual liberation, women and work, abortion, equal rights, violence, and other topics that might be said to make up the feminist press.

  • 11 Liliane Kandel, “L’explosion de la presse féministe,” Le Débat 1 (1980); Sandrine Lévêque, “Femmes, (...)
  • 12 Pedro, Joana Maria, “Traduzindo o debate: o uso da categoria gênero na pesquisa histórica,” Históri (...)

14In France, although feminism as a recognized movement dates back to the end of the 19th century, ideas about women’s rights gained strength during the French Revolution, when publications addressing women’s issues could be found in circulation. One of the first feminist periodicals from the earliest period of the feminist press in France was La Fronde, created by Marguerite Durand in 1897.11 As part of the “first wave,” this periodical, like others published at the time, generally emphasized the demand for political, social, and economic rights.12

  • 13 Françoise Picq, Libération des femmes, quarante ans de mouvement (Brest: Éditions Dialogues, 2011).

15Taking a historical leap, it is worth highlighting the feminist press of the 1960s and 1970s. During this period, the major struggles of Second-Wave feminism revolved around women’s right to bodily autonomy, to pleasure, and against patriarchy. In the French context, since the end of the 1960s, there has been a growth in feminist discussions and, consequently, publications on the subject. The “Mouvement de Libération des Femmes,” known as MLF, launched the newspaper Le Torchon brûle in 1971, recognized as one of the main means of expression about the feminist movement of the time.13 Another example, however, with a more commercial perspective, was the F-Magazine that circulated between 1977 and 1982 and was published by the L'Expansion group.

16With the reemergence of the feminist movement in France during the 1990s and 2000s, new feminist publications and communication platforms were created. The scenario was one of expanding feminist discussions in different spaces, especially those provided by the ever-expanding digital landscape. Following the logic of feminist waves (even though we are aware that this periodization of the movement is not unanimous), there are those who venture to speak of a “fourth wave.”

  • 14 Marina Gazire Lemos, “Ciberfeminismo: Novos discursos do feminino em redes eletrônicas” (Master’s T (...)
  • 15 Marlise Matos, “Movimento e teoria feminista: é possível reconstruir a teoria feminista a partir do (...)

17In the wake of the “third wave,” which came to criticize the predominance of feminism as a white, middle-class, and heterosexual prerogative, the “fourth wave” would embrace the idea of intersectionality. Feminism shifted towards new modes of dissemination via new activist spaces, putting activism on social networks, or cyberfeminism,14 at the forefront of this fourth wave.15 Several periodicals with a feminist perspective have emerged in this context, both in print and digitally: Madmoizelle, Paulette, Cheek Magazine, Femmes ici et ailleurs, Les Nouvelles News, 50/50 Magazine, Clara Magazine, and Causette.

What is Causette?

  • 16 Éditions Gynéthic appeared in January 2009, having as partners Grégory Lassus-Debat and Gilles Bonj (...)
  • 17 Emmanuelle Bourget, « Causette, un nouveau féminin en kiosques », Nouvel Obs, March 6, 2009, https: (...)

18Created by Éditions Gynéthic,16 an independent publishing house, Causette was launched on the eve of International Women’s Day, March 7, 2009. The idea for the magazine came from 28-year-old Grégory Lassus-Debat, a former freelance journalist for the French satirical weekly magazine Charlie Hebdo. According to Lassus-Debat, the magazine had the intention of “addressing women as they are and not as consumer society imagines them.”17 In an interview given in 2014 at the Entrepreneurs Festival, Lassus-Debat presented Causette as:

  • 18 My translation of « un magazine féminin complètement hors de commun, puisqu’il n'a pas de mannequin (...)

(...) a women’s magazine completely out of the ordinary, as it does not have standards, it does not have famous people, it does not have makeup, it does not have fashion, but it has journalism, a lot of journalism and a lot of humor. (…) The female audience that Causette targets has never been a target audience before. Nobody has ever addressed women, you could say, normal women, who are not fans of Kate Moss, but who are more focused on the rest of the world than on themselves, who are therefore interested in what is happening around them at all levels of society, and who have no taboos.18

  • 19 My translation of “plus féminine du cerveau que du capiton.”

19The magazine’s slogan—“Your brain is more feminine than your cellulite”19—echoes Lassus-Debat's words. Causette provides magazine readers with a new option in the women’s press as a publication articulating various genres present in print media: news, culture, society, women’s issues. Could it be said even to be feminist?

20When asked about the choice of the periodical’s name, in an interview published on March 12, 2009, Lassus-Debat replied:

  • 20 My translation of « On voulait jouer sur la phonétique. Ce nom est à double sens. Causette, c’est u (...)

We wanted to play with phonetics. It is a name with two meanings. Causette is a character, your good journalist friend who you can chat with, going from one subject to another as if you were at a nice party where you let yourself put the world to rights. Causette is also the woman who shows up amid a crowd of models (hence the notion of victim perhaps) but ends up standing out from the crowd.20

  • 21 My translation of « ce n’est pas tenir une conversation hyper élaborée avec son interlocuteur. Cela (...)

Thus, according to the magazine’s founder, the title is ironic, bearing a relation to the expression “faire la causette,” which “is to have a relatively superficial conversation with someone. This gives the title of the magazine a lightness that is in stark contrast with what you find inside (difficult and well-researched subjects, investigations, reports).”21

  • 22 Johanna Luyssen, « Vous avez interviewé Johanna Luyssen, rédactrice en chef adjointe de Causette », (...)

21Since its creation, the idea has been for Causette to represent a character. According to Johanna Luyssen, the assistant chief editor of Causette in 2012, “Causette is a girl we could describe as normal, but not banal, an enthusiastic and cheerful girl, perhaps a little too talkative, but humorous, an adventurer interested in everything. That’s what we have in mind when we do a Causette number. We think of this girl. And our readers are like her.”22

22Regarding the proximity of the title to the name Cosette, one of the main characters in Victor Hugo’s novel Les Misérables (1862), known for her suffering and fragility, Lassus-Debat said that Causette is anything but a victim. He goes on to say that “She’s someone who fights, who wants to change things and who faces reality, Causette laughs, makes you think … This magazine is anchored in real life, it’s not a newspaper that sells dreams.”23

23The arrival of Causette on the market resulted in the gradual increase in copies sold over the first few years, with a 44% increase between 2011 and 2012 and a 28% increase between 2012 and 2013 (reaching 67,208 paid-for copies).24 Another sign of the magazine’s success is the change in its publication going from a bimonthly to a monthly publication, which took place in September 2011. Additionally, in February 2012 it became the first magazine in the women’s press to be recognized by the French Ministry of Culture as a “political and general information publication” and, in September of the same year, it won the CB News “Grand Prix des Médias” in the magazine category.25 In April 2013, it won the French “Coup de Coeur” award for magazines, an award granted by le Syndicat des éditeurs de la presse magazine.26

  • 27 Luyssen, « Vous avez interviewé Johanna Luyssen, rédactrice en chef adjointe de Causette ».

24Regarding the magazine’s funding, only about 4% of its revenue came from advertising, the rest came from copy sales (via subscriptions and at kiosks). The limited presence of advertising, with a dozen ads per issue at most, was a decision that Causette’s management defended as it would allow them to “speak freely.”27 In the sample analyzed, the maximum number of ads was between two and three between 2009 and 2012. There was an increase in the number of ads starting at the end of 2012, but never did they exceed ten per issue.

  • 28 For more on the controversy about advertising in women’s magazines, consult the history of the Amer (...)

25As far as the content of the advertisements is concerned, ads generally endorsed volunteer or non-profit organizations or promoted cultural activities (films and books). The exceptions to these cases were the presence of advertisements for a clothing brand and the airline EasyJet. None of the advertisements in the pages of Causette featured sexist or racist content/images.28

26As for the magazine’s structure, the average issue of Causette was a 100-page long, in the classic 21x28-centimeter format adopted by most magazines. Printed on satin paper, which is thicker than the paper used in traditional magazines, both the cover and the interior featured beautiful images and a clear, aesthetic layout. Usually, the image on the cover was related to one of the themes that would be covered in that issue. The covers mostly featured women. According to Causette, they were not models but actresses (usually not widely known to the public) who were into their ideas, even “the craziest ones.”29

  • 30 Maria Teresa Santos Cunha, Armadilhas da sedução: os romances de M. Delly (Belo Horizonte: Autêntic (...)

27The relationship between readers and the covers of their favorite magazines might be considered “love at first sight.” The cover is the packaging, it is the icing on the cake, it is what makes a magazine stand out from the rest. The presentation of this packaging, its materiality, brings with it a series of messages. To use Maria Teresa Santos Cunha’s expression, the reader's visual contact with the cover of a magazine is part of an “act of reading ceremony.”30

  • 31 Sylvette Giet, « Le cœur mêlé. L'hybridation à l'œuvre dans les fictions sentimentales de la ‘press (...)

28The covers of Causette followed some of the same patterns as the covers of other women’s magazines: the title at the top of the page, a photograph in the center, and headlines on the right and left. The cover photo always featured a woman. According to Sylvette Giet, by featuring women on the cover, women’s magazines seek to relate to their readers, while at the same time perpetuating certain aesthetic rules.31 These similarities made Causette blend in with the other women’s magazines on display in the kiosks.

  • 32 Elisabeth Cadoux, « Genre, sexe et médias: Analyse de Causette, magazine féminin et féministe » (Ma (...)

29However, some differences can be noted. First, the women who illustrated Causette's covers did not always correspond to what is predominantly represented on magazine covers: they were not skinny like models, some showed their wrinkles, others their freckles, and they were dressed in everyday clothes. Moreover, the magazine refused to use digital retouching. Furthering this difference, in her work on Causette, Elisabeth Cadoux pointed out that on many of the magazine’s covers women were photographed carrying accessories such as a hammer, a loudspeaker, or a fishing rod, giving them the appearance of being active, even combative women.32 It is worth mentioning, however, that these were rehearsed and posed photos, not spontaneous shots. Additionally, even though the magazine showed women closer to reality, it still mostly featured young, beautiful, white, able-bodied, and slim women. In other words, the diversity inside the magazine was not echoed on the covers of Causette, the magazine’s biggest showcase.

30The second difference can be found in the cover’s headlines, which generally had a provocative or humorous tone. This points to the difference in topics covered by Causette. Instead of fashion, make-up, cooking, and decoration, the magazine explored politics, society, art, and culture.

31Unlike the women’s press more generally, the periodical analyzed did not have a perennial agenda—that is the repetition of certain topics every year in the same way—the themes covered in each issue echoed matters related to the agenda from that time. The sections were repeated, with a few changes over the nine years of the magazine’s run, but the themes were always topical.

  • 33 The word “quiche” in the French language is used both to refer to a culinary dish and in a pejorati (...)

32In addition to the sections dedicated to politics, economics, society, and culture, it is worth mentioning some other frequent sections in the magazine. “On nous prend pour des quiches” (“they think we are fools”)33 featured humor, advertisements, and situations in which women were treated like/presented as “fools,” as the section title itself ironically suggests. In each issue, “La copine de Causette” told the story of a powerful woman whose power came from her professional fulfillment, her personal journey, and her achievements. Men, in turn, were focused on in the section “La cabine d’effeuillage” (“the strip-tease booth”), where they were “stripped” in interviews conducted by the magazine.

  • 34 Elisabeth Cadoux, « Genre, sexe et médias: Analyse de Causette, magazine féminin et féministe ».
  • 35 Dulcília Helena Schroeder Buitoni, Mulher de papel: a representação da mulher na imprensa feminina (...)

33Returning to the similarities between Causette and other women’s magazines, Cadoux has pointed out that the magazine used a strategy of personification, which intended to create intimacy with the reader.34 It is common for this type of magazine to use colloquial language, employing pronouns in the “first-person” (singular) to address readers, thus seeking to establish a relationship of intimacy and friendship. In other words, women’s magazines try to become companions who talk to their female readers about everyday problems. Using this colloquial and intimate speech, these magazines convey their ideas and concepts.35 The fact that many women’s magazines possess women’s names in their titles emphasizes this function of intimacy as well, making it easier to build an emotional relationship between the reader and the magazine.

34In this way, Causette came to life, personifying itself through the texts written by journalists who addressed readers directly as if they were having an informal conversation or, to return to the multiple meanings of the title, a “causette.” It is worth noting that all the articles did not adopt this tone. Some were more formal in tone, especially those of a more journalistic nature. Among the sections where a clear relationship between the reader and the magazine was more evident, “Dans la boîte aux lettres de Causette,” which featured letters to the editor, stood out. Appearing during the magazine’s first year, this section published a selection of letters sent to Causette, both digitally and by post.

35Although there were variations, the number of published letters averaged between four and ten per issue. Most of them were sent by women, who identified themselves by their first name or a nickname. Many sent photos of themselves or family members (daughters, husbands, fathers, grandfathers), in scenes where Causette was being read. The letters often included criticisms of and/or compliments on the subjects presented in the previous issue, most of them being compliments. Causette responded to almost all the letters published; the answers were short, with a touch of humor, signed with a “C.” Another way for readers to communicate with the magazine was through social networks: Causette’s Facebook page had 237,986 likes and 235,500 followers. On Instagram, the profile had 48,500 followers as of May 3, 2021.

36In terms of what readers Causette targeted, the magazine went after what its creator referred to as “normal women,” by which he meant women who did not identify with or felt represented by the rest of the women’s press. The periodical believed it was creating a community of readers who were unified by the same interests: a critical view of the world and the places occupied by women.

37It is worth reflecting on who these “normal women” were meant to be. The simple use of the term “normal” opens the door to countless discussions about what parameters would be considered normal and, consequently, abnormal. There is a paradox in trying to speak to/for such a group. At the same time that Causette was fighting for diversity and criticizing women’s magazines for simplifying and standardizing women, rendering them into a type, Causette, in creating a new normativity, ended up doing the same. Thus, the normal woman, the one described by Causette in its first editorial, was portrayed as follows:

  • 36 My translation of « Vous ne m'attendiez pas et, pourtant, je vous manquais. Parce que je suis comme (...)

You weren’t expecting me and yet you missed me. Because I am just like you: a normal woman, but not ordinary, proud to be what I am, according to my own standards. Radiant, successful, independent, proud to love those who try to do good. With others: intractable, acid, hard and, between us, sometimes even small and mean. I am what I am.36

Thus, instead of rethinking the process of constructing women’s identities, Causette ended up proposing an adaptation, or evolution, of a supposed “feminine identity,” that was just another discursive construction. It is likewise possible to see that the magazine maintained a binary view of gender in its speech, where the feminine and the masculine were associated with biological sex.

  • 37 Colin Campbell, A Ética e o Espírito do Consumismo Moderno (Rio de Janeiro: Rocco, 2001).
  • 38 Roger Chartier, A ordem dos livros: leitores, autores e bibliotecas na Europa entre os séculos XIV (...)

38Still along these lines, it is important to note that from her very first words, Causette made it clear to her readers that, even if they did not know it, they had always wished for a magazine like this. The strategy of creating a desire and then selling the solution is an old and recurring marketing tactic.37 When it comes to readers, it is always important to remember that, regardless of the material being read, the reading process is active. The French historian Roger Chartier has argued that alongside the attempt to impose, there is also appropriation, both entering into a dialectical dance in which the freedom of readers and established conventions are present.38

Feminine? Feminist? Feminine and Feminist?

39As seen at the beginning of the article, the women’s press as a category brings together a variety of periodicals with different and often opposing perspectives. Because of this characteristic, some authors claim that the term “women’s press” should be treated in the plural, “women’s presses.” The unifying feature of such diverse publications is the fact that they all have the same target audience: women (also in the plural). According to this perspective, both a traditional, conservative magazine and a militant feminist magazine would fit under the umbrella of the “women’s presses.”

  • 39 Evelyne Sullerot, La presse féminine (Paris: Armand Colin, 1963).
  • 40 Raquel de Barros Pinto Miguel, “Gênero, sexualidade e juventude na imprensa feminina: um estudo com (...)
  • 41 Raquel de Barros Pinto Miguel “Gênero, sexualidade e juventude na imprensa feminina.”

40In order to better categorize the women’s press, Evelyne Sullerot classified publications as either “presse du vous” (“you” press) or “presse du nous” (“us” press).39 The former refers to publications that remind readers of their duties as women. The latter comprises publications that debate women’s rights. However, this division is not always obvious. The appropriation of feminist struggles by women’s magazines, for example, is nothing new. Raquel de B. P. Miguel pointed to the presence of feminist discourse in two magazines she studied, Capricho (Brazil) and Marie-Claire (France) published between the 1950s and 1970s.40 According to Miguel, Capricho did not adopt a feminist stance, only incorporating a few revolutionary-toned advertisements about women’s emancipation (curiously, this included an advertisement for “Darling,” a bra brand). Marie-Claire magazine on other hand, especially from the mid-1960s onwards, devoted several spots to expressing feminist concerns and demands, side by side with the traditional/conservative discourse common to women's magazines.41

  • 42 The expression was used by Michel Spinosa as the title for a film on the period he released in 2000
  • 43 Bibia Pavard, Sandrine Lévêque, and Claire Blandin, « Elle et Marie Claire dans les années 1968 : u (...)

41In research carried out by Bibia Pavard, Sandrine Lévêque, and Claire Blandin, the same finding is present. In addition to Marie-Claire, they analyzed Elle magazine. Based on their analysis, the authors argued that 1968 was a kind of a “parenthèse enchantée” (“enchanted parenthesis,” or bracket, an expression used to capture the sense of liberation, both social and sexual, that followed the May 1968 uprise, a short period that collapsed with the outbreak of AIDS in the 1980s42). The social transformations and intense social conversation of the time led these magazines to respond to feminist demands and include much more feminist material. It is interesting to note that the entry of such feminist discourse took place in both periodicals via the creation of specific sections or extra columns. In other words, feminism entered women’s magazines but remained “bracketed” within traditional discourse.43

  • 44 Janice Winship, Inside Women’s Magazines (London: Pandora Press, 1987).

42It is clear, then, that the line that separates the feminist press from the women’s press is quite tenuous, since they overlap in different situations. Authors like Janice Winship reflect on this.44 Even though the difference is subtle, the classic division between the women’s and the feminist press is important to maintain to discuss the place occupied by Causette in the women’s magazine market. Additionally, the way that the magazine talks about itself and is talked about online places it within this classical understanding of women’s and feminist periodicals.

43What place does Causette occupy in the women’s press? In the feminist press? As mentioned earlier, the magazine’s creator called it a feminine magazine. At no point, in any of the public interviews given by Lassus-Debat, does he refer to Causette as a feminist magazine. In an interview in 2015 by France Médias, when asked “Does Causette have a feminist identity and vocation?” he replied:

  • 45 My translation of « Vous savez, il y a autant de féminismes que de féministes. On est journalistes (...)

You know, there are as many feminisms as there are feminists. We are journalists above all, we are not activists. What we can identify or know about feminist activism does not apply to Causette because we are journalists. And our only tenet is the veracity of the information. Our only beacon is the quality of the information.45

Then, when asked about “the magazine’s feminist fiber,” he added:

  • 46 My translation of « Le féminisme n'est pas une doctrine ni un paradigme comme le communisme peut l' (...)

Feminism is not a doctrine or a paradigm, as communism is through its explanation of relationships of domination. In Causette, we defend the causes of women without losing clarity; this way, we can then reject an idea, even if it comes from an engaged feminist. In this spirit, one of the most beautiful recognitions of our work was when we were recognized as an IPG (Political and General Information) publication.46

  • 47 My translation of « On nous estampille féministes, mais ça devrait être ça, la norme ». Grégory Las (...)
  • 48 My translation « Mon féminisme est inclus dans un progressisme, un humanisme plus large et une lutt (...)

44In another interview, he said, “We are being labeled feminists, but that should be the standard.”47 He says that he is a humanist, which goes further than feminism, “My feminism is included in a progression, a broader humanism and a fight against all injustices.”48 Lassus-Debat seems to make the claim that certain demands are basic and therefore do not need to correspond to a specific group or political movement. However, since the magazine sells a style (for “normal” women) and not demands, one can see here the dilution of feminist thought into something more palatable that can be adopted by the “norm” and sold as “normal” to “normal” women, something that does not necessarily speak to “engaged feminists.” Although the Causette character often claimed to be a feminist, and even though it is clear that feminism is part of the editorial way of thinking in the magazine, its creator insists on not highlighting this fact. When asked by the free daily newspaper 20 minutes if the magazine claims to be a feminist or a women’s publication, Johanna Luyssen replied:

  • 49 My translation of « Les deux ! Nous sommes avant tout un magazine pour les femmes et nous sommes in (...)

Both! We are first and foremost a women’s magazine and we are intrinsically feminist. We differentiate ourselves from feminists in that we don’t belong to any movement, party or anything like that: we are totally free, and even if we relay what feminist organizations say, we’re not obliged to follow them in all fields and on all subjects.49

45Despite the different answers—one saying Causette is a women’s magazine, the other saying it is both a women’s and a feminist publication—both are similar in emphasizing the fact that they are not militant. In Lassus-Debat’s answer, he even said, “we defend women’s causes without losing our clarity.” In his view, he seems to be implying that being an activist causes one to lose clarity. From both representatives of Causette, it is possible to see that they believe freedom of thought means the absence of collective ties, a freedom tied to the individual precepts of neoliberalism.

46The ambiguity of Causette can be seen in the way different media outlets refer to the magazine: feminine and feminist, feminine, feminist, alternative, “alter-féministe,” “intello bobo de gauche” (that is, leftist, intellectual, hipster), feminist and independent monthly magazine, neo-feminist, neo-women’s, women’s but not feminist. Even its slogan conveys this ambiguity: “plus féminin du cerveau que du capiton” (“your brain is more feminine than your cellulite”).

47Causette offered several features that made it part of the women’s press and helped observers understand why it considered itself as such. However, it is undeniable that it differed in important ways. Unlike most women’s magazines, which play a more formative role (in the sense of constructing femininity), Causette’s priority was to inform, using investigative journalism as a constant feature in its pages. In the same way, unlike women’s magazines that sporadically publish feminist debates, these were present in Causette’s editorial line—even though the way in which certain themes were approached by the magazine caused some to balk. The magazine’s various crises have given cause for such reservations.

  • 50 Amy Erdman Farrell, A Ms. Magazine e a promessa do feminismo popular (São Paulo: Editora Barracuda, (...)

48What does it mean to be a feminist magazine? The core precepts of Causette attempt to create a space that does not reduce women to frivolous consumers and that engages in the fight against sexism. Various feminist issues are thus discussed in its pages. However, labeling it as a feminist magazine may not be entirely accurate. Historically, the feminist press, in general, has had similar characteristics: editorial teams made up of activists (usually volunteers), small print runs, limited financial resources and, above all, a commitment to feminist struggles. American author Amy Erdman Farrell explains that most feminist periodicals had a limited reach, not only because of their low circulation, but also because they were addressing an audience that was already familiar with feminist discussions.50 Causette certainly does not fit these characteristics, and the history of its creation confirms this.

49As mentioned earlier, Causette was created by a man who saw an audience that was dissatisfied with what the print media was offering them. In other words, Causette is not the result of activism, it did not emerge to give feminism a wider reach, and it was not created to fight for a cause. It was born as a business, to occupy a space that was open in the market of the women’s press. Commentators acknowledging the strange fact that Causette’s creator was a man can be found in different articles about the magazine. Lassus-Debat was even asked, “Isn’t a man at the forefront of a female cause paradoxical?” To which he replied:

  • 51 My translation of « Cela ne surprend jamais personne qu’un blanc ou une femme blanche soit engagée (...)

It is no surprise that a white person, or a white woman, is involved in anti-racist causes. In the same way, I think about joining the side of the “female minority” (which represents half of humanity), and this is much more surprising.51

  • 52 Grégory Lassus-Debat, « Grégory Lassus Debat: vengeur démasqué ».
  • 53 Grégory Lassus-Debat, “I felt there would be a demand for a magazine without Kate Moss and diets in (...)
  • 54 Pavard, Lévêque, and Blandin, « Elle et Marie Claire dans les années 1968 : une ‘parenthèse enchant (...)

While there are articles that question the strategy of a man being in charge of a women’s/feminist magazine, there are also those who treat him as “a vigilante for women’s cause”52 or as a “symbol of the feminist rebirth.”53 It should be remembered that, men have long been at the head of women’s magazines,54 but rarely, if ever, at the helm of a feminist publication.

  • 55 Lassus-Debat, « Grégory Lassus Debat: vengeur démasqué ».

50While he was the publishing director (in 2016 he left that position and joined the editorial board), Lassus-Debat liked to point out that he was surrounded by women at work. In an interview given in 2011, he stated that the issue of gender would not interfere in the work, concluding that Causette was a magazine written by women for women.55 However, the events that tainted the magazine’s reputation show that things were not as simple as Lassus-Debat made it sound. In 2013, journalists from Causette started reporting on a hostile work environment, particularly amongst the magazine’s editorial staff. This included criticizing the way Lassus-Debat ran the magazine: throwing temper tantrums, humiliating and violently denigrating coworkers, changing articles suddenly, asking staff to be there at all times of the day and night, disrespecting work done by journalists, threatening employees with dismissal, etc. Lassus-Debat’s behavior pointed to a superficial understanding of equality, since he failed to recognize the ways in which women are exploited, dominated, abused and humiliated as a working class. Excluding work from feminist critiques has been a relatively consistent feature of neoliberal feminism, which casts empowerment as individualistic and targeted towards “a successful professional career.” It is because of such an understanding of feminism that men like Lassus-Debat (just a humanist fighting for the female minority) can manage “feminine/feminist” magazines without being considered hypocrites and without having their leadership called into question.

51After these reports in 2013, Causette went through a series of crises. The magazine’s “golden times” seemed to be over. In the news that served as one of the bases for this study, this division is clear: until 2012 the news about Causette was about its creation, its particularities, its success, the wisdom of its creator in having noticed the existence of a niche not yet explored by the women’s press (totaling 17 articles). The news from 2013 onwards talks about scandals, bullying, prejudice against sex workers, labor lawsuits, debts and, finally, bankruptcy (totaling 33 articles). What was the trigger for the magazine’s collapse? It seems that the internal crisis generated and exacerbated a series of other conflicts.

52Lassus-Debat wished to fill an open space in the women’s press market. However, many questions remain: was the public ready for this type of magazine? In a media landscape that divided publications aimed at women into two categories—women’s magazines and feminist magazines—what could be the reception of a women’s magazine that neither abided by the genre’s familiar characteristics nor clearly engaged in feminist activism?

  • 56 Hélène Bréda, Les Féminismes à l'ère d'Internet (Paris: INA, 2022); Carla Gomes and Bila Sorj, “Cor (...)

53The strongest criticisms of Causette came from feminist organizations, activists, and the feminist media (blogs, websites, magazines). It is important to take into account that contemporary feminisms have been linked to digital media, especially since the 2010s. The speed offered by new technologies gives political activism unprecedented agility in organizing and spreading their fights.56 The phenomenon of online feminism, characteristic of the so-called fourth wave of feminism, may have boosted the feminist criticism of Causette and its visibility.

54In the pages of Causette, the distance between the magazine and these feminist organizations and activists is rather obvious. Among the issues analyzed, no space was devoted to the expression of feminist groups. One might think that this distance is related to the fact that Causette’s editorial line deliberately positioned the magazine to not be an activist publication. This was justified as it allowed them to be as independent as possible in their actions. Nevertheless, Causette was a periodical aimed at the general public. In order to both secure a reading base and enlarge the magazine’s readership, it needed to present a digestible form of feminism, a feminism that echoed the discussions present in the daily lives of women. Adopting a more politicized stance could distance the magazine from the public it sought to conquer.

Conclusion

  • 57 Sarah Banet-Weiser, Empowered: Popular Feminism and Popular Misogyny (Durham, NC, USA: Duke Univers (...)
  • 58 Catherine Rottenberg, “The Rise of Neoliberal Feminism,” Cultural Studies 28, no. 3 (2014).
  • 59 Banet-Weiser, Empowered: Popular Feminism and Popular Misogyny, 15.

55As such, we might conclude that the feminism present in the pages of Causette was closer to “popular feminism.” According to Sarah Banet-Weiser, “popular feminism” presents itself in a more spectacular way, making it more visible and accessible.57 It has been popularized in the digital sphere and needs to be understood as being constituted by neoliberal practices and values, producing feminist subjects who operate in a logic of individualism and entrepreneurism, where personal and innovative initiatives are understood as feminist practices.58 It cannot be denied that there is an important political meaning in bringing feminist discussions to a wider audience, but often the discourse that is the most visible is that which is the most normative (such as the appreciation of femininity and the promotion of white, cisgender, middle-class, heteronormative feminism). Therefore, there is a direct relationship between popular feminism and consumerism, since the most easily marketable feminisms tend to be those that are put in the spotlight of the digital sphere, which acts to erase attempts at criticizing patriarchal structures and power differentials as well as images of radical feminism, like burning bras in a public square, because of what they convey. “Bad feelings are not good for business,” Banet-Weiser explains.59 Or, in the words of Lassus-Debat, “we defend women’s causes without losing our clarity.”

56These issues raise the following question: is it possible for a commercial, feminist magazine to exist? This question is not a recent one, given the history of the American magazine, Ms. published since 1971, as well as those of other magazines, such as the French publication, F Magazine. Presently, in addition to blogs, social media, and websites, there seems to be a growth in digital feminist magazines, which seems to be an interesting strategy to circulate feminist ideas at a much lower cost than a printed magazine. One might postulate that this expansion is not only related to the ease in which material can be circulated through the digital world, but also to the growing popularization of feminism (even though it also runs the risk of diluting the message and commodifying the movement).

57This discussion brings us back to our original questions. Was Causette a women’s magazine or a feminist magazine? And who said it must fit into one of these categories? With all its paradoxes and contradictions, Causette might be seen as an example of the transformations, hybridity, and fluidity brought about by this “newest wave of feminism.” Much criticism has been directed at the magazine, but we must not forget the boldness of a magazine that has come to occupy space alongside traditional women’s magazines, yet employs discourse that imagines the complexity and interests of women differently. So, even though it is not militant and does not claim to be a feminist publication, Causette was a site for feminist struggles. Through it, information that normally only circulated among feminist activists—or in mainstream magazines when the topic was fashion—has reached new audiences. Despite all its ups and downs and limitations, perhaps Causette was more of a feminist publication than its founder would have liked it to be.

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Bibliography

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Notes

1 Liliane Kandel, “L’explosion de la presse féministe,” Le Débat, no. 1 (1980): 104-119; Amy Farrell, A Ms. Magazine e a promessa do feminismo popular (São Paulo: Editora Barracuda, 2004); Karina Woitowicz, “Imprensa feminista no contexto das lutas das mulheres: ativismo midiático, cidadania e novas formas de resistência,” Ação Midiática - Estudos em Comunicação, Sociedade e Cultura, v. 2 (2012), 1-18; Amelinha Teles and Rosalina Leite, Da guerrilha à imprensa feminista: a construção do feminismo pós luta armada no Brasil (1975-1980) (São Paulo: Intermeios, 2013); Constância Duarte, Imprensa feminina e feminista no Brasil - Século XIX - Dicionário Ilustrado (Belo Horizonte: Autêntica Editora, 2016).

2 Gilmara Joanol Arndt and Raquel de Barros Pinto Miguel, “Para todEs: reflexões acerca do femvertising,” in Publicidade e Gênero: representações e práticas em questão, ed. Milena Freire de Oliveira-Cruz. (Santa Maria: Facos-UFSM, 2019).

3 Marie Kirschen, “Pour rien au monde je ne voudrais retourner travailler à Causette,” BuzzFeed News, February, 2018. https://www.buzzfeed.com/fr/mariekirschen/pour-rien-au-monde-je-ne-voudrais-retourner-travailler-a-cau#.crnEle0Qen.

4 Challenges. “En grand danger, le magazine féministe Causette pourrait disparaître,” October, 2017. https://www.challenges.fr/media/en-grand-danger-le-magazine-feministe-causette-pourrait-disparaitre_506349.

5 Google was chosen as the search tool because, at the time, it was the most easily accessible mechanism for the researchers. The intention was to supplement the information by interviewing the editorial team, but after numerous attempts to contact them, the researchers received no response.

6 Michel Pêcheux, “Análise automática do discurso (AAD-69),” in Por uma análise automática do discurso: uma introdução à obra de M. Pêcheux, ed. Françoise Gadet and Tony Hak (Campinas: Ed. da Unicamp, 1997).

7 Marie-Anne Paveau, Les Prédiscours. Sens, mémoire, cognition (Paris: Presses Sorbonne Nouvelle, 2006).

8 Maria Celeste Mira, O leitor e a banca de revistas: a segmentação da cultura no século XX (São Paulo: Olho d'Água/Fapesp, 2001).

9 This article is the result of postdoctoral research carried out at Université Paris 13 - Sorbonne Paris Cité in 2018 in France. As it was a project that sought to reflect on the feminist press in Brazil and France, I chose to weave dialogues between French and Brazilian authors who focus on the theme.

10 Bibia Pavard, “Presse(s) féminine(s): le poids du genre,” In Manuel d'analyse de la presse magazine, ed. Claire Blandin (Paris: Armand Colin, 2018).

11 Liliane Kandel, “L’explosion de la presse féministe,” Le Débat 1 (1980); Sandrine Lévêque, “Femmes, féministes et journalistes: les rédactrices de La Fronde à l'épreuve de la professionnalisation journalistique,” Le Temps des médias 1, no. 12 (2009).

12 Pedro, Joana Maria, “Traduzindo o debate: o uso da categoria gênero na pesquisa histórica,” História 24, no. 1 (2005): 77-98.

13 Françoise Picq, Libération des femmes, quarante ans de mouvement (Brest: Éditions Dialogues, 2011).

14 Marina Gazire Lemos, “Ciberfeminismo: Novos discursos do feminino em redes eletrônicas” (Master’s Thesis, Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo, Brasil, 2009).

15 Marlise Matos, “Movimento e teoria feminista: é possível reconstruir a teoria feminista a partir do sul global?” Revista de Sociologia e Política 18, no. 36 (June 2010).

16 Éditions Gynéthic appeared in January 2009, having as partners Grégory Lassus-Debat and Gilles Bonjour, the latter being an investing partner in the creation of Causette.

17 Emmanuelle Bourget, « Causette, un nouveau féminin en kiosques », Nouvel Obs, March 6, 2009, https://www.nouvelobs.com/rue89/rue89-medias/20090306.RUE8893/causette-un-nouveau-feminin-en-kiosques.html.

18 My translation of « un magazine féminin complètement hors de commun, puisqu’il n'a pas de mannequins, il n'a pas de people, il n'a pas de maquillage, il n'a pas de mode, mais il y a du journalisme, beaucoup de journalisme et beaucoup d'humour. (...) Le public féminin qui est visé pour Causette n’avait jamais été visé. Personne ne s’était jamais adressé aux femmes en tant que… on va dire, aux femmes normales, qui sont pas fans de Kate Moss, mais qui sont plutôt tournées vers le reste du monde, plutôt que leur nombril, qui donc s'intéressent à ce qui se passe autour d'elle à tous le niveaux de la société, et qui n’ont pas de tabou ». Grégory Lassus-Debat, interview by Guillaume Dethan, Tous Visionnaires, 2014, video, 2:26, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJxf5XPLg1Y <accessed on August 26, 2022>.

19 My translation of “plus féminine du cerveau que du capiton.”

20 My translation of « On voulait jouer sur la phonétique. Ce nom est à double sens. Causette, c’est un personnage, la bonne copine journaliste avec qui on discute, en passant du coq à l’âne comme lors d’une bonne soirée dans laquelle on va se laisser aller à refaire le monde. Mais Causette c’est également celle qui débarque au milieu des mannequins (d’où peut être un peu la notion de victime) et finalement se détache du lot ». Grégory Lassus-Debat, « Les dessous de Causette [ITW] Grégory Lassus-Debat & Christophe Meireis », interview by Sukie, Magazine Culture, March 2009, he-meireis/https://www.paperblog.fr/1694673/les-dessous-de-causette-itw-gregory-lassus-debat-christop <accessed on August 26, 2022>.

21 My translation of « ce n’est pas tenir une conversation hyper élaborée avec son interlocuteur. Cela donne alors au titre du magazine une légèreté qui est tout sauf ce que l’on y trouve à l’intérieur (des sujets durs, fouillés, des enquêtes, des reportages) ». Grégory Lassus-Debat, « Les dessous de Causette [ITW] Grégory Lassus-Debat & Christophe Meireis ».

22 Johanna Luyssen, « Vous avez interviewé Johanna Luyssen, rédactrice en chef adjointe de Causette », interview by 20 minutes, March 8, 2012, https://www.20minutes.fr/vousinterviewez/893677-20120307-interviewe-johanna-luyssen-redactrice-chef-adjointe-causette <accessed on August 26, 2022>.

23 Grégory Lassus-Debat, interview by France Médias, 2015, https://www.france-medias.fr/gregory-lassus-debat/i-10 <accessed on August 26, 2022>.

24 Gary Assouline, « Causette : le magazine féministe cherche un repreneur », Huffpost, December 20, 2017, https://www.huffingtonpost.fr/medias/article/causette-le-magazine-feministe-cherche-un-repreneur_114210.html.

25 https://www.cbnews.fr/medias/image-liberation-grand-prix-medias-2012-1931

26 https://www.graphiline.com/article/16438/Les-Magazines-de-l-annee-2013

27 Luyssen, « Vous avez interviewé Johanna Luyssen, rédactrice en chef adjointe de Causette ».

28 For more on the controversy about advertising in women’s magazines, consult the history of the American magazine Ms., written by Amy Farrel, in A Ms. Magazine e a promessa do feminismo popular (São Paulo: Editora Barracuda, 2004).

29 Isabelle Motrot, “Elle fait la couve: Miren Pradier,” Causette, April 2018, https://www.causette.fr/le-mag/lire-article/article-2071/elle-fait-la-couv-miren-pradier.html <accessed on August 26, 2022>.

30 Maria Teresa Santos Cunha, Armadilhas da sedução: os romances de M. Delly (Belo Horizonte: Autêntica, 1999).

31 Sylvette Giet, « Le cœur mêlé. L'hybridation à l'œuvre dans les fictions sentimentales de la ‘presse du cœur’ », Le Temps des médias 1, no. 14 (2010).

32 Elisabeth Cadoux, « Genre, sexe et médias: Analyse de Causette, magazine féminin et féministe » (Master’s Thesis, Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Lyon, Université de Lyon, 2013).

33 The word “quiche” in the French language is used both to refer to a culinary dish and in a pejorative sense, as a synonym for “fool.”

34 Elisabeth Cadoux, « Genre, sexe et médias: Analyse de Causette, magazine féminin et féministe ».

35 Dulcília Helena Schroeder Buitoni, Mulher de papel: a representação da mulher na imprensa feminina brasileira (São Paulo: Edições Loyola, 1981).

36 My translation of « Vous ne m'attendiez pas et, pourtant, je vous manquais. Parce que je suis comme vous: une femme normale, mais pas banale, fière d'être ce que je suis, selon mes critères. Rayonnante, exaltée, indépendante, fière d’aimer ceux qui tentent de faire le bien. Avec les autres: intraitable, acide, coriace et, entre nous, parfois même petite et méchante ; on ne se refait pas ». « Vous ne me m'attendiez pas et, pourtant, je vous manquais », Causette 1, editorial, March 2009, 1.

37 Colin Campbell, A Ética e o Espírito do Consumismo Moderno (Rio de Janeiro: Rocco, 2001).

38 Roger Chartier, A ordem dos livros: leitores, autores e bibliotecas na Europa entre os séculos XIV e XVIII (2ª. Ed. Brasília: Editora UnB, 1999).

39 Evelyne Sullerot, La presse féminine (Paris: Armand Colin, 1963).

40 Raquel de Barros Pinto Miguel, “Gênero, sexualidade e juventude na imprensa feminina: um estudo comparativo entre Brasil e França (décadas de 1950 e 1980)” (Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina. Forthcoming).

41 Raquel de Barros Pinto Miguel “Gênero, sexualidade e juventude na imprensa feminina.”

42 The expression was used by Michel Spinosa as the title for a film on the period he released in 2000.

43 Bibia Pavard, Sandrine Lévêque, and Claire Blandin, « Elle et Marie Claire dans les années 1968 : une ‘parenthèse enchantée’ ? », Le Temps des médias 2, no. 29 (2017).

44 Janice Winship, Inside Women’s Magazines (London: Pandora Press, 1987).

45 My translation of « Vous savez, il y a autant de féminismes que de féministes. On est journalistes avant toute chose ; on n’est pas des militants. Ce que l’on peut connaître ou savoir du militantisme féministe ne peut pas s’appliquer à Causette parce-que nous sommes des journalistes. Et que notre seule doctrine à nous c’est la véracité des informations. Notre seul phare : la qualité de l’information ». Grégory Lassus-Debat, France Médias.

46 My translation of « Le féminisme n'est pas une doctrine ni un paradigme comme le communisme peut l'être au travers des rapports de domination. Dans les valeurs de Causette, on défend les causes de femmes sans pour autant en perdre notre lucidité; on peut aussi réfuter une idée même si celle-ci vient d'une féministe engagée. Dans cet esprit, l'une des plus belles reconnaissance de notre travail a été l'attribution du statut de journal IPG (ndlr : Information Politique et Général).”

47 My translation of « On nous estampille féministes, mais ça devrait être ça, la norme ». Grégory Lassus-Debat, « Grégory Lassus Debat: vengeur démasqué », interview by Clarence Edgard-Rosa, Poulet Rotique, July 2011.

48 My translation « Mon féminisme est inclus dans un progressisme, un humanisme plus large et une lutte contre toutes les injustices ». Grégory Lassus-Debat, France Médias.

49 My translation of « Les deux ! Nous sommes avant tout un magazine pour les femmes et nous sommes intrinsèquement féministes. Nous nous distinguons des féministes par le fait que nous n'appartenons à aucun mouvement, parti ou autre : nous sommes totalement libres et, même si nous relayons ce que disent les associations féministes, nous ne sommes pas obligés de les suivre dans tous les domaines et sur tous les sujets ». Christine Laemmel, "Vous avez interviewé Johanna Luyssen, rédactrice en chef adjointe de Causette ». https://www.20minutes.fr/vousinterviewez/893677-20120307-interviewe-johanna-luyssen-redactrice-chef-adjointe-causette.

50 Amy Erdman Farrell, A Ms. Magazine e a promessa do feminismo popular (São Paulo: Editora Barracuda, 2004).

51 My translation of « Cela ne surprend jamais personne qu’un blanc ou une femme blanche soit engagée dans les causes anti racistes. De la même façon, je pense m’engager aux côtés de « la minorité féminine » (qui représente tout de même la moitié de l’humanité) et là cela surprend beaucoup plus… ». Grégory Lassus-Debat, France Médias.

52 Grégory Lassus-Debat, « Grégory Lassus Debat: vengeur démasqué ».

53 Grégory Lassus-Debat, “I felt there would be a demand for a magazine without Kate Moss and diets in it,” interview by Adam Sage, The Times, December 2, 2010, https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/i-felt-there-would-be-a-demand-for-a-magazine-without-kate-moss-and-diets-in-it-705k38zr95r <accessed on August 26, 2022>.

54 Pavard, Lévêque, and Blandin, « Elle et Marie Claire dans les années 1968 : une ‘parenthèse enchantée’ ? ».

55 Lassus-Debat, « Grégory Lassus Debat: vengeur démasqué ».

56 Hélène Bréda, Les Féminismes à l'ère d'Internet (Paris: INA, 2022); Carla Gomes and Bila Sorj, “Corpo, geração e identidade: a Marcha das vadias no Brasil,” Sociedade e Estado 29, no. 2 (Ago 2014); Josiane Jouët, Numérique, féminisme et société (Paris: Presses des Mines, 2022).

57 Sarah Banet-Weiser, Empowered: Popular Feminism and Popular Misogyny (Durham, NC, USA: Duke University Press, 2018).

58 Catherine Rottenberg, “The Rise of Neoliberal Feminism,” Cultural Studies 28, no. 3 (2014).

59 Banet-Weiser, Empowered: Popular Feminism and Popular Misogyny, 15.

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References

Electronic reference

Raquel de Barros Pinto Miguel and Gilmara Joanol Arndt, “Your Brain Is More Feminine than Your Cellulite”: A Study of the French Magazine Causette (2009-2018)InMedia [Online], 10 | 2025, Online since 01 June 2025, connection on 17 July 2025. URL: http://journals.openedition.org/inmedia/3188; DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/145d5

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About the authors

Raquel de Barros Pinto Miguel

Professor of Psychology at the Federal University of Santa Catarina (Brazil). Post-doctorate from Université Paris Cité, Université Paris 13 and Université Panthéon-Assas. Coordinator of the Center for Studies and Actions on Gender, Education, Media and Subjectivity (NUGEMS). Researcher at the Institute of Gender Studies (IEG). Associate researcher at CARISM (Centre d'Analyse et de Recherche Interdisciplinaire sur les Médias) - Université Paris Panthéon-Assas. Her research focuses on gender studies, feminism, sexuality, the media, women's history, education, and subjectivity.
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2042-7223

Gilmara Joanol Arndt

Master in Psychology from the Federal University of Santa Catarina (Brazil). Researcher at the Center for Studies and Actions in Gender, Education, Media and Subjectivity (NUGEMS/UFSC). Develops research in the area of gender, sexuality, and media studies.
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0245-1801

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