By Daisy Haynes

Amidst the clamour of a frantic drive from the media to report on every facet of coronavirus and its inevitable complications, perhaps the most chilling concern for women was the realisation that the measures taken to protect the most vulnerable against the virus compounded already dangerous situations for victims of domestic abuse. Countless reports emerged, amassing stories of women lost to femicide whilst locked down, with little action being taken in response. After a frustratingly painful year of violence against women, it seems only fitting that we draw attention to an activist whose relentless dedication to feminist action has made waves across the internet, resonating with women all over the globe.

Marguerite Stern first entered the public sphere as an activist in 2012 when she, in conjunction with other members of FEMEN, a radical feminist activist group, targeted IKEA’s decision to remove photographs of women in their catalogues intended for distribution in Saudi Arabia. Just a month later, in November of 2012, Marguerite doubled down on her feminist stance when she, accompanied by eight other FEMEN activists, held a counter-protest against a demonstration by Civitas, a right-wing, nationalist association, protesting the proposed bill enacting “marriage for all” that would see its enactment in 2013. The women were met with violence from Civitas protesters, who later attempted to sue the FEMEN activists for the slogans they had written on their bodies on the basis that their message directly targeted Catholics. The case was dismissed in 2016 after the court of appeal determined that the inscriptions were not personally motivated. Seven of the eight men tried for the violence inflicted on the women of FEMEN in France were issued a suspended sentence of up to one year. Having continued her extensive activism focusing on concerns relating to prostitution, LGB action, and the sexualisation of women’s bodies, she has faced significant difficulties in sustaining paid work as a result. She later had a gunshot fired through her window following her campaigns against street harassment.

Agence France Presse reported 116 femicides in France during 2019; however, this number is disputed by Femicides by Companions or Ex, an advocacy group who argue that the figure is closer to 138: an average of one woman murdered every three days. Marguerite responded by catalysing a movement of guerilla-style street art entitled Collages Féminicides, for which she installed white collages featuring condensed but powerful messages written in black lettering on the streets of Marseillie and Paris,  the first of which was installed to honour Julie Douib, a woman murdered in March 2019 by her ex-spouse. Since then, collages have been appearing everywhere, including London.

Marguerite is a controversial figure even in feminist movements, having been excluded from posting via the Paris chapter of Collages Féminicides on Instagram following a series of tweets she made discussing her opinion that transactivism is taking up too much space within feminism, admitting that she has experienced threats for expressing such sentiments. 

She went on to say:

“I am not a "vulva person", I am a woman. I was born a woman, and even before my birth, in my mother's womb, I suffered discrimination as a result. I went through things that a man who would like to become a woman will never be able to understand.”

Sadly, Marguerite now primarily campaigns alone, for the sake of “horizontality and anarchist inclination”, having been accused of falsifying her claim to originating Collages Féminicides following the backlash to her comments on transactivism. Speaking to Liberation, she said:

“Whether people agree with me on all my ideas or not is not the question: I accept that we think differently and that others use this technique to say what they want. I haven't copyrighted it. But to erase a woman's contribution to history is a deeply patriarchal process. "Let us give back to Cleopatra what belongs to Cleopatra", as the brilliant author and actress Typhaine D. says.”

Her most recent posts have been online, offering extended critiques of the issues imminently concerning her following her experiences with the wider network of French feminists.

Thankfully, in spite of sustained campaigns to erase Marguerite from the halls of herstory, she continues the fight against femicide and other issues that remain close to her heart. She’s since written a book called Street Heroines, about which she says:

"This book, I write it for you. Woman who is crushed... woman who does not dare to speak loudly, because you have swallowed your cries for too long."

The book recounts her commitments to feminism, outlining what she expects is necessary from ‘combat’ feminism, and is available for purchase here; unfortunately it is currently only available in French. 

I spoke with Marguerite to get a sense of how she feels about the collage movement and the response it has received. 

Daisy: About the collages, what was your reaction when you realised that you were the catalyst for this wonderful solidarity amongst women all over the world?

Marguerite: I felt glad to see that women were able to gather up to make a big thing together.

Daisy: Did you anticipate that your position on transgenderism would cause such divisions in the movement you started?

Marguerite: I didn't expect it at all. One year before I started the collages movement, I had already taken some positions publicly against transactivism, calling transwomen "men wearing "women's" clothes". It was just one tweet, and it didn't become a scandal. But when I started this movement, and after a few months of existence, transactivists came into it, I didn't expect it because it was a totally different subject. I was clear from the beginning: I was telling all the women who joined it the first month that we were talking only about femicides and domestic violence because I knew that some subjects can divide us, and I didn't want those divisions to happen. But after the first month I decided to take some distance with this movement as I became the main figure of it; I didn't want to be seen as a leader. 

I thought that I did my part: I made it loud enough at the beginning so that other women can continue it without me, and express themselves in the press. I didn't want to be the only voice as thousand of other women were participating. And after the few months that I "retired", they started to post transactivists’ messages on "collage feminicides" accounts. Today, I think that I might have done a mistake. And I'm not sure anymore that radical feminists can fight together with liberal "feminists". I learned it from my experience. And today, the femicide issue that we have in France is still not solved, and those liberal "feminists" continue to use the name "collage feminicides" to express themselves about everything except femicides…

Daisy: Given that feminists now face the same exhausting fight to centre women within feminism, do you have any words of wisdom to share with them?

Marguerite: I don't know if I'm a wise person, but my advice would be to continue talking, to continue to spread our message: feminism is about female rights. To be a woman is to be a female. To be able to spread it, we need to gather up. I believe in the strength of the collective. I notice that many radical feminists feel ashamed of their convictions because the gaslighting and the cancel culture work well. But once we meet other radical feminists, we don't feel ashamed anymore and we feel stronger. We need to gather up together on social media, and to be connected as much as we can with women from all over the world to understand how universal our fight is. But we also need to meet in real life, and to make actions together. To go in the street together. Because once you do protests, or collages, or actions together, you create links that will stay forever with the women you are doing it with, and those links are our biggest strength. 

We couldn’t agree more.

We are looking forward to welcoming Marguerite to FiLiA2021!