Women's Identities at War by Susan R. Grayzel

Author:Susan R. Grayzel [Grayzel, Susan R.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Women's Studies
ISBN: 9781469620817
Google: x0f1AwAAQBAJ
Publisher: UNC Press Books
Published: 2014-03-19T05:42:38+00:00

“Hélène Brion in masculine costume,” photo that appeared on the front page of Le Matin, 19 November 1917. Courtesy of Association pour la Conservation et la Reproduction Photographique de la Presse, Paris.

The language and images used in the various accounts of Brion’s arrest suggest the importance of gender in her case. Other than the persistence of the accusation of “Malthusianism” and her having some neo-Malthusian pamphlets, little evidence suggests that Brion was primarily involved with the birth-control movement. “Defeatism,” “anarchy,” “antimilitarism”—these terms merely proclaimed left-wing activity, but “Malthusianism” took on a peculiarly gendered tone, a code word in pronatalist and particularly wartime France for the worst fears about feminism. By associating feminism with Malthusianism, the feminist could thus be attacked as refusing the most central and natural patriotic role for any woman: maternity. With the initial news of her arrest, Brion as a woman and as a feminist was on trial. The reproduction of her portrait labeled “in masculine costume” further illustrated the extent to which her “femininity” as much as her “Frenchness” was being called into question.81

While angrily condemning Brion’s harmful, unpatriotic actions and attacking her “femininity,” the daily papers also emphasized her profession and attempted to separate Brion from other teachers. On 20 November Le Petit Journal ran an interview with a Mme. M., secretary to the director of schools in Paris, who described Brion as a “temptress” trying to enlist the aid of co-workers in her odious work. Although M. acknowledged Brion’s considerable intelligence and service, that she “loves the children,” she stressed nonetheless that Brion was “very proud” and “very dangerous.”82

By the time Brion’s home had been searched and more damaging evidence uncovered—in the form of pictures of Lenin and Trotsky and copies of “defeatist” literature and correspondence—the attention paid to her in the daily press had dwindled. Yet the cumulative portrait that emerged from this barrage of negative press was filled with contradictions. Brion was described as both hysterical and masculine, irresponsible and dangerous, tempting and hard, in other words, qualities loaded with both masculine and feminine connotations. Brion thus was blamed for both being “naturally” female—a hysterical, irresponsible temptress—and “unnaturally” male—masculine, dangerous, unflinching.

These attacks, especially what was implied by the photograph of her in “masculine costume,” quickly evoked a response from her supporters.83 In an article in L’Humanité on 20 November 1917, friends of Brion sought to correct misinformation printed in at least five Parisian newspapers.84 They charged that those interested in prosecuting Brion were permitted “to create in the public [mind] false sentiments and to establish a presumption of guilt. These proceedings are infinitely regrettable, above all because the facts thus insisted upon by journalists have not been verified.”85 Brion was the secretary of Pantin’s Workers’ Orphanage Society, and a petition was circulated by the society protesting both her arrest and the attacks made on her in the press. It called upon “we who love her, we who have for her a high and deep esteem, a profound admiration, [to] not let her

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