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This post was published on Mailchimp on 20 September 2021. Updates are in aqua stabilo
Slightly over a year ago, I started a hunger strike.
When a friend contacted the Police, two policemen kicked my London flat's front door so hard that I had to open it. They wanted to make sure I was not going to damage myself. I told them I didn't want to die, I wanted to be heard by the French journalists / 'feminists' in regards of sexual violence they silence / let happen to me / others in journalism / photography!
I told the policemen I couldn't quite understand why my life was so important when nobody at the police station could do anything about the constant anonymous threats I have been receiving or the ongoing psychological abuse I get from my aggressors in the Paris based magazine Les Inrocks I worked for 30 years ago!
I told them "basically you want to make sure I stay alive so I can still be abused?"
I have been hesitating to write / send this missive for months. There's been some triggers in the recent days that encouraged me:
I) On 15 Sept 2021, @womenphotograph tweeted a crucial statement regarding French newspaper Le Monde's dirty behaviour to a female photographer https://twitter.com/womenphotograph/status/1438164165005348868;
II) London massive club night Ministry Of Sound tweeted a redundant question "Who is the most influential UK DJ of all time?" https://twitter.com/ministryofsound/status/1435905863110340615: I exchanged with female DJ Ritu on how in one Tweet and over 300 replies, female DJs had vanished from the surface of earth https://twitter.com/Sybillebbldnrbt/status/1436160894787063809!
III) I went to Rich Mix to watch Leesa Gazi's Rising Silence https://richmix.org.uk/cinema/rising-silence/ a 75 mns documentary on Birangona women describing, among other horror accounts, rape camps during the Bangladeshi Liberation War in 1971 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3585BLvRuQo [reminding me in some aspects of Sophie Nahum's French documentary Les Derniers (The Last Ones, survivors of Nazi camps) https://www.lesderniers.org/accueil.] Despite 1972 Bangladeshi film Arunodoyer Agnishakkhi by Subhash Dutta https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXGVi0SSLgg, women survivors from rape genocide of East Pakistan, now Bangladesh have been ostracised, shamed, shunned ever since the country's independence.
Disclaimer: by 'my aggressors' I mean the man who sexually harassed me at Les Inrocks 30 years ago and those who have protected him despite him being sacked in 2019 in Telerama (Groupe Le Monde). I acknowledge therefore I am not using the term aggressor according to the French law system!
FYI: This Mailchimp you are receiving is also located here https://risingvoicesbehingwalls.blogspot.com/2021/09/from-mailchimp.html which will allow me to correct, amend, add pages or links at a later date;
Previous Mailchimps on #MeToo topics: When a Dusty Law disserves MeToo (18 May 2019); Mechanism, MeToo a psychological Game (17 Jun 2019) [title/idea recycled by Luc Bronner's Le Monde in June 2020]; A Journey Into MeTooLand (2 Jul 2019); The Rejoice of a Sacred Deer (16 Jul 2019); Holy Smoke & Mirror (1 Aug 2019); Hunger Strike (22 Aug 2020)
So may we start? So may we start? It's time to start...
"Hello! A friendly reminder that this is a wildly unacceptable way to speak to a photographer, ESPECIALLY if you are four months late in paying said photographer, and ESPECIALLY if you’re the Director of Photography for@lemondefr." says the Tweet from @womenphotograph followed by an incendiary email sent by a rather paternalistic director of photography for Le Monde to a foreign female freelance photographer claiming her due! Hundreds of RT/Quote Tw/comments... not by the usual loud French feminists though! A French SlateFR Christophe Carron male editor requests context while feeling the lady didn't behave well. When Le Monde plagiarised me in 2017 on The Grenfell Tower Fire (many more times on other topics afterwards), I sent a few polite emails to the editors which remained unanswered. At the time, Franck Nouchi was Le Monde's mediator and would have been perfect to answer me should its editors be too cowards! [But of course, being friend with my ex colleague JD Beauvallet @ Les Inrocks
hiding me in 2017 https://twitter.com/Sybillebbldnrbt/status/1024546237004095488... in 2020 https://twitter.com/JDBeauvallet/status/1327497339876089856 versus the real picture in 1991 https://twitter.com/Sybillebbldnrbt/status/1024174748681547776]
Interestingly enough, Adam Nossiter' previous posting was in Paris as New York Times bureau chef where he had to write in perfect French to Franck Nouchi on how Le Monde (again) treated NYT https://twitter.com/AdamNossiter/status/1324748145100754945! Regarding the fantasy on how women are expected to be well-behaved creatures, here is a Spanish' study where small children taste unknowingly some salty yogurt for a supposedly TV advert while having to act as if the product was delicious. Author Virginie Despentes explains in French that girls/women (around the world really) are stereotyped as natural liars when in fact we are taught from a young age to refrain from being spontaneous... Swallow and smile! Being polite is no proof we women can lead a satisfying career: when Monica Lewinsky performed a fellatio on Bill Clinton, her career didn't take off. When I was asked to do so in Les Inrocks and refused persistently from 1991 to 1992, I left the magazine, still full of dreams of becoming a journalist and photographer, went back to London as an Au-Pair! I'm still prevented from working:
Here is an experiment I started on micro-films critic, music mentions (please applaud my shyness and politeness). 3 Aug 2021, on Ben Sharrock's Limbo https://twitter.com/Sybillebbldnrbt/status/1422650874397138945; 1 Sept on Prano Bailey Bond's Censor https://twitter.com/Sybillebbldnrbt/status/1432992688471740417, I even dared a second tweet https://twitter.com/Sybillebbldnrbt/status/1433016311861424131; 8 Sept on Leos Carax' Annette https://twitter.com/Sybillebbldnrbt/status/1435481655653937154;
11 Sept, still on Carax https://twitter.com/Sybillebbldnrbt/status/1436704991192944652 (liked by France Television member of staff); 16 Sept, ex Inrocks (1990-2018), now at Liberation Christophe Conte Quote Tw Manuel Alduy France Television Director of Cinema/International development on film https://twitter.com/christopheconte/status/1438532331904589824
12 Sept on Alain Bashung https://twitter.com/Sybillebbldnrbt/status/1436962648864829441; 18 Sept, ex Inrocks 1988-2000 + sacked from Telerama (Le Monde) in 2019 on Alain Bashung https://twitter.com/EmmanuelTellier/status/1439306075044564994; [20.02.2022 at 2.02pm GMT, I tweeted about Villa Amalia, a film adapted from Pascal Quignard's novel https://twitter.com/Sybillebbldnrbt/status/1495398491207737346; at 2.41pm Emmanuel Tellier tweeted about Pascal Quignard https://twitter.com/EmmanuelTellier/status/1495408286845255686]
15 Sept on Maria Schrader's I'm Your Man & off hopefully to the Oscars https://twitter.com/Sybillebbldnrbt/status/1438257696797601793 (16 Sept, RT by Emmanuel Tellier on the Oscars https://twitter.com/LeCNC/status/1438430571374551043)
Music journo Christophe Conte on films (12 to 17 Sept): https://twitter.com/christopheconte/status/1437135233468542982, https://twitter.com/christopheconte/status/1438269061280972802, https://twitter.com/christopheconte/status/1438775144072323073, https://twitter.com/christopheconte/status/1438784092716347393, https://twitter.com/christopheconte/status/1438792115350347781. In Aug 2019, he tweeted I was a psychopath and has asked his followers on many occasions to report me on Twitter in order to delete my account. Each time I mention his name, my account gets hacked and the letters E,D,C and # disappear for a few days (so I can't write on my computer, or buy anything since # is also 3); each time I comment or like anything on Twitter, I have to prove I am not a robot on Twitter + I get sent a code on my phone that I have to log on my account! After repeatedly calling some guys "ass fuckers" (enculés or PéDé), in 2018, Christophe Conte got a Mediapart article written on his dubious homophobia semantic https://blogs.mediapart.fr/merome-jardin/blog/190218/christophe-conte-et-la-semantique-de-lhomophobie, he considers himself a victim https://twitter.com/christopheconte/status/1433548497417117699 [on 7 October 2021, I criticised (Sandra Muller #BalanceTonPorc for 'liking') Moliere for portraying women as perfidious rather than being a feminist https://twitter.com/Sybillebbldnrbt/status/1446101014290083846; Christophe Conte mentioned Jean-Baptiste Poquelin aka Moliere on 13 October 2021 https://twitter.com/christopheconte/status/1448314557651460097; 12 Oct was my last micro film critic for Rose Plays Julie https://twitter.com/Sybillebbldnrbt/status/1448025357609848834 before turning silent for a month: 15 Nov on The French Dispach https://twitter.com/Sybillebbldnrbt/status/1460376417632464900 & 16 Nov on Last Night in Soho https://twitter.com/Sybillebbldnrbt/status/1460691846196338690... Christophe Conte on films on 16 Nov https://twitter.com/christopheconte/status/1460710853070761991 / https://twitter.com/christopheconte/status/1460703407098974211 Today 17 Nov 2021 I've found out why Christophe Conte got so edgy on my Edgar Wright's Last Night In Soho microcritic: https://twitter.com/christopheconte/status/1420258206522220544 "L’enthousiasmant documentaire The Sparks Brothers de @edgarwright sur @sparksofficial sort aujourd’hui en salles. Ne le loupez pas." followed by his prose on French newspaper in Liberation under Dov Alfon's outlet' supervision https://www.liberation.fr/culture/cinema/the-sparks-brothers-comme-culte-et-chemise-20210728_5AB5YT7CQJHCFH4UOHPJELJ7IA/ 12.12.2021, me criticising #Lalaland; 13.12.2021 him expecting #Lalaland 'J’attend la première scène de #Lalaland avec impatience'(fascism in French journalism!)]
So, why are French female journalists / feminists sticking with these lads? Why aren't French media investigating on sexual violence in the media? Why aren't Caroline De Haas (Egae, Nous Toutes), Rokhaya Diallo (Washington Post, Touche Pas A Mon Poste), Nassira El Moaddem (Arret Sur Image), Sandra Muller (Balance Ton Porc), Marie Krischner (BuzzfedFR, Les Inrocks), Marine Turchi (Mediapart), Lenaig Bredoux (Mediapart), Anne-Cecile Mailfert (Fondation Des Femmes, France Inter), Sandrine Rousseau (ecofeminist French President to be or not) reacting to @womenphotograph Tweet? Why don't they support me? Because they want / need a job as journalists or in need to be reviewed in Le Monde or any other publications! They denounce patriarchy only when it's safe for them to do so. As for Le Monde, they subscribe to international sites representing female photographers, illustrators, writers, so when they hire them, the newspaper looks like it works hard on its equality system, when in fact, it expects these foreign women to shout out their happiness on social network for working in such outlet of reference giving Le Monde a greater exposure globally!
Many French women in that system are the Mother Teresa of journalism/feminism. They make money on our suffering! Some years ago, there was criticism on that now canonised woman. I was brought up in a catholic environment, but eventually was to busy with drugs to care much about the blue-sari wearing church promoter lady who was regarded as loving poverty instead of loving the poors as Christopher Hitchens put it. Watching Rising Silence reminded me of her, so I searched her relation to Bangladesh and found a catholic review praising her "The Bangladesh Liberation War provided momentum to Mother Teresa..." I wonder whether this anti-abortion woman helped victims of rape camps. Could she have suggested them to give birth instead of having an abortion? If so, did she offer Westerners to pay for adopting children? Would the grown up children go back to their country of birth searching for the 'bad' mothers who abandoned them? How much did the mothers get blamed for? How much would the Mother of all children earn?
These French women journalists and/or feminists and male journalists know that each of my smear tests in the past three years have come back to me as if I didn't do anything! So I stopped responding to my GP's about having a new one done. I also refuse to have a breast screening as I fear the test will come back as if I didn't do anything! I have received numerous texts in regard of COVID injections, long after I had done the second one... inviting me to do urgently an injection... After watching Alexandre Rockwell's Sweet Thing which images reminded me of his first feature In The Soup, I read an interview in the Guardian and I freaked on what Harvey Weinstein did to him https://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/sep/03/sweet-thing-director-alexandre-rockwell-weinstein-was-eating-hot-dogs-like-sushi-while-a-student-rubbed-oil-on-his-lemon-sized-boils. After receiving news in May 2020 of my aunt who died in May 1980 of femicide, I have been receiving news via emails since June 2021 of my cousin who committed suicide...
[While I take time to publish more, here is on RapeCulture: how they penetrate my life, my experience, my contacts, my topics, from Thomas Andrei (So Foot, Trax, Rock & Folk, Society) to Florian Reynaud (Le Monde) etc https://risingvoicesbehingwalls.blogspot.com/2021/09/rape-culture.html / Soon to come https://risingvoicesbehingwalls.blogspot.com/2021/09/ethic-in-journalism.html]
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