1977: Les Femmes avant le patriarcat

by | Updated on 18/10/2024 | Published on 04/05/1977 | 1974-1979 Ecologie/Féminisme, 2.1 Bibliographies, Historical essays

Payot, 239 pages.

By creating ecofeminism, Françoise’s genius was not to bring a new concept: it was to connect us with an immemorial reality, that of the pre-patriarchal cultures of our geographical area, that the rationalism of the 15th century then the humanism of the Enlightenment will have tried to eradicate it in our Western culture, now at the forefront of dehumanization.

Vincent d’Eaubonne, in préface pour l’édition italienne, 2024

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1977 : Lettre ouverte au docteur Hutter, médecin-directeur à l’hôpital-prison de Wittlich (RFA)

by | Updated on 18/10/2024 | Published on 04/05/1977 | 1974-1979 Ecologie/Féminisme, 2.1 Bibliographies, Philosophical essays

Gérard Hof et Françoise d’Eaubonne, inéditions barbares.

In 1976, after having been a witness at Françoise’s marriage to Pierre Sanna (detained in the prison of Health in Paris), Gérard Hof, Françoise’s companion, was imprisoned in the hospital-prison of Wittlich (FRG) and had to resist the particular methods applied by Dr. Hutter: experimental white torture, sensory obligation, an attempt to deconstruct the personality… Released from prison, Gérard Hof will write and publish this accusing testimony for which Françoise will write the preface. (Alain)

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1977: L’Éventail de fer ou la vie de Qiu Jin

by | Updated on 18/10/2024 | Published on 04/05/1977 | 1974-1979 Ecologie/Féminisme, 2.1 Bibliographies, Fictional biographies

Paris, Jean-Claude Simoën, 349 pages.

reissued as:
 – D’EAUBONNE, Françoise. L’Éventail de fer ou la vie de Qiu Jin. Encre, 1984, 349 pages.

“Across a sumptuous and miserable China, shaken by incessant civil wars, Qiu Jin, a great feminist, commits herself totally to the side of Sun-Yat-Sen, who was to liberate her country from the imperial shackles. By turns studious young woman, wife and mother, but also poet, terrorist and tireless activist, she was beheaded at the beginning of the 20th century. L’Éventail de Fer is the fresco-like account of the real-life struggle of this young Chinese woman with an extraordinary destiny”. [4° de couverture]

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1977: The indifferent mother

by | Updated on 17/06/2026 | Published on 04/05/1977 | Articles, Texts

1977 : The indiferent mother

 

In this text published in 1977 in Les Cahiers du Grif, Françoise claims to have been an “indifferent mother” instead of having been a “castrator in the kitchen, laundry, mending…”. However, she experienced what she calls “the maternal instinct”, “at the most animal level possible”. But she denounces what male society has made of this instinct: a “means of oppression and alienation which reduces the woman to the rank of egg-laying female”. This text is followed by the Appeal of the women of the Eco-feminist Movement to the maternity strike (already published in 1974 in Charlie-Hebdo).

“This maternal instinct, therefore, I know is real, but mystified, distorted, alienated and manipulated. When a woman speaks of her desire to have a child, I always ask her to look closely at the root of this desire. It can be authentic; there is a good chance that it is not”.

Françoise d’Eaubonne

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1976: The love revolution

by | Updated on 17/06/2026 | Published on 04/05/1976 | Articles, Texts

1976 : Love revolution
During the heyday of La Gueule Ouverte (an environmental and political newspaper founded in 1972), the weekly magazine’s columns featured debates on various topics, such as non-violence and questions about love and sexuality. Françoise often took part in these controversies. In the December 29, 1976 issue, she responded to Isabelle Cabut, then editor-in-chief, by attacking the “myth of privacy” and promoting the “revolution of love.”
“It is not a question of suppressing love, but rather of extending it. And of knowing that, once this ‘special relationship’—which is one of humanity’s opportunities—is recognized, it must be extended to many, lest it disappear.”

Françoise d’Eaubonne

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