Petición francesa contra la edad de las leyes de consentimiento
En 1977, una petición francesa contra las leyes de edad de consentimiento se dirigió al Parlamento pidiendo la derogación de varios artículos de la ley “edad de consentimiento” y la despenalización de todas las relaciones consentidas entre adultos y menores de edad por debajo de la edad de quince años (la edad de consentimiento en Francia). En ese momento, un cambio en el Código Penal francés fue objeto de debate en el Parlamento de Francia. Un número de intelectuales franceses, incluidos los nombres prominentes intelectuales , firmó la petición.
En 1979 dos cartas abiertas se publicaron en periódicos franceses defendiendo la liberación de personas detenidas bajo cargos de violación de menores, en el contexto de la abolición de la edad de las leyes de consentimiento.
La Petición
La petición fue firmada por Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida,Louis Althusser, Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, André Glucksmann, y Roland Barthes, por el novelista y activista gay Guy Hocquenghem, el actor /escritor y jurista Jean Danet, escritor y cineasta Alain Robbe-Grillet, el escritor Philippe Sollers,Françoise Dolto pediatra y psicoanalista de niños, y también por personas pertenecientes a una amplia gama de posiciones políticas.
El 4 de abril de 1978, una conversación que detallaba las razones de sus posiciones a favor de la abolición fue transmitida por la radio France Culture en el programa"Diálogos". Los participantes, Michel Foucault, Danet y Jean Guy Hocquenghem, habían firmado la petición de 1977, junto con otros intelectuales. Ellos afirmaron que el sistema penal sustituía el castigo de actos delictivos por la creación de una nueva figura penal del individuo peligroso a la sociedad (independientemente de cualquier delito real),y predijeron que una "sociedad de los peligros" vendría más adelante.También definieron la idea de consentimiento legal como una idea contractual 'tramposa', ya que "nadie hace un contrato antes de hacer el amor". La conversación se ha publicado como "La moral sexual y la ley" y reproducido más tarde como "El riesgos de la sexualidad del niño".
Las cartas abiertas publicadas.
Una carta abierta firmada por 69 personas fue publicada en Le Monde, en la víspera del juicio de tres franceses (Bernard DeJager, Gallien Jean-Claude,y Burckardt Jean), todos acusados de tener relaciones sexuales con niñas y niños de 13 y 14 años de edad.
Dos de ellos habían estado en custodia temporal desde 1973, y la carta se refiere a este hecho como un escándalo. En la carta también se afirmaba que había una desproporción entre la calificación de los actos como un crímen, y la naturaleza reprochable de los actos, y que también era una contradicción, ya que los adolescentes en Francia eran plenamente responsables de sus actos desde la edad de 13 años. El texto también opinó que a los 13 años de edad las niñas en Francia tenían el derecho a recibir la píldora, entonces también deberían ser capaces de dar consentimiento.
Una carta similar fue publicada en el diario Libération en 1979, en apoyo a Gérard R., un acusado de tener relaciones sexuales criminales con niños que estaba en espera de su juicio por dieciocho meses, la carta fue firmada por 63 personas, afirmando que R. Gérard vivió con niñas de entre 6 a 12, y que ellas estaban contentos con la situación. La carta fue luego reproducida en el periódico L'Express, en la edición de 07 de marzo 2001.
Michel Foucault.born Paul-Michel Foucault (15 October 1926 – 25 June 1984), was a French philosopher, social theorist and historian of ideas. He held a chair at the prestigious Collège de Francewith the title "History of Systems of Thought," and also taught at theUniversity at Buffalo and the University of California, Berkeley.
Foucault is best known for his critical studies of social institutions, most notably psychiatry, medicine, the human sciences, and the prison system, as well as for his work on the history of human sexuality. His writings on power, knowledge, and discourse have been widely influential in academic circles. In the 1960s Foucault was associated with structuralism, a movement from which he distanced himself. Foucault also rejected the poststructuralist andpostmodernist labels later attributed to him, preferring to classify his thought as a critical history of modernity rooted in Kant. Foucault's project was particularly influenced by Nietzsche, his "genealogy of knowledge" a direct allusion to Nietzsche's "genealogy of morality". In a late interview he definitively stated: "I am a Nietzschean."
Foucault was listed as the most cited scholar in the humanities in 2007 by the ISI Web of Science
Jacques Derrida July 15, 1930 – October 9, 2004) was a French philosopher, born in French Algeria. He developed the critical theory known as deconstruction, his work has been labeled as post-structuralism and associated with postmodern philosophy.His prolific output of more than 40 published books, together with essays and public speaking, has had a significant impact upon the humanities, particularly on literary theory and continental philosophy. Perhaps Derrida's most quoted and famous assertion ever,[7] is the axial statement of his whole essay on Rousseau (part of his highly influential Of Grammatology, 1967), "there is nothing outside the text" (il n'y a pas de hors-texte),[8] meaning that there is nothing outside context. Critics of Derrida have countless times quoted it as a slogan to characterize and stigmatize deconstruction.
Derrida was always uncomfortable with the popularity of the term "deconstruction" and the corresponding tendency to reduce his philosophical work to that particular label. In spite of his reservations, deconstruction has become associated with the attempt to expose and undermine the oppositions and paradoxes on which particular texts, philosophical and otherwise, are founded. He frequently called such paradoxes "binary oppositions." Derrida's strategy involved explicating the historical roots of philosophical ideas, questioning the so-called "metaphysics of presence" that he sees as having dominated philosophy since the ancient Greeks, careful textual analysis, and attempting to undermine and subvert the paradoxes themselves.
Derrida's work has had implications across many fields, including literature, architecture (in the form of deconstructivism), sociology, and cultural studies. Particularly in his later writings, he frequently addressed ethical and political themes, and his work influenced various activist and other political movements. His widespread influence made him a well-known cultural figure, while his approach to philosophy and the purported difficulty of his work also made him a figure of some controversy. His work has been seen as a challenge to the unquestioned assumptions of the Western philosophical tradition and Western culture as a whole.
Louis Pierre Althusser 16 October 1918 – 22 October 1990) was a French Marxist philosopher. He was born in Algeria and studied at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, where he eventually became Professor of Philosophy.
Althusser was a longtime member - although sometimes a strong critic - of the French Communist Party. His arguments and theses were set against the threats that he saw attacking the theoretical foundations of Marxism. These included both the influence of empiricism on Marxist theory, and humanist and reformist socialist orientations which manifested as divisions in the European communist parties, as well as the problem of the "cult of personality" and of ideology itself.
Althusser is commonly referred to as a Structural Marxist, although his relationship to other schools of French structuralism is not a simple affiliation and he was critical of many aspects of structuralism.
Althusser's life was marked by periods of intense mental illness. During one of his bouts, he killed his wife by strangling her.
Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre 21 June 1905 – 15 April 1980) was a French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary critic. He was one of the leading figures in 20th century French philosophy, particularly Marxism, and was one of the key figures in literary and philosophical existentialism. His work continues to influence fields such as Marxist philosophy, sociology, critical theory and literary studies. Sartre was also noted for his long polyamorous relationship with the feminist author and social theorist Simone de Beauvoir. He was awarded the 1964 Nobel Prize in Literature but refused the honour.
Simone-Ernestine-Lucie-Marie Bertrand de Beauvoir, often shortened to Simone de Beauvoir; January 9, 1908 – April 14, 1986), was a French existentialist philosopher, public intellectual, and social theorist. She wrote novels, essays, biographies, an autobiography in several volumes, and monographs on philosophy, politics, and social issues. She is now best known for her metaphysical novels, including She Came to Stay and The Mandarins, and for her 1949 treatiseThe Second Sex, a detailed analysis of women's oppression and a foundational tract of contemporary feminism. She is also noted for her lifelong polyamorous relationship with Jean-Paul Sartre.
André Glucksmann (born 19 June 1937) is a prominent French philosopher and writer, and leading member of the French new philosophers.
Roland Gérard Barthes (12 November 1915 – 25 March 1980) was a French literary theorist, philosopher, critic, and semiotician. Barthes' ideas explored a diverse range of fields and he influenced the development of schools of theory including structuralism,semiotics, existentialism, social theory, Marxism, anthropology and post-structuralism.
Guy Hocquenghem (3 December 1946 – 28 August 1988) was a French writer and queer theorist, was born in the suburbs of Paris and was educated at the Ecole Normale Supérieure. At the age of fifteen he began an affair with his high school philosophy teacher, René Scherer. They remained life long friends.His participation in the May 1968 student rebellion in France formed his allegiance to the Communist Party, which later expelled him because of his homosexuality.
He taught philosophy at the University of Vincennes-Saint Denis, Paris and wrote numerous novels and works of theory. He was the staff writer for the French publication Libération.
Hocquenghem was the first gay man to be a member of the Front Homosexuel d'Action Révolutionnaire (FHAR), originally formed by lesbian separatists who split from the Mouvement Homophile de France in 1971.
With filmmaker Lionel Soukaz (b. 1953), Hocquenghem wrote and produced a documentary film about gay history, Race d'Ep! (1979) the last word of the title being a play on the word pédé, a French slur for gay men.Hocquenghem died of an AIDS-related illness in 1988.
Though Hocquenghem had a significant impact on leftist thinking in France, his reputation has failed to grow to international prominence. Only the first of his theoretical tracts, Homosexual Desire (1972) and his first novel, L'Amour en relief (1982) have been translated into English. Although Race d'Ep! was shown at Roxie Cinema in San Francisco in April 1980 and released in America as The Homosexual Century, like Hocquenghem, the film is virtually unknown.
Jean Danet (14 January 1924 – 15 October 2001), was a French actor, activist, and gay theorist. He appeared in 27 films between 1942 and 1983.
Danet was born in Auray, Brittany, France. Following World War II, he began work in films. He founded Tréteaux de France in 1959. He was a participant in the program Sexual Morality and the Law with Michel Foucault, debating age of consent reform in France. Danet died in Paris.
Alain Robbe-Grillet (18 August 1922 – 18 February 2008), was a French writer and filmmaker. He was, along with Nathalie Sarraute, Michel Butor and Claude Simon, one of the figures most associated with the Nouveau Roman (new novel) trend. Alain Robbe-Grillet was elected a member of the Académie française on March 25, 2004, succeeding Maurice Rheims at seat No. 32. He was married to Catherine Robbe-Grillet (née Rstakian).
Philippe Sollers (born Philippe Joyaux 28 November 1936, Bordeaux, Gironde) is a French writer and critic. In 1960 he founded the avant garde journal Tel Quel(along with the writer and art critic Marcelin Pleynet), published by Seuil, which ran until 1982. In 1982 Sollers then created the journal L'Infini published by Denoel which was later published under the same title by Gallimard for whom Sollers also directs the series.
Sollers was at the heart of the intense period of intellectual unrest in the Paris of the 1960s and 1970s. Among others, he was a friend of Jacques Lacan, Louis Althusser and Roland Barthes. These three characters are described in his novel,Femmes (1983) alongside a number of other figures of the French intellectual movement before and after May 1968. From A Strange Solitude, The Park and Event, through "Logiques", Lois and Paradis, down to Watteau in Venice, Une vie divine and "La Guerre du goût", the writings of Sollers have often provided contestation, provocation and challenge.
In his book Writer Sollers, Roland Barthes discusses the work of Phillippe Sollers and the meaning of language.
Sollers married Julia Kristeva in 1967.
Françoise Dolto (1908–1988), was a French doctor and psychoanalyst, famous for her research on babies and childhood. Dolto revolutionized the field of psycho-therapeutic work with babies and with the mother baby dyad.
She worked with Jacques Lacan, and said that children have a language before the language (with the body). She has contributed to the question of the unconscious body image, and influenced among others the work of Maud Mannoni.
Françoise Dolto was the mother of Carlos (1943–2008), a singer; and the sister of Jacques Marette, a minister.
Le Monde ( The World) is a French daily evening newspaper owned by La Vie-Le Monde Group and edited in Paris. It is considered the French newspaper of record, and has generally been well respected since its first edition under founder Hubert Beuve-Méry on 19 December 1944. It was founded at the request of General Charles de Gaulle after the German army was driven from Paris during World War II, and took over the headquarters and layout of Le Temps, which was the most important newspaper in France before but whose reputation had suffered during the Occupation. Beuve-Méry reportedly demanded total editorial independence as the condition for his taking on the project.
Le Monde is the principal publication of La Vie-Le Monde Group. It should not be confused with the monthly publication Le Monde diplomatique, of which Le Monde has 51% ownership, but which is editorially independent. It reports an average circulation of 323,039 copies per issue in 2009, about 40,000 of which are sold abroad. It has been available on the Internet since 19 December 1995, and is often the only French newspaper easily obtainable in non-French-speaking countries. Its current chief editor(rédacteur en chef) is Sylvie Kauffmann. Plantu is one of several political cartoonists who contribute to the paper, and his work is often featured on the front page above the fold.
In the 1990s and 2000s, La Vie-Le Monde Group expanded under editorJean-Marie Colombani with a number of acquisitions.
However, its profitability was not sufficient to cover the large debt loads it took on to fund this expansion, and it has sought new investors in 2010 to keep the company out of bankruptcy. It has been suggested that a condition for a bailout might be the loss of Le Monde's famous control by its own journalists. In June 2010, investors Matthieu Pigasse, Pierre Bergé, and Xavier Niel acquired a controlling stake in the newspaper. In December, it was reported that after conflicts with the new investors, board chairman and director of publication Éric Fottorino would depart
Libération (known as Libé) is a French daily newspaper founded in Paris by Jean-Paul Sartre and Serge July in 1973 in the wake of the protest movements of May 1968. Originally a leftist newspaper, it has undergone a number of shifts during the 1980s and 1990s. As of 2007, it has a circulation of about 140,000[1] and was the first French daily to have a website.
While Libération still has a decidedly self-described progressive editorial line − generally supportive of causes such as anti-racism, feminism, and workers' rights − Edouard de Rothschild's entrance in its capital (37%) in 2005 and editor Serge July's campaign for the "yes" vote in the referendum establishing a Constitution for Europe the same year alienated it from a number of its left-wing readers. Its editorial stance is currently social liberal.
In May 2007, former Libération journalists created the news website Rue 89.
The magazine was co-founded by Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber, future president of the Radical Party, and Françoise Giroud, who had earlier edited ELLE and went on to become France's first Minister of Women's Affairs in 1974 and Minister of Culture in 1976. The magazine was supportive of the policies of Pierre Mendès-France in Indochina, and in general had a left-of-centre orientation. The magazine opposed the war in Algeria, and especially the use of torture. In March 1958, as a result of an article of Jean-Paul Sartre reviewing the book La Question by Henri Alleg, the magazine was prevented from being published by the French Government. In order to resume publication, L'Express had to print a new issue without the incriminated article. François Mauriac was a regular contributor with his Bloc-Notes column but left L'Express when Charles De Gaulle returned to power.
In 1964, a number of journalists, including Jean Daniel and André Gorz, quit
L'Express is a French weekly news magazine. When founded in 1953 during the First Indochina War, it was modelled on the American magazine TIME.
L'Express to found Le Nouvel Observateur. Servan-Schreiber turned l'Express into a less politically engaged publication, and the circulation rose from 150,000 to 500,000 copies in 3 years.
In 1971, as a result of Servan-Schreiber's political activities as a deputy of the Radical Party, nine journalists of L'Express, including Claude Imbert, left the magazine and created Le Point to counter what they perceived as the "current breed of French intellectuals in the press and elsewhere, with their leftist dogmas and complacent nihilism.".
In 1977, Servan-Schreiber sold his magazine to Jimmy Goldsmith. Jean-François Revel became director in October 1978.
He was replaced by Yves Cuau in May 1981. In 1987, L'Express was sold to C. G. E.. Yann de l'Ecotais became the new director, until 1994 when he was replaced by Christine Ockrent. In 1995, L'Express was sold to CEP communications, a filial of Havas. Denis Jeambar became the new director.
In 1998, after Vivendi took control of Havas, the magazine returned under its control. After the collapse of Vivendi, L'Express was sold in 2002 to Socpresse (80% owned by Dassault Group). It has been bought in 2006 by long term partner Roularta. In 2008 L'Express reaches 2,3 million readers each week through its magazine and nearly 2 million internet users every month.
Mayo de 1968 en Francia
Se conoce como Mayo francés o mayo del 68 la cadena de protestas que se llevaron a cabo en Francia y, especialmente, en París durante los meses de mayo y junio de 1968. Esta serie de protestas fue iniciada por grupos estudiantiles de izquierdas contrarios a la sociedad de consumo, a los que posteriormente se unieron grupos de obreros industriales y, finalmente y de forma menos entusiasta, los sindicatos y el Partido Comunista Francés.
Como resultado, tuvo lugar la mayor revuelta estudiantil y la mayor huelga general de la historia de Francia, y posiblemente de Europa Occidental, secundada por más de 9 millones de trabajadores.
Estuvo vinculado con el movimiento hippie que se extendía entonces.
La magnitud de las protestas no había sido prevista por el gobierno francés, y puso contra las cuerdas al gobierno de Charles de Gaulle, que llegó a temer una insurrección de carácter revolucionario tras la extensión de la huelga general. Sin embargo, la mayor parte de los sectores participantes en la protesta no llegaron a plantearse la toma del poder ni la insurrección abierta contra el Estado, y ni tan siquiera el Partido Comunista Francés llegó a considerar seriamente esa salida.
El grueso de las protestas finalizó cuando De Gaulle anunció las elecciones anticipadas que tuvieron lugar el 23 y 30 de junio.
Los sucesos de mayo y junio en Francia se encuadran dentro de una ola de protestas protagonizadas, principalmente, por sectores politizados de la juventud que recorrió el mundo durante 1968. Estos sucesos se extendieron por la República Federal Alemana, España, México,Argentina, Uruguay, Estados Unidos y Checoslovaquia.
El FLIP-Frente de Liberación de los Pedófilos.
En mayo de 1977 el muy progresista diario francés “Libéración” informa a sus lectores de la creación del FLIP, el Frente de Liberación de los Pedófilos. La primera reunión del FLIP tiene lugar en los locales del campus universitario de Jussieu (Paris 6-Paris 7). La “plataforma reivindicativa” del FLIP creada en esa primera reunión acuerda los puntos siguientes:
-Combatir la injusticia penal y proponer una reflexión crítica sobre la familia y la escuela, basada sobre un análisis político de la sexualidad entre menores y adultos.
-Asociarse a la lucha de los niños que quieren cambiar su modo de vida y de todos aquellos grupos políticos que buscan establecer una sociedad radicalmente nueva en la cual la pederastia existiera libremente.
-Desarrollar una cultura de la pederastia que se exprese por un modo de vida nuevo, y trabajar para la emergencia de un arte nuevo.
-Tomar la palabra en los órganos de información que le ofrezcan los medios y por las vías que se imponen.
-Manifestar su solidaridad con los pedófilos encarcelados o víctimas de la psiquiatría oficial.
El 26 de enero de 1977, el no menos prestigioso diario “Le Monde” publicaba el siguiente texto:
Los días 27, 28 y 29 de enero (1977) comparecerán ante los juzgados de Yvelinnes por atentado contra el pudor sin violencia sobre menores de 15 años, Bernard Dejager, Jean-Claude Gallien y Jean Burckhardt, que fueron arrestados en el otoño del año 1973 y han pasado ya tres años en prisión preventiva.
Una detención preventiva tan larga para instruir un simple asunto de “costumbres sexuales” en la cual los niños no han sido víctimas de ninguna violencia, sino que por el contrario, como lo han declarado ante el juez, han sido consintientes (aunque la justicia no les reconoce el derecho al consentimiento), una tan larga detención, decimos, nos parece escandalosa.
Los inculpados corren el riesgo de ser condenados a una grave pena de reclusión criminal, ya sea por haber tenido relaciones sexuales con menores, niños y niñas, ya sea por haber favorecido y fotografiado sus juegos sexuales.
Consideramos que aquí hay una desproporción manifiesta de una parte entre la calificación del “crimen” que justifica una severidad tal y la naturaleza de los hechos reprochados, y por otra parte, entre el carácter anticuado de la ley y la realidad cotidiana de una sociedad que tiende a reconocer en los niños y los adolescentes la existencia de una vida sexual (si una niña de 13 años tiene derecho a la píldora contra el embarazo, ¿para qué se supone que es?)
La ley francesa se contradice cuando reconoce la capacidad de discernimiento de un menor de 13 o 14 años que puede juzgar y condenar, mientras que le niega esta misma capacidad cuando se trata de su vida afectiva y sexual. Tres años de prisión por unas caricias y unos besos, ¡ya basta! No entenderíamos que el 29 de enero (día del juicio), Dejager, Gallien y Buckhardt no recuperasen su libertad.
Firmaron este texto:
Louis Aragon, Roland Barthes, Simone de Beauvoir, Jean-Paul Sartre, André Glucksmann, Bernard Kouchner, Jack Lang, Jean-François Léotard, Michel Bon, psicosociólogo, Gérard Valls, psiquiatra, Maurice Erne, psiquiatra, Pierrette Garrou, psiquiatra, Claire Gellman, psicólogo, Robert Gellman, psiquiatra,Pierre-Edmond Gay, psicoanalista, Bernard Muldworf, psiquiatra, Guy Hocquenghem, Judith Belladona, Michel Cressole, Madeleine Lak
Jean-Michel Wilheim, Gabriel Matzneff, Hélène Védrines, Pierre Samuel, René Schérer, Pierre Hahn, y unas 50 firmas más
Ese mismo año 1977, fue dirigida una petición al Parlamento francés pidiendo la derogación de la ley sobre la mayoría de edad sexual y la despenalización de todas las relaciones consentidas entre adultos y menores de 15 años. Ese documento fue firmado por los filósofos Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, Louis Althusser, Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, André Glucksmann y Roland Barthes, el activista en favor de los homosexuales Guy Hocquenghem, el escritor Philippe Sollers(miembro de la Academia Francesa en 2004), la pediatra y psicoanalista para niños Françoise Dolto y otras personas.