With all due respect, this is a lot of theoretical talk and does not bear out in reality necessarily. Go to the suburbs/exurbs of Paris and ask the youth of Algerian and Moroccan descent how "French" they are made to feel by white Francophones or how French they feel given the fact they live in largely ghettoized slums. Or let's take a look at astonishingly high and record-breaking numbers of Jews emigrating from France due to fairly widespread anti-semitism which is on the rise. And no, I don't think that French feminists are somehow the paragon of truth here either.
A much worse party than the Republicans led by Trump could easily have been elected in France AND has solid backing of a significant minority. What the French liberte, egalite, fraternite stands for in theory is all nice and great but you could write similarly beautiful-sounding things about the American constitution yet here we are.
yes, there you are, and yes, we were very close to being there too, which is why i am grateful that we didn't get there yet, and the French rallied to do a protest vote and block her - i am well aware how precarious the situation was last year... not sure if Le Pen can be considered worse than the current Republicans to be honest... and right now the extreme right is thankfully in complete disarray and is split...
of course there are so many social issues that are a mess, i would be blind to pretend there weren't, but this wasn't really the place for me to go into it, as i was trying to focus on the equality aspect and how it shapes male/female interactions, and also like to focus on the positives - but i know it's not cool to be positive in this place...
there's plenty i could add re. problems in France, the lack of provision for refugees is a huge one - it is a complete disgrace how things are being handled, but on the upside, masses of people are filling the gap left by the government and bringing daily aid, food, clothing, shelter to refugees, and while the state response is shitty, the people's response give me hope that it's not all bad... in my day to day, i see the practical application of "fraternity" in so many little ways, among my friends and in the community, and it inspires me
you're making the assumption that France is white, it is not - take a look at our government, our celebrities, our writers, our philosophers and thinkers, our workforce... the young people in the banlieus are French, and have the same rights as white French kids - they can get out of poverty thru education and many actually do... at least they have the means available to them if they want to have a go! my son works with a French-African lad from the "banlieu", he has no family help, and has three part-time jobs and is at med school training to be a doctor and doing really fucking well - he is incredible, but he is able to get a grant from the state, get help with his rent, and his jobs give him extra cash - the opportunities are there for young people and there is so much support to help them succeed (without bankrupting them in the process)! i'm proud that the social security and education system here can help young people like this!
there is a real problem with radicalisation, and identity among some young second-generation immigrants in the banlieus, who are rejecting their French nationality, i don't know how this can be solved, but i think it comes down to individual families and maybe starts in the home and in the local community...
i don't want to go on and on as this thread isn't the place for it, but it isn't a pissing contest and these are huge issues, and you have picked easy obvious targets... antisemitism etc (there are masses of convictions for antisemitism btw - it is taken extremely seriously here... just this past week a publisher was planning to reissue Celine's texts (they're considered antisemitic) and due to public outry, publication was pulled - people power)...
oh and re. race, that was a personal observation - a French friend of mine in fact a few of them have the same background as i, being second-generation immigrants from the colonies - my French friends' experiences (from former French colonies) are worlds apart from my own (second-generation from a former British colony) - they are considered French, no questions asked, whereas i was always treated as a foreigner in the UK and experienced racism on pretty much a daily or at least weekly basis in 80s Britain (would clash pretty much everyday with the same kids on my way to school) - and i thought that was amazing!
re. feminism i'm not even saying i agree 100% with the Deneuve letter - there were some pretty obnoxious comments in there for a start, but i understand where some of the main views were coming from, and thought i would try to talk about it in here and try to discuss our cultural differences... sorry for being happy about shit