Françoise d'Eaubonne (12 March 1920 – 3 August 2005) was a French author,

labour rights Labor rights or workers' rights are both legal rights and human rights relating to labor relations between workers and employers. These rights are codified in national and international labor and employment law. In general, these rights influe ...

activist,

environmentalist An environmentalist is a person who is concerned with and/or advocates for the protection of the environment. An environmentalist can be considered a supporter of the goals of the environmental movement, "a political and ethical movement that se ...

, and feminist. Her 1974 book, ''Le Féminisme ou la Mort'', introduced the term ecofeminism. She co-founded the

Front homosexuel d'action révolutionnaire The front homosexuel d'action révolutionnaire ( en, Homosexual Front for Revolutionary Action) (FHAR) was a loose Parisian movement founded in 1971, resulting from a union between lesbian feminists and gay activists. If the movement could be con ...

, a homosexual revolutionary alliance in Paris.

Life and career

Her mother was a teacher, a child of a

Carlist Carlism ( eu, Karlismo; ca, Carlisme; ; ) is a Traditionalist and Legitimist political movement in Spain aimed at establishing an alternative branch of the Bourbon dynasty – one descended from Don Carlos, Count of Molina (1788–1855) – ...

revolutionary. Her father was an anarcho-syndicalist and the secretary general of an insurance company. Both of her parents were members of the religious Sillon movement. When she was at the age of 16, the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, link ...

broke out. Later, she would express her feelings in this period of her life with the title "''Chienne de Jeunesse''". A member of the

French Communist Party The French Communist Party (french: Parti communiste français, ''PCF'' ; ) is a political party in France which advocates the principles of communism. The PCF is a member of the Party of the European Left, and its MEPs sit in the European Un ...

from 1945-1957, in 1971, she co-founded the

(FHAR), a homosexual revolutionary movement. Also that year, she signed the

Manifesto of the 343 The Manifesto of the 343 (), was a French petition signed by 343 women "who had the courage to say, 'I've had an abortion. It was an act of civil disobedience, since abortion was illegal in France, and by admitting publicly to having aborted, they ...

declaring she had an abortion. She is considered the founder of the ecological and social movement of ecofeminism. She created the Ecology-Feminism (Ecologie-Feminisme) Center in Paris in 1972. In 1974 she published her book ''Le féminisme ou la mort'' (Feminism or Death) where she first coined the term ecofeminism. In the book, she speaks of a special connection women share with nature and encourages women's environmental activism. She cites

toxic masculinity Toxic masculinity is a set of certain male behaviors associated with harm to society and men themselves. Traditional stereotypes of men as socially dominant, along with related traits such as misogyny and homophobia, can be considered "toxic" d ...

as the cause of population growth, pollution, and other destructive influences on the environment. Many scholars shared d'Eaubonne's view on women's inherent connection to nature. These scholars include

Sherry Ortner Sherry Beth Ortner (born September 19, 1941) is an American cultural anthropologist and has been a Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at UCLA since 2004. Biography Ortner grew up in a Jewish family in Newark, New Jersey, and attended Weequa ...

Rosemary Radford Ruether Rosemary Radford Ruether (1936–2022) was an American feminist scholar and Roman Catholic theologian known for her significant contributions to the fields of feminist theology and ecofeminist theology. Her teaching and her writings helped est ...

, Susan Griffin, and

Carolyn Merchant Carolyn Merchant (born July 12, 1936 in Rochester, New York) is an American ecofeminist philosopher and historian of science most famous for her theory (and book of the same title) on ''The Death of Nature'', whereby she identifies the Scienti ...

. Following her motto, "Not a day without a line", Françoise d'Eaubonne wrote more than 50 works, from ''Colonnes de l'âme'' (poetry, 1942) to ''L'Évangile de Véronique'' (essay, 2003). Her historical novel ''Comme un vol de gerfauts'' (1947) was translated into English as ''A Flight of Falcons'', and extracts from her essay ''Feminism or Death'' appeared in the 1974 anthology ''New French Feminisms''. She also wrote

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...

novels, like ''L'échiquier du temps'' and ''Rêve de feu'', ''Le sous-marin de l'espace''.

Bibliography

*Novels: **''Le cœur de Watteau'', 1944 **''Comme un vol de gerfauts'', prix des lecteurs 1947 **''Belle Humeur ou la Véridique Histoire de Mandrin'',1957 **''J'irai cracher sur vos tombes'', 1959 (after the film ''

I Spit on Your Grave ''I Spit on Your Grave'' (originally titled ''Day of the Woman'') is a 1978 American rape and revenge horror film edited, written, and directed by Meir Zarchi. The film tells the story of Jennifer Hills (Camille Keaton), a fiction writer based ...

'') **''Les Tricheurs'', 1959 (after the film '' Les Tricheurs'') **''Jusqu'à la gauche'', 1963 **''Les Bergères de l'Apocalypse'', 1978 **''On vous appelait terroristes'', 1979 **''Je ne suis pas née pour mourir'', 1982 **''Terrorist's blues'', 1987 **''Floralies du désert'', 1995 *Biographies: **''La vie passionnée d'Arthur Rimbaud'', 1957 **''La vie passionnée de Verlaine'', 1959 **''Une femme témoin de son siècle, Germaine de Staël'', 1966 **''La couronne de sable, vie d'Isabelle Eberhardt'', 1967 **''L'éventail de fer ou la vie de Qiu Jin'', 1977 **''Moi, Kristine, reine de Suède'', 1979 **''L'impératrice rouge : moi, Jiang King, veuve Mao'', 1981 **''L'Amazone Sombre : vie d'Antoinette Lix'', 1983 **''Louise Michel la Canaque'', 1985 **''Une femme nommée Castor'', 1986 **''Les scandaleuses'', 1990 **''L'évangile de Véronique'', 2000 *Essays: **''Le complexe de Diane, érotisme ou féminisme'', 1951 **''Y a-t-il encore des hommes?'', 1964 **''Eros minoritaire'', 1970 **''Le féminisme ou la mort'', 1974 ***''

Feminism or death ''Feminism or death'' (french: Le Féminisme ou la mort) is a book of essays about ecofeminism by Françoise d´Eaubonne. In it, d'Eaubonne first coined the term ''ecofeminism'' (''l'eco-féminisme''), which conceptualizes the apparent linkage b ...

'', 2022 **''Les femmes avant le patriarcat'', 1976 **''Contre violence ou résistance à l'état'', 1978 **''Histoire de l'art et lutte des sexes'', 1978 **''Écologie, féminisme : révolution ou mutation ?'', 1978 **''S comme Sectes'', 1982 **''La femme russe'', 1988 **''Féminin et philosophie : une allergie historique'', 1997 **''La liseuse et la lyre'', 1997 **''Le sexocide des sorcières'', 1999 *Poems: **''Columns of the soul'', 1942 **''Rutten'', 1951 **''Neither place nor meter'', 1981

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Eaubonne, Francoise D 1920 births 2005 deaths 20th-century French novelists Anarcho-communists Ecofeminists French anarchists French communists French socialists French feminists French environmentalists French abortion-rights activists French anti-fascists French anti-capitalists French syndicalists French women novelists Left-libertarians Left-libertarianism Left-wing politics in France Libertarian socialists LGBT rights activists from France Marxist feminists Syndicalists French socialist feminists Writers from Paris 20th-century French women Signatories of the 1971 Manifesto of the 343