Théophile de Giraud (born 19 November 1968) is a

Belgian Belgian may refer to: * Something of, or related to, Belgium * Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent * Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German *Ancient Belgian language, an extinct languag ...

writer, philosopher and activist of French language.

Literary work

Published in 2000, De Giraud's first book, ''The Impertinence of Procreation'', is a plea against human reproduction, using a mixture of humor and provocation. Noted for his many eccentricities, De Giraud was listed in the anthology ''Les Fous Littéraires'' by the pataphysician André Blavier. De Giraud's essay ''The Art of Guillotining the Procreators: Anti-Natalist Manifesto'', published in 2006, is a rewrite of his first work. The central message of the work is "If you love children, don't create them". After having tried to show that life is only pain and that ethics is incompatible with reproduction, De Giraud argued for school training for parenthood, adoption and a procreation strike to end the reproduction imposed by

patriarchy Patriarchy is a social system in which positions of dominance and privilege are primarily held by men. It is used, both as a technical anthropological term for families or clans controlled by the father or eldest male or group of males a ...

. He cited many classical authors to illustrate his points. In a different register, De Giraud described as a "dandy punk in rupture", published in 2008, a poetic essay on the

cold wave A cold wave (known in some regions as a cold snap, cold spell or Arctic Snap) is a weather phenomenon that is distinguished by a cooling of the air. Specifically, as used by the U.S. National Weather Service, a cold wave is a rapid fall in tem ...

entitled "Cold Love, Satanic Sex and Funny Suicide", with a preface written by

Jean-Luc De Meyer Jean-Luc De Meyer (born 1957 in Brussels) is a vocalist and lyricist who is best known as the lead vocalist of the Belgian EBM group Front 242. He started singing in the experimental group "Under Viewer" with Patrick Codenys. Both joined Front ...

, singer of Front 242. Through numerous extracts of songs, he reviews several themes of the cold wave movement and the origin of Gothic movement, such as the love of sex and death, the hatred of the family and even the celebration of the end of the world and the human race; all with a humorous and inventive style. De Giraud also contributed to the collective book ''Fewer, More Happy: The Urgency to Rethink Demography'', collated by Michel Sourrouille.

Activism

A figure of the

antinatalism Antinatalism or anti-natalism is the view that procreation is wrong. Antinatalists argue that humans should abstain from procreation because it is morally wrong. In scholarly and literary writings, various ethical arguments have been put forth i ...

and

childfree Voluntary childlessness, also called being childfree, describes the voluntary choice to not have children. In most societies and for most of human history, choosing not to have children was both difficult and undesirable. The availability of rel ...

movement, De Giraud is one of the co-creators of Non-Parents Day, celebrated between 2009 and 2011, alternately in Brussels and Paris. In 2008, he covered a statue of Leopold II in Brussels with red paint, to denounce the public valorisation of the king who established the colonial system of the

Belgian Congo The Belgian Congo (french: Congo belge, ; nl, Belgisch-Congo) was a Belgian colony in Central Africa from 1908 until independence in 1960. The former colony adopted its present name, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), in 1964. Colo ...

. In 2012, he organised a "denatalist" event in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

to bring attention to the

overpopulation Overpopulation or overabundance is a phenomenon in which a species' population becomes larger than the carrying capacity of its environment. This may be caused by increased birth rates, lowered mortality rates, reduced predation or large scale m ...

taboo and to the value of refusing to give birth for

ecological Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overlaps wi ...

reasons.

Awards

* Winner of the

Belgian Vocation Foundation The Belgian Vocation Foundation is a Belgian non-profit organization, founded on 23 November 1963 by the Belgian industrialist Emile Bernheim. The foundation provides support to young people with a vocation, but who can not complete their education ...

(1998) * Childfree Man of the Year (2013)

Selected works

* ''The Impertinence of Procreation'', Brussels, self-published, 2000. * ''One Hundred Necromantic Haikus'', preface by Jean-Pierre Verheggen, foreword and afterword by André Stas, Spa, ed. Galopin, 2004 (). *
The Art of Guillotining Procreators: An Anti-natalist Manifesto
', Nancy, ed. Le Mort-Qui-Trompe, 2006 (). * ''Diogenesis, Fluorescent Poems to Wait Between Two Genocides'', Brussels, ed. Maelström, 2008 (). * ''Cold Love, Satanic Sex and Funny Suicide'', preface by

, Nancy, ed. Le Mort-Qui-Trompe, 2008 (). * ''Aphorisms for the Use of Future Familicides'', preface by

Corinne Maier 300px, Corinne Maier Corinne Maier (born 7 December 1963) is a Swiss-born, French psychoanalyst, economist, and best-selling writer. She is best known for being the author of '' Bonjour paresse'', a cynical critique of French corporate culture. In ...

, foreword by Serge Poliart, Brussels, ed. Maelström, 2013 (). * ''The Childfree Christ: Antinatalism in Early Christianity'', ed. AFNIL, 2021 ().

References

External links

*
Antinatalist speech given by Théophile de Giraud during the General Assembly in Berlin (2017)
{{DEFAULTSORT:de Giraud, Théophile 1968 births Living people 21st-century Belgian writers 21st-century Belgian philosophers Anti-natalists Belgian activists Belgian writers in French Childfree People from Namur (city)