This Sunday, November 24, the show Prohibited area on M6 looks at the new family models that are establishing themselves in our society: blended families, single women waiting for a child, same-sex couples, transgender parents…
Interview with Valentine Amado and Sophie Lainé, directors of the documentary New families: no more taboos!
What was the meaning of your work with this documentary?
It accompanies a social reality which is the appearance of new family organizations, centered on the visceral desire to have a child. The parents we met were patient and fought to achieve this. What is certain is that they are wanted children! And that their parents created the most favorable cocoon possible, with a lot of love and listening. However, this film did not aim to question the future consequences of these choices on children. This will require remaking a film in ten to fifteen years.
Read also: TESTIMONIALS. Blended families: “The day I met his children”
Among your portraits, the “oldest” family is that of the two homosexual couples…
Nicolas and David, as a couple, and Virginie and Sandrine, also as a couple, wanted to have children with a father and a mother and to raise them as co-parents. When the couples met, they had a sort of friendly crush, then became convinced that they would not have major disagreements over education. The co-parents have set up two connecting apartments around the children’s bedrooms, now aged 16 and 9. They contribute according to their income and make important decisions unanimously. And they are now trying to have co-parents without biological ties recognized as adoptive parents.
“Parents yearn for normality”
You also followed the journey of Séverine, who decided to have a child alone…
Three thousand single women have started a medically assisted procreation (PMA) journey, within the framework of the bioethics law passed in 2021. Séverine settled down to start a family, after ten years of work in tourism, traveling the world. With the biological clock ticking, she decided to have a child without waiting to find the father, with the support of her mother and her friends.
Read also: INTERVIEW. Blended families: “The step-parent has no obligation of love, but of respect”
There is also the arrival of the first babies of transgender parents?
Until 2016, people who wanted to change their gender in the civil registry had to continue their physical transition until the end. At the end of hormonal treatments and surgical operations, they became sterile. After France’s conviction by the European Court of Human Rights, the law was amended. From then on, Mattéo, born with female genitalia, was able to become pregnant with Victoire, born in a man’s body. Mattéo’s birth in Bourges, in 2023, was not an obstetric revolution, but a societal one. The second transgender dad we met, Kevin, takes full-time care of the twins he had, thanks to assisted reproduction, with his non-trans partner.
How did those around these families react?
Those around them were surprised, a little shocked, but the arrival of the grandchildren delighted the grandparents. The parents aspire to normality, but know that society is not completely ready to welcome them. It was not easy to find families willing to testify. They must protect themselves.
M621 h 10.
