Stay until rebirth | The Press

After almost 50 years with Éditions du Stir-Mage, today a legendary feminist publishing house, Rachel Bédard retired last week. If you don’t know her, that’s pretty normal; Rachel Bédard is a discreet woman who has dedicated her life to putting the words of others forward. Known in her community, she is not known to the general public.

It was her young colleagues Valérie Simard, Ariane Gibeau, Cécile Huysman, Sabrine Kherrati and Anne Migner-Laurin who contacted me to offer me an interview that Rachel Bédard would never have dared to request. Which demonstrates the esteem they have for the one who has been there since the beginnings of this house founded in 1976, in the feminist craze of this decade to which our era seems to echo.

I said yes straight away, because this independent house has had quite a wonderful destiny by remaining more relevant than ever in the decor. But also because I had the impression of participating in a bad move by a group of girls who wanted to mark the departure not of their boss, but of their colleague who was a little too humble. This is because here, we have always operated in a collegial manner, there is no boss. A way of doing things that played a big role in Rachel Bédard’s choice to stay there for so long. “Today you get used to it, but at first it was very strange,” she says. People were calling and wanting to speak to the boss. I looked like an obstructive secretary. »

Rachel Bédard has postponed her retirement in order to take advantage of the renewal of recent years. Over time, agitation, while patiently maintaining its feminist editorial line, has opened up to all genres: essays, novels, children’s literature, poetry, etc., and has also renewed its graphic image, with huge successes like Where I hide by Caroline Dawson or Girls in series by Martine Delvaux. So much so that we sometimes think that it is a new publishing house, even though it is one of the most venerable in the literary landscape. “There is a reception, a younger audience, a need, and for me, it is extremely gratifying,” says Rachel Bédard.

Because yes, there were some lean years. In the 1990s, when I was at university, feminism was not really popular, and women writers were rather a minority in the bodies of “great” literature. We didn’t dream of publishing with rémusement and many believed that feminism was a thing of the past, to be put away with ponchos that smell of patchouli.

“After the Chantale Daigle affair and the killing at Polytechnique, there was a general backlash in society,” remembers Rachel Bédard. We have always been connected to the activist world, there was work being done in the feminist community, but it was not reflected in the public square. We felt a return with the Bread and Roses March in 1995.”

A living history

I showed up at the offices of agitation with a small gift: old publications found in the archives of my late mother-in-law who was very active in feminist magazines of the 1970s and of which she sometimes told me behind the scenes . Quebecers stand up! or The pickaxe headswhich have been the subject of anthologies at rémusement; the special issue of La vie en rose published in 2005 with this cover which made an impression, where we saw a woman in high heels under a burqa; an investigation entitled Abortion: the quiet resistance of hospital power published in 1980… Proof that time passes, but that certain battles unfortunately remain relevant today.

Many women have gone through turmoil, but Rachel Bédard is a pillar who has devoted her life to it. I found his name in credits dating back over 45 years. She says that the house was founded “by women who loved books and who said to themselves: yes, we want to campaign, but we want to supply the movement with books”.

Courted by many publishers, it was to agitation that Simonne Monet-Chartrand voluntarily entrusted the publication of her memoirs, My life as a riverwhich gave great visibility to the house.

But the first stirring title is Mom doesn’t work, has too much work! a play from the Théâtre des cuisines, at a time when women were questioning their alienation in household chores, very shortly after having acquired the right to open a personal bank account, and long before we were talking about mental load. “At the beginning, it was more combat literature,” recalls Rachel Bédard. It was an agit-prop play about the recognition of women’s housework, and this play was performed almost everywhere in the unions. The name “retire-ménage” was not innocent, because the recognition of women’s domestic work was truly in the DNA of retir-ménage. »

Remue-ménage has echoes in France, where its books are distributed, and has sometimes sold rights to large houses which are developing “small feminist collections”, Rachel Bédard tells me, with a smirk. I inform him that there are also books being published about neofeminists that go too far, according to their authors. “It’s a speech we’ve heard before,” she replies with a sigh, not at all impressed, after half a century of experience.

Rachel Bédard plans to savor her retirement, because she is leaving with peace of mind. Éditions du stir-ménage don’t even need to refresh their image, it’s already done and the next generation is there more than ever. “It can’t get any better than this,” she told me.

— But it all held together thanks to you, right?

— I can say that I was very tenacious.

Yes, Ms. Bédard. You can say it.