A coffee with… Laure Adler | No time to be good

A convinced feminist, defender of seniors, journalist, author, speaker, influencer on TikTok… At 74, Laure Adler is a model of dynamism and commitment. Our columnist met her in Paris for the release of her new book, Women's voices.

She arrived at the Espace des Blancs Manteaux, in the Marais, perched on high heels, her gaze hidden behind her legendary smoked glasses. This November afternoon, Laure Adler gave an interview in front of a public as part of the Délivrées! event, a feminist book fair organized by Clara Magazinea publication founded in 1987.

Between the moment she got off stage and the moment she sat down in front of me, Laure Adler signed autographs, exchanged a few words with people from the audience, and was photographed by a team of Japanese journalists.

I don't hesitate to tell him how amazed I am by his energy and his many projects.

“It was very difficult to make the decision to leave radio last year,” the one who hosted The blue houron France Inter. I really loved my job, and I was very lucky to be able to do it. But I didn't know how much pleasure returning to philosophy studies would give me. Learning gives you energy! »

In Women's voicesLaure Adler tells the story of feminism in France, a story in which her personal journey and her reflections are intertwined. Who was she thinking of when writing this book?

“In France,” adds the historian, “this word “feminism” was brandished as a negative standard. Our enemies seized on it by saying: feminists are all violent people who hate men, who want to castrate them, etc. I thought I would try to take stock historically. And that through my own story, I would tell that of a generation that was built by and for feminism. »

With Gisèle Pelicot

The French autumn, in addition to being complicated on the political level, was marked by the trial of Dominique Pelicot, accused of having drugged his wife, Gisèle Pelicot, without her knowledge for 10 years to rape her and deliver her to strangers recruited on the internet.

Impossible not to talk about it, especially since Laure Adler published an article on this subject two weeks ago in the pages of the daily newspaper Liberation.

“This trial was an explosion for us in France,” she emphasizes. It demonstrates that women's words can be exceptionally courageous. For me, and for other women, Gisèle Pelicot is a heroine. She said: “I won't come in through the back door of the courthouse, I'll come in through the big one. I want the evidence to be seen on the big screen, I don't want the videos that show my body to be hidden. I want to hear publicly the defenses of the accused who will say in their own way that none of this was their fault.” Gisèle Pelicot takes charge head-on, in the name of all women. She goes from “I” to “we” and we are all with her. »

Laure Adler gives as proof the statements of the accused at the trial: “We believed that she was libertine, that she agreed…” The guilt was placed on Gisèle Pelicot. What image does this give of the holed, perforated, violated body…? Did these men get excited about making love to a woman who was as if dead? This is a story that needs to be told in schools. »

Âgisme et sexisme, même combat

Laure Adler se dit tout autant inspirée par les jeunes qui alimentent le mouvement #metoo.

« Ce mouvement a ravivé une flamme chez les jeunes générations. Entre filles, elles se reconnaissent, elles s’épaulent, se portent secours. Elles éprouvent de la solidarité… »

Le mouvement #metoo a également donné la possibilité à des femmes plus vieilles de se rendre dans un commissariat de police ou chez un avocat pour dénoncer les violences subies, selon Laure Adler.

Contrairement à d’autres féministes de sa génération, la septuagénaire ne se sent pas dépassée par la multiplicité des voix qui s’expriment au sein du mouvement des femmes : « Pas du tout, assure-t-elle. Je m’alimente, je réfléchis, j’évolue avec les jeunes. J’admire leur manière de faire et d’être. L’histoire du féminisme en France a toujours été composée de plusieurs courants, et d’un courant plus radical qui a réussi à faire évoluer les mouvements plus bourgeois et plus consensuels. Je crois que le féminisme est assez fort pour contenir plusieurs visions. »

Alors que la vieillesse est souvent associée à la sagesse, Laure Adler rappelle que cette dernière n’aide pas la cause du féminisme.

Avant de me quitter, Laure Adler me parle de son autre combat, contre l’âgisme cette fois. « Les deux [âgisme et sexisme] are linked,” affirms the one who participated in the founding of the self-proclaimed National Council for Old Age, a citizen movement created in 2021.

“We are going to talk to the directors of EHPADs [l’équivalent de nos CHSLD]we demonstrate in the street, we intervene in social issues, we launch a TV, we hold meetings… We are quite active and we have a lot of fun! », says the author of The night watcha book about old age which was followed by the documentary The revolt of the old people.

Laure Adler does not hesitate to claim her status as a sixty-eight baby boomer. “As long as we have our health, we will continue to fight,” she said passionately. We are not going to let ourselves be like our parents to be passively taken to EPHADs and keep our mouths shut…”

With these (wise?) words, Laure Adler trots off again on her high heels, already late for a radio interview.