Journal d'une Femen

by Michel Dufranne

Apolline est une Française moderne. Jolie, la vingtaine, elle travaille dans une agence de communication.
Divers incidents de son quotidien lui font prendre conscience du machisme ambiant et d'une violence envers les femmes qui la révolte, que ce soit au bureau, dans le métro et même au sein de sa famille!
C'est pourquoi elle décide de rejoindre le mouvement féministe et activiste des Femen... avec les doutes, les difficultés et les conséquences que cela implique.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Feminism, Comics, Bande Dessinée, Politics, France, Spanish Literature

122 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 11, 2014

Reviews

[Diz · Rating 3 out of 5]

This graphic novel looks at the radical feminist group Femen and follows one woman's journey on the road to becoming a member of this group. Overall, it presents a favorable view of this group.

This book does two things very well. First, it shows the experience that many women have of being objectified by men. The idea that a woman couldn't walk down the street without being bothered by numerous sleazy guys never occurred to me. This book presents this as an overwhelming burden that sometimes gets really scary. Second, it shows the pressure of cyberbullying, which again is very scary. This happens not only to Femen members, but also to moderate feminists as well. When you see this, you realize how brave feminists have to be to speak out.

On the downside, this is a translated work, and the translation is a bit weak at points, so the dialog can feel a bit stilted at times. Also, the way the group is portrayed, it seems that the members talk more about image than about ideology. For example, when they are training, they don't discuss feminist theory. Instead they focus on how to make a scene to get the most media coverage. It is explained that if they protest in a reserved way, then no one would listen to their message, but if they protest in an extreme way, they will get lots of coverage. It makes sense, but it still feels like it takes some of the shine off of the group.

[Mar Leyva · Rating 3 out of 5]

Este libro es una clara muestra de lo que vivimos las mujeres día a día, y no solo un tipo de mujer, sino TODAS las mujeres. Seas fea, guapa, baja, alta, gorda, delgada... Sufres acusaciones hacia tu cuerpo y hacia tu persona en sí, simplemente por ser mujer. Se espera algo de nosotras que es lo contraría que queremos demostrar, y no podemos hacer nada sin que se burlen de nosotras.

Así que BASTA. La protagonista de esta historia dijo BASTA y, sinceramente, me han dado ganas de hacer lo mismo. Quizás no a su extremo (aunque lo respeto al 100% y entiendo que haya gente que quiera hacerlo), pero sí contribuir a algo. Hay que ayudar en este movimiento feminista, porque si no somos nosotras las mujeres quienes luchamos por nuestros propios derechos BÁSICOS, nadie lo hará.

Lectura totalmente recomendada para aprender sobre lo más superficial del feminismo y lo que una mujer debe sufrir día a día. El arte no es mi favorito, pero los colores y en general la historia sí. Además, de momento, es la historia más trabajada que he leído en una novela gráfica. ¡Bien hecho!

[stefiereads · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.5 stars
for the illustration and for introducing me about Femen movement that I haven’t heard before.
Also for some part of the book that relatable.

The story is told rather fast. And not all fast pace stories are bad. But, I feel there are missing parts on this one.
The ending for me was “wait... what? is that it?” I couldn’t believe it was ended.
The whole book is confusing to me. Personally, it left me feeling uncomfortable.

*Digital copy provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

[Alemanita · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5/5. Como explican al principio no es una historia real, sino que está basado en muchas. Quizá sea eso lo que me ha chirriado, la representación de todos los tópicos para un mismo personaje, pero aun así todos son, por desgracia, reales. Quizá me ha faltado también algo más de información sobre FEMEN, puesto que no ahonda demasiado en lo básico. No obstante, como obra feminista tiene su punto y he aprendido algo más sobre el movimiento de las FEMEN.

[Scarlet Cameo · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was interesting, but the loop in time really botters me.

-RTC-

[Rosa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thank you Net Galley for providing this free copy in trade for an honest review.

This review is also posted in my blog :
https://onewordtoomuch.wordpress.com/...

Here we follow the story of a young Parisian girl who seems lost to the society. She just hated how society treated her only for her good looks and body. I don’t feel that this story has a strong background and character. What I notice is the girls who joined the Femen are too young and confused. This type of personality got easily lured into an extremist organization without understanding what they are getting into.

Although in general the whole story is indeed a good study of a feminist organization, I found the story quite weak and pathetic. It’s a pretty quick read. I like the illustration style. Some of it focused on the eyes of the characters, so shows real emotion and quite detailed.

Recommend for those who wants to read the workings of the Femen organization.

[Joany Vries · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received a free digital copy of this graphic novel from Netgally in exchange for my honest review.

Feminism is a subject that I find very interesting. Over the last couple of years I’ve read several books with feminist themes, but never a graphic novel.

The book is about FEMEN, a group of activists fighting for their believes in a non-violent way. It is a work of fiction based on actual events, but the characters are al.

We meet a young woman who is struggling with the problems a beautiful young woman might experience in this day and age. This was very heartwrenching and realistically portrait. It’s easy to get sucked into the story and feel the main characters pain.

I don’t know how realistic the “behind-the-scenes” look at activism is because I have never been a part of anything like that, but still this gave me a lot of feelings and made me think about modern day issues.

The ending might be a bit to sappy for some, but I loved it for it made the main characters even more of an inspiration in my book.

[Mizore Dollanganger · Rating 3 out of 5]

Las ilustraciones son hermosas, el mensaje es claro pero pasa muy rápido, me hubiera gustado adentrarme más en la vida y las actividades políticas de Apolline y el impacto en su vida que conyeva estar en el grupo Femen, cuando parece que nos van a contar dichos acontecimientos la historia corta de repente y tenemos un abrupto salto en el tiempo donde la protagonista ya tiene una pareja y una familia, ese también hubiera sido un interesante punto a analizar, el impacto que tiene el feminismo en nuestras relaciones sexoafectivas, no se deja claro si Apolline siguió participando activamente en FEMEN o solo continuó apoyando moralmente al grupo desde casa. Tenía mucho potencial pero lo cortaron en el momento justo.

[hannonle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Este cómic está muy bien para conocer un poco mejor en qué consiste el activismo del grupo Femen. El estilismo gráfico y el colorido le van muy bien a la historia y le Dan una gran expresividad, citando a Apolline "le da un estilo muy rockero". El argumento os lo podéis imaginar, Apolline está cansada de los machismos cotidianos, tanto que siente que necesita hacer algo más, implicarse, actuar. Así a través de su historia personal, somos introducidos en el relato de qué es Femen y por qué luchan.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this to learn a bit more about the group and thought it showed effects of the objectification of women well, and how different women fight against this in different ways. I wasn't the biggest fan of the illustration style though and found some of the scenes didn't really work.

[Laura Jiménez Bustamante · Rating 5 out of 5]

Se me ha hecho corto.

Habla de los motivos por los que alguien se une a Femen y como es ese comienzo.

[Jeimy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not exactly what I expected when I picked this ARC up from NetGalley, but I enjoyed this fictionalized account of the struggles one young woman faces as she decides to stand up for what she believes in by joining the Femen movement and their protests.

[Dominic Fortin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bien écrit, ludique et fort éducatif.

[Ije the Devourer of Books · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this graphic novel about a young woman who joins FEMEN.

This book is described by the authors as 'realist fiction'. It is their own understanding about the organisation FEMEN, but expressed in fiction, and in this case their understanding is expressed in a graphic novel.

FEMEN (we are told in the book) is an internationalist feminist movement. Their defining characteristic is organising topless protests. Their struggle is against patriarchy, through what they see as its three main pillars - dictatorship, the church and the sex industry

The story is told through Appoline, who is a young french woman who lives in Paris. She experiences all kinds of micro aggressions everyday because she is a woman. At work she is expected to use her breasts and look alluring so that her ad agency will get contracts from clients. Her mother expects her to get married and give birth to children. On the street she is subjected to unwanted admiration and chat up lines from men who don't back away nicely when rejected and the streets do not feel safe.

Appoline experiences what women experience to a greater or lesser degree everyday of their lives and she finds it oppressive. Is this really what it means to be a woman in 21st century France? She feels that she is being oppressed and she is. When she discovers FEMEN and sees a protest on the internet she makes enquiries and decides to join them, or at least find out more.

She attends their training and becomes an activist. When Appolonia joins them she discovers that this nudity and exposure isnt alluring like she needed to be at work, it is aggressive. Nudity here is a weapon. She joins FEMEN, weathers the cost and the impact on her life and she grows as a person.

I hadn't heard of FEMEN before reading this book and I was totally engrossed by Appoline's story. As a community activist and female priest I thought this was a fascinating, especially because FEMEN see the Church as a patriarchal institution. The artwork is good. It is a clearly drawn graphic novel using lots of colour and a good dialogue.

My only criticism is that it ended rather abruptly. There was a sudden leap from a protest to '3 years later'. Where is the rest? What happened in between?

In any case I still enjoyed this and I learnt something too. It is a great story and a good introduction to FEMEN as well https://femen.org/about-us/

Copy provided by Europe Comics via Netgalley in exchange for an unbiased review.

[Andreea · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I do not know much about Femen and I was never interested in their group, but though this book might be a nice introduction. And for most part, regarding the activist group it is. However, I really couldn't stand the wishy-washy introduction of the author saying "this is not a non-fiction book" "this is not real" "or is it?" - either go with the old phrase "inspired by true events/people/whatever" or just say this is not a non-fiction book. Don't trick the reader into thinking this could be more than it is... or is it?

The first part of the book was weak and frankly uninspired. It felt like there was a list with sexist and misogynistic things that women experience, but it felt forced which I think takes away from the point of our main character's experience and what eventually leads her to become interested in Femen.

Also I did not like the portrayal of the other women in the book. Just because they are not feminists, does not make them bad persons - plus, feminism is about every woman choosing her path so if the main character's sister wants to have lots of kids and likes her husband then do not portray that as a bad thing. I don't try to excuse them for trying to impose their views on our MC, but I also felt they were punished for wanting different things.

I did however really like the big questions that our main character has after joining the group and after it affects her life. I also enjoyed the conclusion of the novel, seeing our MC finding her own path - although the jump 3 years in the future was really sudden and there is no explanation how it got to that. One moment she is down, not having friends and trying to figure out how activism fits into her life and in the next page everything is roses and sunshine.

Rating: I am almost giving a three to this book, but when I put everything in balance I just cannot justify it - but it's a 2.5, almost 3 stars.

[TinySalutations · Rating 4 out of 5]

*3.5stars* I had not heard of FEMEN before this graphic novel and was excited to learn about them. I think this story could have been significantly better if it had been written as a nonfiction narrative graphic novel about real FEMEN activists. I did not learn any more about FEMEN than the blurb/summary. I really wish I came away from this understanding who FEMEN is and why/how they got there at least in a rudimentary way.

In fact, I was very confused about the few details that are provided here about FEMEN’s ideology. They profess at one point that they are taking back ownership of their bodies and don’t care about looks. This is one of the few ideological points made. Then, there are a bunch of things that indicate the opposite: 1) they have mandatory rigorous training weekly that obviously excludes those with disabilities and I don’t understand why the physical training is necessary, 2) the one girl that joins and is worried about her body/looks (she is not as skinny as the main character?) does not advance the ranks to protests, 3) everyone is always complaining that FEMEN all look like models (which alone wouldn’t be an issue but combined with these other issues might give it more credence).

I still liked the story though! If you drop the expectation of learning who FEMEN is, it is a good story of how and why a woman might become an activist for women’s rights. It did a great job of briefly touching on ways that a woman might become awakened to the ways she is dissatisfied and want to take action, especially without the tired storyline of trapped housewife. I really liked the conversation the main character had over dinner with friends about why people might approach activism with the same goal (like women’s rights) so differently.

[Melkor von Moltke · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a nice comic about FEMEN, a feminist movement that I had heard of but knew little about. While it did not particularly delve into the philosophy of the movement, which even the book makes clear was not the author's intention, it was an interesting take on what motivates someone to join the movement and the consequences that they face.

I did think that the boyfriend character and epilogue were unnecessary. The boyfriend left in one short text and came back in the same way, without having any growth or real role other than to give the protagonist a typical "happy ending."

The illustrations were very nice and interesting, managing to convey a lot of emotion. While there was a fair amount of nudity, it was never gratuitous, fitting with the organization's message. I thought the dialogue generally worked well, although it got a bit confusing a couple of times. This could possibly simply be due to it being a translation.

To wrap things up, this is a good comic that covers a group that should be taken more seriously, with good artwork as well. In spite of a couple of chunks in the narrative I enjoyed the work.

[Charlotte Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

*Disclaimer: I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This graphic novel introduced me to the Femen, an activist group fighting against the patriarchy which I had never previously heard of.

I liked the narrative of this book. I've seen other reviews complain that the book doesn't actually show any of the protests but this didn't bother me. I liked how the story showed how becoming an activist can effect someone's life, in both positive and negative ways.

Having said that, I did have some issues with the book. Firstly I found that there was too much dialogue on some pages and it made the dialogue a little confused. Also, and this is something you can see on the cover, it annoyed me that all of the women's body types were exactly the same. I almost feel that this went against the message of the story itself. Overall, I'm glad I read this but I would have liked to see a little more diversity in the characters.

[Elia · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable and beautifully illustrated read.
Based on real women, this is a fictionalized account of the Femen, a group of radical feminists in Western Europe who protest for women's rights by going topless and training like a militia.
The story takes us through a couple of years in the life of Apoline, a typical French woman working in advertising - with an absolute POS boss who encourages her to be silent eye candy for clients while he gives credit to the young men in the office. We see Apoline battle with her mother and sister over when she will find herself a "nice man," and jerks on the street who catcall and harass her and other women. Even her friends are kind of crappy to be honest.
It's not until she sees some reports about Femen that she starts to find the courage to speak up and speak out, even though the other women in the group warn her that her life as she knows it could be over if she joins them.

[Emma · Rating 5 out of 5]

J'ai vraiment beaucoup apprécié cette plongée dans l'univers des Femen dont, somme toute, je ne connaissais rien à part quelques images choc à la télé.

Je me suis immédiatement attachée à Apolline que l'on suit d'abord dans son quotidien avec la colère qui monte de plus en plus à chaque blague misogyne, chaque promotion qui lui passe sous le nez au profit d'un collègue homme moins bosseur, chaque main aux fesses dans le métro, et puis on continue à la suivre dans son cheminement chez les Femen, l'entraînement (dont j'ignorais tout !), les premières actions, les répercussions terribles sur sa vie personnelle.

Les dessins sont également très beaux et contemporains, parfaits pour mettre en scène ces guerrières modernes.

Mon seul bémol serait pour la fin, sans doute trop idyllique (presque hollywoodienne, je dirais) mais peut-être fallait-il ajouter un peu de douceur dans ce monde de brutes.

[Sabrina Burton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Firstly thank you to Netgalley for the free ebook. 4/5 stars, I loved this graphic novel and didn’t know much about the Femen movement in Ukraine or Paris. The story starts with Appoline in a job where she is looked down on and with an overbearing mother and a sister who thinks she has it all sorted out. This is about her journey realising she doesn’t want to deal with the everyday sexism that she is experiencing and joins the Femen group despite backlash from friends and family trying to be “helpful”. The artwork is fantastic, bright and colourful and really shows this group in a positive light despite some people labelling them “Feminazis”. This book doesn’t claim to be a true story but uses the real experiences of the women from that group to tell a story that couldn’t be made more gripping by lies.

[Ariana Deralte · Rating 2 out of 5]

The start of this graphic novel is strong, really showing what it can be like being sexualized and objectified for a woman, and why they might want to join a movement like this. I can't say the Femen movement comes off very well here though. They state they don't choose people for their looks but drive away the one normal looking woman who wants to join their group. They provide no protection for their members, and don't seem to be educating them beyond putting them through a bootcamp. The story then kind of drifts off like the author remembered they needed an ending and couldn't think of one.

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting comic about a group I'd heard of but knew little about, FEMEN. The training scenes and backlash for Apolline (our fictional heroine) were really cool, unique bits. However, the beginning section where Apolline has the experiences that inspire her to become an activist were REALLY heavy-handed - they could've been way more insidious, like they often are in "real life."

*Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC, provided by the author and/or the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

[Theediscerning · Rating 2 out of 5]

In all, this is a failure. Act one, the goading of our heroine to become a Feme-nazi, is just OTT and not at all worthy of getting her sympathy, so crabby and bitchy is she. Act two, the training of our wannabe Feme-nazi, is proof that the training montage should stay the montage, and not be a whole third of a piece. There is some merit to be had in the fallout third act, but not really enough. Which is a shame, as this could have been so much better. Not to be adapted by a Weinstein any time soon.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

This comic “doesn’t strictly reflect reality…but everything in these pages is true.”

I’ve never heard of the Femen activists before I read this comic. (Though I just heard them referenced on TV the night after I heard of them!)

Bold and brave, they are protesting and changing things in their own way.

Interesting and worth a read.

Thanks to NetGalley and Europe Comics for a copy in return for an honest review.

[Marti · Rating 4 out of 5]

Novela gráfica del tipo "ficción realista"; en donde las imágenes como siempre marcan increíblemente la historia. Me ha gustado mucho. Cómo te hace sentir en situaciones en las que todas hemos estado, en trabajos, en la calle,...El sentimiento de apropiarse de algo tan sexualizado como son los pechos para la reivindicación es magnifico. La única pega que le pondría es que me ha sabido a poco. Me hubiera gustado que se hubieran extendido más en la trama. Pero aún así muy recomendable!

[Brenda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cuenta las vivencias de cualquier mujer hoy en día ya sea que hablen sobre su físico, la acosen o le digan que necesita una pareja para sentirse completa, por eso razón la protagonista se cansó de todo eso y se inscribió a las femen intentando cambiar esta sociedad tuvo varios altos y bajos y aprendió mucho.
Me dejo con la motivación de hacer algo también, no como la protagonista, pero si poniendo mi granito de arena.

[Karthik M · Rating 4 out of 5]

a thought-provoking work! Curious to see this movement is now based in France - one of the last remaining lights in the "liberal west" and home of Voltaire, but that the message is stilted by the medium. Hope these guys go to alabama soon.

[Luiz Santiago · Rating 1 out of 5]

1,5

Crítica: http://www.planocritico.com/critica-d...

[Valerie Acklin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much needed insight into an often-misunderstood movement. Told from a new recruits point-of-view, the story does a satisfying job of explaining just what the members of Femen stand for and why they feel their aggressive and angry actions are necessary. While some of the attempts at humor are a bit awkward, overall, the story will be enlightening for those open to hearing its message, which details the importance of empowerment and the reclaiming of otherwise negative aesthetics and language as a pathway to change. The visually arresting graphics do a commendable job of documenting the range of emotions felt by movement members, their families, and those they are challenging, mostly through finely rendered facial expressions and body stances. Not an unbiased portrait by any stretch of the imagination, but an essential one -- today more than ever.