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Emma Watson, Meryl Streep and the “independent woman” Beyoncé are just some of the stars who are speaking out on the plight of women in today’s society, denouncing the eternal problem of inequality and asserting the essential strength and independence that every woman should be able to enjoy.But is it just a women’s issue? Aren’t men the forgotten ones in the fight for gender equality? Feminism is also feminine. Far from the preconceived notions conveyed by the romantic image of a woman leading a solitary struggle, Yolande Alexandre’s first novel, L’instant Duel, revisits the place of men, and helps us move away from the sterile opposition between men and women.It’s only through joint action that the fight for gender equality can gain momentum and power.But is that the only problem with feminism?Feminism, by undermining the image of men, regularly casting them in the role of heartless executioners, has made its own detractor. Erected as a problem of and for women, feminism only reinforces the idea of gender difference. It reduces women’s thinking and locks them into a conceptual opposition to men. What’s more, this dualistic way of thinking standardizes women into a group in which they are all reduced to impotent mutism, feeding an imaginary sense of victimization.Literature, which has always been a vector of imaginary worlds and myths, can become a place where stereotypical ideas can be thwarted. This seems to be Yolande Alexandre’s intention.Gifted with an unconventional background, the 40-year-old author has chosen to evoke the men who have played a role in her life, and who have helped shape her vision of love. Through an epistolary narrative, she gives new scope to male sensibility.The Duel is no longer a Duel, it’s a fusion, a dream come true in the face of summer’s ephemeral loves.This novel is an opportunity to take stock of our approach to difference, and to form a new opinion, at a time when current events are fuelled by distortions surrounding the heated debate on gender equality. Inviting us to a romanticized vision, devoid of any relationship of superiority, whether on the part of the man or the woman, this novel expresses the dream of men and women who apprehend each other in full harmony and complete equality. “Machismo in the masculine and feminine is nothing but a hollow idea linked to fear of the Other”, according to Yolande Alexandre, published by Qui Lit Vit.A new way of saying feminism! Let’s turn our summer reading into engaged reading, against the idea of frivolous luxury.
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