The Controversy Around Tomboy: the Aversion to Gender Theory in French Education and Culture

Abstract

By analyzing the controversy around Céline Sciamma’s Tomboy (2011) and the concept of gender theory, this paper discusses a demonstration of various levels of aversion to gender theory in current French political discourses as represented in the media in relation to same-sex marriage, the family and state education. The social institution of the family—whose functions encompass marriage and the rearing of children—is often considered a foundational unit of the state and civil society. After the family, the institution of education continues lessons of belonging, history, culture and nationality. In France, Sciamma’s Tomboy repeatedly appeared in public debates related to gender theory, primary education and the family. In early 2014, parents received mobile text messages to participate in a collective action to keep their children out of school to protest curriculum which would allegedly teach gender theory and include Tomboy as part of the Ecole et Cinéma educational program. Former Minister of Education Vincent Peillon responded to this campaign by stating that the national school system is in no way teaching “gender theoryâ€. This film is approached as a polemical and subversive work in which gender is represented and perceived as a construct and performative identity, challenging traditional institutions of gender logics and the institution of the family, and as a learning tool to discuss gender differences and questions of equality in school. Both Tomboy and gender theory are represented in manners that do not engage with either topics directly but instead push forward specific agendas of various political groups such as protection of family and programs of equality. This sense of aversion towards gender theory and works like Tomboy are a reaction to anxieties towards changing French national identity. Tomboy finds itself within these tensions in current French national identity through its representation of children, gender and sexuality. By considering the film itself and its reception in recent journalistic media discourse, I approach how Tomboy provides a reflection and response to such tensions and its significance as a tool for related debates.