Nom canonique: Gouges, Olympe de
Nom légal: Gouze, Marie
Autres noms: Gouges, Marie-Olympe de
Date de naissance: 1748-05-07
Date de décès: 1793-11-03
Sexe: female
Nationalité: France
Lieu de naissance: Montauban, France
Lieu du décès: Paris, France
Cause du décès: terrorism
guillotined
Lieux de résidence: Paris, France
Professions: feminist
political activist
journalist
playwright
pamphleteer
human rights activist (tout afficher 7)
women's rights activist
Relations: Beauharnais, Fanny de (friend)
Courte biographie: Olympe de Gouges was the pseudonym of Marie Gouze, born in Montauban, Quercy (present-day Tarn-et-Garonne) in southwestern France. Her mother Anne Olympe Mouisset Gouze was the daughter of a bourgeois family, but the identity of her biological father is ambiguous. In 1765, at age 16 or 17, she was married against her will to Louis Yves Aubry, a caterer, with whom she had a son. Shortly afterwards, her husband died in a flood and Marie moved to Paris. There she began visiting the salons and became a playwright and human rights activist under the name Olympe de Gouges. A handful of her 30 or so plays was staged by the Comédie Française, the national theater of France. In 1788, she published Réflexions sur les hommes nègres, which opposed the practice of slavery in the French colonies. Today she is perhaps best known as an early women's rights advocate. In her Déclaration des droits de la femme et de la citoyenne (Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen, 1791), she challenged the patriarchy and the denial of equality to women. She also wrote the semi-autobiographical Mémoire de Madame de Valmont sur l’ingratitude et la cruauté de la famille de Flaucourt (Memoir of Mme de Valmont, 1788). As the French Revolution became more heated, her forceful expression of opinions and influence were considered dangerous by the men in power. She was executed by guillotine during the Reign of Terror. Although Olympe de Gouges was a celebrity in her lifetime and reached a large audience, she fell into obscurity -- before being rediscovered in the 1980s through a biography by historian Olivier Blanc.
Notice de désambigüisation: Olympe de Gouges was a nom de plume. Her birth name was Marie Gouze.

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Critiques

The Declaration of the Rights of Women: The… par Olympe de Gouges

This was a good and thought-provoking read, especially given everything happening in the US right now.

Signalé

MahuaCavanagh | 2 autres critiques | Sep 21, 2022 |

The Declaration of the Rights of Women par Olympe de Gouges

This attractive, compact book provides a challenging and inspirational read. Each article of the declaration appears on a single page with a current artist’s illustration on the facing page. The next two pages following each article include relevant quotes from a wide variety of individuals from across the centuries. The same format is followed for the “United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women” included at the end of the book. The quotations, which include the source and date, make one realize how long activists have been advocating for equal rights for women. The quotes provide food for thought and can be used to initiate group discussions. But the passages also challenge us to take action. This is a book that will interest those concerned about gender inequality. It may also prove enlightening for those who have not thought much about the issue. The book is attractive enough to give as a gift and compact enough to carry around easily.… (plus d'informations)

Signalé

mitchellray | 2 autres critiques | May 10, 2018 |

Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female… par Olympe de Gouges

I was looking at the Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen by Olympe de Gouges over breakfast--not long at all, just a pamphlet, but a seriously influential one. De Gouges was a merchant's widow, playwright and saloniste (heh) in Paris in the 1780s, a friend of Sophie de Condorcet, and a huge revolutionary enthusiast who saw great and amazing things coming out of the ferment. Article 1 echoes the Declaration of the Rights of Man: "Social distinctions can be based only on the common utility". It's so jiu jutsu of her.

She is practically minded--the rights of woman are to own property, participate in the public administration, etc.--but she also knows the effectiveness of highminded brave-new-world rhetoric--the preamble is ringing and aggressive. There is much appeal to the "laws of nature", and much that is echoic of Rousseau (who was himself not much into rights for the women, however). She sees marriage as an oppression of women and men both from a reproductive perspective--married women are able to make cuckolds of their husbands and pawn off their bastards as legitimate children; unmarried women with children are shunned by all. (It's tempting, of course, to be biographical about it--she came to Paris with her son after her husband's death, and had several prominent lovers, and one wonders, if one knew more about her life, what kind of romantic misadventures took place therein.)

There's this interesting thing of women sort of having to buy their rights by giving up protections, much the same as the argument that says if 18-year-olds can go die for their country they should also be able to drink--Article 9 says "Once any woman is declared guilty, complete rigour is exercised by law", and Article 10 " ... woman has the right to mount the scaffold; she must equally have the right to mount the rostrum ... ". Gouges was in fact an opponent of capital punishment; she spoke up in favour of keeping Louis XIV around as a tame king, and was eventually executed during the Terror--explicitly for being against the death penalty, but in light of her work it still carries a mythic oomph. Justice's harbinger untimely silenced, that sort of thing.… (plus d'informations)

Signalé

MeditationesMartini | 2 autres critiques | Jan 31, 2011 |

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