Vésuviennes
The Vésuviennes — a purported group of radical feminists said to have existed in France in the mid-nineteenth century. Explaining the name of their group, its alleged members stated that the struggle for their own rights boiled within them like the lava of Vesuvius. “The word Vésuvienne,” said one member of the group, “means that in the depths of each comrade’s soul there burns an entire volcano of revolutionary fire and passion” (Villiers, 1912, p. 309).
In a short pamphlet dated April 19, 1848, entitled The Vésuviennes, it is stated: “It, that is, the name Vésuviennes, beautifully defines our position and expresses our thought better than any other word; but the lava that has been held back for so long and must finally flow around us does not threaten fire, but promises rebirth… The day of our rebirth has finally come” (Villiers, 1912, p. 308).
After the overthrow of King Louis-Philippe of France in 1848, the newly established Republic lifted the ban on the press and public assemblies. This contributed to the formation of new feminist publications, organizations, and groups. The Vésuviennes were counted among the latter. Most Vésuviennes were reportedly young unmarried women between the ages of 15 and 30, poor and disadvantaged working women. They have been described as among the most radical representatives of feminism, since they were said to support women’s military service, the wearing of men’s clothing, including culottes or trousers, and full legal equality between women and men, including the sharing of domestic duties.
It is important to note that the reality of the Vésuviennes’ existence remains open to question, since their activity is very poorly and ambiguously documented. Some researchers are inclined to believe that the very appearance and activity of the Vésuviennes may have been a hoax or joke mocking women’s emancipation.
According to one version, the Vésuviennes were a burlesque creation of the French police. The police allegedly composed the constitution of the Vésuviennes and supplied this feminist group with members in the form of prostitutes. This joke was so successful that, according to the Scottish historian James McMillan, the constitution of the Vésuviennes and everything connected with it was, until recently, taken at face value (McMillan, 2002, p. 93).
According to another version, presented by the French historian Christine Bard in A Political History of Trousers, everything began in the first days of March 1848 with a poster that appeared on the streets of Paris. It called on unmarried patriotic republican women to join a regiment that would bear the name of the Vésuviennes. The joker who signed the poster turned out to be Daniel Borme, who claimed that he had demanded that the government create a women’s legion. Most likely, the young chemist wanted in this way to make everyone talk about his invention — a weapon that fired 300 projectiles per minute and with which, according to him, “2,000 female citizens could defeat 50,000 male enemies.” It is quite possible that, with the help of women he knew, he then organized a small demonstration of Vésuviennes who marched from Place Vendôme to the city hall. La Voix des femmes of March 28 published a short note about this event, although the newspaper had no direct evidence of it (Bard, 2013).
In April 1848, the publication of the pamphlet Les Vésuviennes ou la Constitution politique des femmes. Par une société de femmes françaises [The Vésuviennes, or the Political Constitution of Women. By a Society of French Women] was taken at face value. However, there are many facts indicating that this text was inauthentic; moreover, as in most texts about the Vésuviennes, it contains numerous jokes from the repertoire of humorists (Bard, 2013).
Among the most amusing facts about the Vésuviennes are the following:
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the conscription of women into the army applied to unmarried girls aged 15 to 20 for a term of five years;
- compulsory marriage was required at the age of 21 for girls and 26 for young men, while violators were to be punished with lifelong military service;
- domestic work was to be shared under threat of legal punishment (Bard, 2013);
- the demand for divorce. As Marc de Villiers notes in Women’s Clubs and Legions of Amazons (1912, pp. 313–314), “a considerable number of young girls, or, more precisely, old maids, showed themselves to be ardent supporters of divorce. In their calculation, the establishment of this institution was supposed to turn such a mass of citizens back into bachelors that they hoped, from this mass, finally to catch themselves a husband.” According to Villiers, the Vésuviennes also advocated compulsory remarriage for divorced men and widowers under the age of 45. “In order to force bachelors to remarry,” the author notes, “they proposed keeping them in barracks until they finally decided to make some woman happy. Only a special verification commission could release cripples and idiots from the bonds of marriage” (Villiers, 1912, p. 314);
- the granting of citizenship to a foreign woman who took guardianship over an elderly Frenchman (Bard, 2013);
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the reform of women’s clothing in the name of the right to “free movement”: “Women must work discreetly to erase the difference that exists between men’s clothing and women’s clothing, without crossing the boundaries of modesty, without giving cause for ridicule, and at the same time without betraying elegance and good taste. Besides, this would be a change about which men, considering their torchbearers’ attire, would have no reason to complain” (Villiers, 1912, p. 305).
References:
Bard, C. (2013). Politicheskaia istoriia briuk [A political history of trousers] (S. Petrova, Trans.). Moscow: Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie. [in Russian].
McMillan, J. (2002). France and women, 1789–1914: Gender, society and politics. New York: Taylor & Francis.
Villiers, M. de. (1912). Zhenskie kluby i legiony amazonok [Women’s clubs and legions of Amazons]. Moscow: Sovremennye problemy. [in Russian].
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