The Method

We are going through historical times. Everything changes so fast. Change can go both ways: our society can become even more misogynistic, or we could finally live in a more equal world. But to try to build a feminist society, we need a Method. In this 6-part series, Rebecca Ansellem, a French-Canadian feminist activist, investigates how we could achieve a successful feminist movement. All over the world, movements are organizing to overthrow the patriarchy, and have been for a long time. According to the French philosopher Geneviève Fraisse, the first step of the method is to write the history of these struggles and to celebrate it, in order not to have to start from scratch every time. For the Pakistani-American lawyer and author Rafia Zakaria, it is also urgent to emancipate the history of feminism from the Western narrative, centred on white women. They both want to abandon the concept of "waves of feminism", to tell the story of this movement in all its continuity. The Method is a co-production by Louie Media and Gloria Media. Rebecca Amsellem is the host, and she co-wrote this podcast with Léna Coutrot, in collaboration with Fanny Ruwet.This documentary series was directed by Alexandra Kandy-Longuet. Soukaïna Qabbal was editing and producing. The original music was composed by Clémentine Charuel and Julie Roué. Lola Peploe was the English voice of Geneviève Fraisse. Stephanie Williamson translated the text from French to English. 

We usually value moderation. We shouldn’t be too radical. Above all, we should stay away from extremes and refuse violence. Yet how can we hope to achieve success in our political struggles without endorsing a form of radicality? In this episode, the American political video maker and host of the ContraPoints channel, Natalie Wynn, explains why radical ideas are necessary to bring about a society that is the opposite of the one we live in. French political scientist Réjane Sénac invites us to differentiate radicalism from violence. Building political radicality means first of all thinking in a radical way. The Method is a co-production by Louie Media and Gloria Media. Rebecca Amsellem is the host, and she co-wrote this podcast with Léna Coutrot, in collaboration with Fanny Ruwet.This documentary series was directed by Alexandra Kandy-Longuet. Soukaïna Qabbal was editing and producing. The original music was composed by Clémentine Charuel and Julie Roué. Lola Peploe was the English voice of Geneviève Fraisse. Karima Sorel was the English voice of Réjane Sénac. Stephanie Williamson translated the text from French to English.

What if joy was part of the method to achieve a feminist society? It may sound a bit naive to think that our power lies in joy, in enthusiasm. However, if the demonstrations are filled with choirs, batucadas, colourful signs and glitter, it is because joy seems to offer a way out of individualism, a way to give political movement their collective dimension. Joy is not happiness or well-being. Joy is not an individual emotion but a subversive process which allows us to imagine another world. In this episode, the authors of Joyful Militancy, carla bergman and Nick Montgomery, tell us about this method: collective joy. It allows us to direct our negative emotions towards a fight against injustices. Joy is important in order to escape the "tradition of sad activism" and to live our militancy in a more peaceful way. Véronica Gago, is an Argentinean sociologist and organizer of the Ni Una Menos movement, created to denounce feminicide. According to her, collective organization has enabled them to learn to defend themselves with joy. The Method is a co-production by Louie Media and Gloria Media. Rebecca Amsellem is the host, and she co-wrote this podcast with Léna Coutrot, in collaboration with Fanny Ruwet.This documentary series was directed by Alexandra Kandy-Longuet. Soukaïna Qabbal was editing and producing. The original music was composed by Clémentine Charuel and Julie Roué. Stephanie Williamson translated the text from French to English. 

Why do women in heterosexual relationships often find it so difficult to express their desires? Why is it often men who are expected to make the first move, to control and conquer? If the sexual revolution was a salvation, we must now carry out a revolution of desire. To repair the desires of women, who are used to waiting, responding, restricting themselves and being ashamed of their desires. In this episode, the philosopher Manon Garcia, author of The Conversation of sexes, tells us how women’s desires in a patriarchal society are shaped only in response to men’s desires. Fantasies of submission, beauty and thinness are the fruits of a society that wants to shape “models”. Kristen Ghodsee, ethnographer, author of Why do women have a better sex life under socialism?, explains why capitalism also contributes to inhibit women's desires. The Method is a co-production by Louie Media and Gloria Media. Rebecca Amsellem is the host, and she co-wrote this podcast with Léna Coutrot, in collaboration with Fanny Ruwet.This documentary series was directed by Alexandra Kandy-Longuet. Soukaïna Qabbal was editing and producing. The original music was composed by Clémentine Charuel and Julie Roué. Stephanie Williamson translated the text from French to English. Tess Rosenthal was the English voice of Manon Garcia.

What if bras weren't as essential as we think? What if pink for girls and blue for boys had not always been the rule? What if doubting, questioning the obvious, nuancing, was one of the keys to the method for bringing about a feminist society? It is sometimes difficult to make a nuanced thought heard in a society of acceleration, in which doubt is perceived as a weakness, and the slightest nuance can be interpreted as a negation of our thought. But what if doubt was actually an appropriate strategy?In this episode, Yuri Casalino, feminist activist, aerospace engineer, documentary filmmaker, and spin doctor, talks about the value of doubt for better political thinking. Not the self-deprecating and paralyzing doubt, but the one that gives us the power to “to question the obvious in order to invent new possibilities.” Sarah Schulman, American novelist, playwright and essayist, author of Conflict is not Abuse, urges us to accept the difficulty of nuance. She argues that a plural movement, as Act Up was, is more effective than a homogeneous one.The Method is a co-production by Louie Media and Gloria Media. Rebecca Amsellem is the host, and she co-wrote this podcast with Léna Coutrot, in collaboration with Fanny Ruwet.This documentary series was directed by Alexandra Kandy-Longuet. Soukaïna Qabbal was editing and producing. The original music was composed by Clémentine Charuel and Julie Roué. Stephanie Williamson translated the text from French to English. Katie Watts was the English voice of Yuri Casalino

Maybe we are missing a common imaginary, an ideal future that together, we could strive for. To change society, we need utopias. To make our ideal feminist society become finally real, we first need to imagine it.In this episode, Rafia Zakaria, a Pakistani-American feminist lawyer and intellectual, tells us about India's first magazine created by and for women, and a short-story: Sultana's Dream. She explains how utopias allow us to imagine another story, another perspective. For Réjane Sénac, a French political scientist, utopia is the only realism. Citizen initiatives, demonstrations, civil disobedience are already utopias in action, "fertile and happy disobedience". The Method is a co-production by Louie Media and Gloria Media. Rebecca Amsellem is the host, and she co-wrote this podcast with Léna Coutrot, in collaboration with Fanny Ruwet.This documentary series was directed by Alexandra Kandy-Longuet. Soukaïna Qabbal was editing and producing. The original music was composed by Clémentine Charuel and Julie Roué. Stephanie Williamson translated the text from French to English.