The Pennsylvania State University The Graduate School The Department of French and Francophone Studies LIBERTÉ, ÉGALITÉ, VISIBILITÉ: CITIZENSHIP, SEXUALITY, AND VISIBILITY IN STRASBOURG’S MARCHE DE LA VISIBILITÉ A Dissertation in French by Luke L. Eilderts © 2011 Luke L. Eilderts Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy December 2011 The thesis of Luke L. Eilderts was reviewed and approved* by the following: Bénédicte Monicat Co-Chair of Committee Dissertation Advisor Professor of French and Women’s Studies Department Head Barbara E. Bullock Co-Chair of Committee Special Outside Member Professor of French Linguistics Meredith Doran Affiliate Associate Professor of French and Applied Linguistics Vera Mark Assistant Professor of French, Francophone Studies, and Linguistics Heather McCoy Senior Lecturer *Signatures are on file in the Graduate School iii ABSTRACT This dissertation examines issues of sexuality, gender, and citizenship through the lens of the yearly summer event la Marche de la visibilité homosexuelle, bisexuelle et transgenre in the eastern French city of Strasbourg. The overarching question asks how this event impacts contemporary manifestations and discussions of minority communities within the French nation-state. In existence since 2002, the march presents a unique and engaging opportunity to illuminate the evolution of French ideas of “proper” citizenship roles through critical, theoretical, and empirical inquiry. As a public forum for overt sexual(ized) expression(s), the marche de la visibilité offers participants the opportunity to present themselves as a cohesive community, even where one may not necessarily exist in reality. By making themselves “visible” to spectators, participants are able to critique societal norms not only through linguistic signs but also physical presence. In order to provide a comprehensive study of the event and its impact upon contemporary manifestations of difference, this dissertation examines the marche de la visibilité from four different angles. First, by tracing the evolution of citizenship within the French nation-state, I uncover and emphasize not only its inclusionary but also exclusionary nature. Next, I turn to a discussion of the symbolic power associated with space and place. Taking inspiration from scholars such as Maurice Agulhon, James Lehning, and Michel de Certeau, I build upon their work to frame my understanding of the ways in which politically motivated groups appropriate and actualize the spaces they occupy. I argue that through their repeated usage of the space, the marche de la visibilité is able to alter our normalized perceptions of the city. Following this discussion, I undertake an iv analysis of a study I designed and conducted during the 2008 edition of the march. Here I employed a closed-question attitude survey where participants were asked to reflect upon their position vis-à-vis the march and its importance to them in order to discern any statistically significant differences between participants. What came to the surface were variations between self-identified gay men and lesbians. Overall, lesbians tended to view the march as more important in many ways, while gay men leaned towards more tepid responses. I interpreted this to be indicative of the relative invisibility of lesbians within the public sphere, where the opportunity to present themselves as lesbians to spectators represents a major perquisite. In the final chapter, I turn to an analysis of the linguistic messages displayed by participants and the power these messages have to either align or distance the message bearers with/from spectators in an effort to understand the discourses that are deployed in their attempts to gain political visibility. Shedding light upon an understudied facet of French and Francophone culture, this dissertation furthers our understanding of minority groups and the manner in which they appropriate, actualize, and transform debates of identity in contemporary France. v TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES .....................................................................................................vii LIST OF TABLES.......................................................................................................x ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.........................................................................................xi Chapter 1 Introduction .................................................................................................1 The Problem..........................................................................................................2 Chapter Layout .....................................................................................................6 Chapter 2 Citizenship and the French Nation-State....................................................14 Citizenship: What is it?.........................................................................................16 Founding Myths of Citizenship.....................................................................18 Philosophical Origins of French Citizenship.................................................24 Revolution and the Universal Citizen............................................................26 The Third Republic and the Universal Citizen..............................................31 The Public and the Private Sphere in France.................................................33 Citizenship Problematized....................................................................................37 Citizenship and Nationality ...........................................................................39 Competing Paradigms of Citizenship: France and Germany ........................48 Marshall and Citizenship Theory ..................................................................54 Sexual Citizenship.........................................................................................59 The “Other” Citizens: Women, Gays and Lesbians, and Immigrants...........63 Sexual Deviants.............................................................................................65 Sexual Citizenship in Contemporary France.................................................68 Displays of Difference in the Public Sphere: A Case for Gay Pride.............72 Chapter 3 Pride, Visibility, and the Symbolic Power of Presence..............................75 Liberté, égalité, sexualité: Gay Pride in France ...................................................76 Gay Pride: Beginnings and Translations .......................................................81 Strasbourg and Gay Pride: Une histoire contemporaine...............................83 Pour une rhétorique de la marche: Agulhon, Lehning, and de Certeau ..............100 Agulhon and the Symbolic Geography of the City .......................................105 How to be a Citizen: Lehning and the Symbolic Geography of the City......108 De Certeau and the Everyday: Parcours as Énoncé......................................110 Reading Strasbourg’s Marche de la visibilité ...............................................115 The Sexual Citizen and the (Re)Claiming of Space .............................................131 vi Chapter 4 An Ethnographic Exploration of the Importance and Regional Specificities of Strasbourg’s Marche de la visibilité............................................139 Methodology.........................................................................................................141 Sampling...............................................................................................................146 Measures...............................................................................................................148 Research Hypothesis.............................................................................................152 Discussion of Questionnaire Results ....................................................................156 Questions 1-8: Group Cohesion and Importance of the March.....................159 Questions 11-15: Goals of the March............................................................164 Questions 16-20: Expressions of Sameness and Difference .........................171 Chapter 5 Participants and Spectators: A Visual Analysis of the Marche de la visibilité.................................................................................................................184 Methodology.........................................................................................................185 Survey of Images...........................................................................................189 Participants and Sexual Citizenship ..............................................................200 Linguistic Messages and Sexual Citizenship ................................................206 Video and the Marche de la visibilité............................................................247 Conclusion ............................................................................................................251 Chapter 6 Conclusion..................................................................................................255 Future Research ....................................................................................................262 Works Cited .................................................................................................................266 vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 3-1: Map, 2002 .................................................................................................102