“French-Style” Parity and Diversity: The Temptation of Inclusion Conditioned by Performance for “Non-brothers”

Réjane Sénac (1)

1 CEVIPOF - Centre de recherches politiques de Sciences Po (Sciences Po, CNRS)

Given the results of the limited and discriminatory inclusion of those who have been theoretically and historically excluded from the republican fraternity—women, the non-binary and “non-whites”—our aim is to bring out the conscious and unconscious heritage of the “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity” tryptic. We focus on the public justifications for contemporary policies promoting the inclusion of “non-brothers”: the promotion of parity for women and diversity for “non-whites”. Breaking the taboo about the original sin of a fraternal French republic means casting light on history, but also on the modernity of the frontiers between “brothers” and “non-brothers”. This chapter examines the modernisation of the original murder of equality for “non-brothers” who are not only “non-men”, but also individuals perceived as colours, as non-whites. The celebration of performance of sexual and ethno-cultural diversity is part of the same biopolitical register of highlighting the complementarity of “non-brothers” in contrast to “brothers”. We start off by analysing the ways in which, above and beyond the apparent consensus about the principle of equality, its application has become a source of controversy, particularly regarding its political definition.

Domains: Political science

Réjane Sénac. “French-Style” Parity and Diversity: The Temptation of Inclusion Conditioned by Performance for “Non-brothers”. Emmanuelle Barozet; Ivan Sainsaulieu; Régis Cortesero; David Mélo. Where Has Social Justice Gone? From Equality to Experimentation, Palgrave Macmillan, pp.71-86, 2022, 978-3-030-93123-0. ⟨10.1007/978-3-030-93123-0_5⟩. ⟨hal-03715381⟩