French feminist minister defends appearance on cover of Playboy magazine
- Marlene Schiappa says posing for the publication, which accompanies a 12-page interview on women’s and gay rights as well as abortion, is a feminist statement
- The decision has irritated some colleagues, with French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne calling Schiappa to tell her that it ‘was not at all appropriate’
A French government minister has defended her decision to appear on the front cover of a notorious soft-porn magazine – clothed – as a feminist statement.
Marlene Schiappa, a 40-year-old feminist author who was plucked from obscurity by President Emmanuel Macron in 2017, is no stranger to controversy and has repeatedly angered right-wingers.
But even the prime minister and left-wing critics feel the minister for the social economy and associations has made a mistake with her latest stunt: posing for Playboy to accompany a 12-page interview on women’s and gay rights as well as abortion.
“Defending the right of women to do what they want with their bodies: everywhere and all the time”, Schiappa wrote on Twitter on Saturday. “In France, women are free. Whether it annoys the retrogrades and hypocrites or not”.
The decision has irritated some colleagues in the government, which has been battling strikes and increasingly violent demonstrations against plans to raise the retirement age by two years.