Astié de Valsayre, duelling feminist (3/6)
Continuation of the biography of Marie Rose Astié de Valsayre
Always interested in medicine, Astié de Valsayre, who had been bitten by a rabid dog in July 1878 at her home in the rue Saint-Jacques, had cauterised her wounds herself with red-hot iron, according to her testimony, with the help of her husband. Dr Astié died in June 1881. He left her some capital.
Following Louis Pasteur's work in the press, she offered to inoculate him with her rabies vaccine in November 1884, more than six months before he carried out the first trials. The chemist replied: ‘It would be very dangerous, Madame, to attempt the test’. She insisted, without success, informing the newspapers of her efforts.
In April 1886, having heard that Dr Gruselbach, from the University of Uppsala (Sweden), had developed a device for preserving human beings by immersing them in the cold for several years (cryonics), she wrote to him to apply. She received no reply.
In the second half of the 1880s, Marie Rose Astié de Valsayre published what were generally short literary texts, such as Le retour de l'exilé, a patriotic poem she signed Jean Misère, in 1887, and an epistle, Deuxième aux Pharisiens, the same year she wrote to the major daily newspaper, Le Petit Journal, asking it to stop publishing commercial advertisements for ‘sleepwalkers and card readers’.
Astié de Valsayre's interest in sport, combined with her concern for women's emancipation and her patriotism, led to her spectacular rise to fame.
In October 1884, a journalist from the daily newspaper Le Cri du Peuple called Astié de Valsayre a ‘vulture widow’, and she demanded that he take up arms to make amends. But the publicist, named Polignac, refused to fight with a woman; in the company of two people, including her companion Albin Rousselet, she beat him up in a café.
In December 1885, recognising that what she had written in Amazones du siècle could be considered an offence to some of the people targeted, Astié de Valsayre made herself available to them if they wanted to fight, and made this clear to Eugénie Pierre in particular. She refused: ‘I am absolutely against duelling, and the sex of the combatants would not change my opinion. The duel, that remnant of barbarism, has never proved anything. If Mme de Valsayre was able to offend me, she loyally asked me to offer her hand in forgiveness, which I did.
In March 1886, it was the turn of an American woman, Miss Shelby, to come up against Astié de Valsayre's bellicose vindictiveness. During a conversation, the American feminist asserted the superiority of French doctoresses over American doctoresses. When Astié de Valsayre challenged her assertion, she called her an idiot, and the Frenchwoman threw her glove in her face. They agreed to settle their dispute with the sword on the battlefield of Waterloo (Belgium). As no Frenchman could be found for the role, the four witnesses were all Americans. In the second engagement, the American was slightly wounded in the arm; she then apologised to Astié de Valsayre, who praised her noble behaviour.
A month later, she attacked Marshal Booth, the Englishwoman in charge of the Salvation Army in France. She criticised her organisation's ‘pernicious doctrines’ and told her to leave France or accept her challenge. The Protestant missionary refused to fight, and also avoided the public debate that the French secular activist wanted to impose on her.
A few weeks later, Astié de Valsayre held a conference on L'escrime et la femme (Fencing and Women) on her own, and in front of a small audience, highlighting her opinion that the practice of fencing contributed to their physical rehabilitation while reinforcing their central role in their mission as mothers.
A petition against ‘the abuse of paternal rights’ was sent to the Chamber of Deputies in January 1887 by Maria Martin, a feminist activist who signed it in the name of ‘women's suffrage’, and Astié de Valsayre, who spoke ‘on behalf of the mothers of France’.
In July 1887, Astié de Valsayre raised another issue in the form of a petition to the elected representatives of the people, which was to generate a considerable number of articles in the press. She called for ‘freedom of dress’ for women. The assembly appointed a committee to study the arguments. It explained: ‘In all fights on land or in water, women, because of their costume, are predestined to die, and tram accidents for the same reason are a daily occurrence. With the thought of the unfortunate women who were prevented from escaping during the fire at the Opéra-Comique, it seems logical and humane to do away with the routine law that forbids women to wear men's clothing, which is just as decent, whatever one may say, and above all unquestionably more hygienic. In the name of those who are not slaves to luxury, I have come to ask you, gentlemen, to kindly decree freedom of costume, a freedom which, after all, can harm no one.’
A year later, the 17th Committee of the Chamber of Deputies considered that there was ‘no need for legislation’ because ‘no law requires women to wear the complicated clothes they wear, and the wearing of men's clothing is only forbidden to women as a police measure’.
Continuing her commitment, Astié de Valsayre joined one of the first socialist organisations, the Union fédérative du centre, a member of the Fédération des Travailleurs socialistes de France (FTSF). She took part in the August 1887 congress as a delegate for the Women's Rights group, which presented itself as a women's suffrage society. She spoke in defence of the existence of public assistance, welcoming its secularisation. The FTSF, with its possibilist leanings, was led by Paul Brousse. From then on, Astié de Valsayre regularly took part in its debates.
More here in french
Suite de la biographie de Marie Rose Astié de Valsayre S’intéressant toujours à la médecine, Astié de Valsayre qui avait été mordue en juillet 1878 par un chien enragé à son domicile de la rue Saint-Jacques, avait elle-même cautérisé ses plaies au fer...
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