Too Liberal for France? The controversy surrounding minister's appearance on Playboy cover

The latest scandal to rattle the French government is a Playboy front cover starring Emmanuel Macron's top minister. The magazine’s French edition will feature Marlene Schiappa, a self-described “sapiosexual,” completely dressed and with a 12-page interview on abortion, women’s rights, and LGBT rights, according to AFP. She is the first female politician to be featured on Playboy France’s front cover. Politicians who are currently dealing with a significant backlash over Macron's pension plans have criticised her decision to appear on the cover. Let’s take a closer look at the matter. French minister on Playboy cover According to Le Parisien newspaper, which first reported the story, Schiappa, a 40-year-old feminist author who was plucked from obscurity by President Emmanuel Macron in 2017, was photographed for the cover wearing a long white, one-shoulder dress in one image and a voluminous bow-tied white dress in another, under the headline “A liberated minister.”

Invité ce matin sur Europe1 le Ministre de l’intérieur @GDarmanin apporte son soutien à @MarleneSchiappa sur sa Une Une de #playboy. Il cite Cookie Dingler : « vous ne me ferez pas dire de mal de Marlène Schiappa (…) être une femme libérée, c’est pas si facile » pic.twitter.com/pz50OoQdls

— Jeanne Baron (@jeannebarontv) April 2, 2023

The Minister apparently agreed to participate in the interview so that she could elaborate on everything from politics, global warming, and literature to feminism, violence against women, and women’s rights. “Defending the right of women to do what they want with their bodies: everywhere and all the time.  In France, women are free. Whether it annoys the retrogrades and hypocrites or not,” Schiappa wrote on Twitter on Saturday.

Défendre le droit des femmes à disposer de leurs corps, c’est partout et tout le temps.
En France, les femmes sont libres.
N’en déplaise aux rétrogrades et aux hypocrites.#Playboy

— 🇫🇷 MarleneSchiappa (@MarleneSchiappa) April 1, 2023

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According to La Parisien, she will be featured in the magazine’s 8 April issue, two days after France begins its 11th day of nationwide strike action to protest pension reforms that would raise the retirement age from 62 to 64.

Also read: Why France pension reforms are a reminder of India’s NPS vs OPS debate

Who is Marlene Schiappa? The 40-year-old Minister, a longtime supporter of women’s rights, was chosen in 2017 to serve as the nation’s first-ever Minister of Gender Equality. In this capacity, Schiappa, a frequent guest on French TV discussion shows, was successful in advancing a new rule against sexual harassment that allows men to be fined immediately for catcalling, harassing, or following women on the street. According to AFP, before entering politics, the mother of two was an active writer and blogger who specialised in topics like pregnancy, women’s health, and motherhood issues. She also wrote a 2010 book that provided advice on having sex with overweight people, which some critics viewed as reinforcing stereotypes. ‘Not soft porn’ Playboy has defended the spread which will appear in its French-language edition. Schiappa was the “most ‘Playboy compatible’” of government ministers “because she is attached to the rights of women and she has understood that it’s not a magazine for old machos but could be an instrument for the feminist cause,” editor Jean-Christophe Florentin told AFP. “Playboy is not a soft porn magazine but a 300-page quarterly ‘mook’ (a mix of a book and a magazine) that is intellectual and on-trend,” Florentin added while admitting there were “still a few undressed women but they’re not the majority of the pages.” Also read: Trash Troubles: Why are streets in France littered with heaps of garbage? Criticism Politicians, including France’s prime minister Elisabeth Borne, have criticised her appearance. Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, only the second woman to occupy the position, called Schiappa to tell her that it “was not at all appropriate, especially in the current period,” an aide told AFP on Saturday. Greens MP and fellow women’s rights activist Sandrine Rousseau, an outspoken critic of the centrist government, said: “where is the respect for the French people? “People who are going to have to work for two years more, who are demonstrating, who are losing days of salary, who aren’t managing to eat because of inflation?” she told the BFM channel on Saturday. “Women’s bodies should be able to be exposed anywhere, I don’t have a problem with that, but there’s a social context.” Additional criticism of Schiappa has centred on the bigger problem of the centrist government’s communication plan. The third-place finisher in the 2022 presidential elections in France, Jean Luc Mélenchon, slammed both Schiappa’s appearance and Emmanuel Macron’s choice to grant an interview to the children’s magazine Pif Gadget this week, according to CNN. He tweeted on Saturday night, “In a country where the President expresses himself in Pif and his minister in Playboy, the problem would be the opposition. France is going off the rails.”

Dans un pays où le Président s'exprime dans Pif et sa ministre Schiappa dans Playboy le problème ce serait l'opposition. La France déraille.

— Jean-Luc Mélenchon (@JLMelenchon) April 1, 2023

Member of European Parliament Manon Aubry took to Twitter and wrote, “This one #Playboy is ridiculous 1) for feminism (media that conveys sexist clichés) & 2) in competition with Pif Gadget for the diversionary operation. But strangely we did not hear the shock of the macronists on the embezzlement of the Marianne fund managed by Schiappa.."

Cette une #Playboy est ridicule 1) pour le féminisme (média qui véhicule les clichés sexistes) & 2) en concurrence avec Pif Gagdget pour l'opération de diversion.

Mais étrangement on a pas entendu le choc des macronistes sur le détournement du fonds Marianne géré par Schiappa.. https://t.co/JnGV2WQOfZ pic.twitter.com/jXoHUO0Pqi

— Manon Aubry (@ManonAubryFr) April 1, 2023

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Other controversies Schiappa is no stranger to controversy and has repeatedly angered right-wingers. According to The Telegraph, when in office in 2021, she gained national attention for identifying as a sapiosexual—a person who finds intelligence sexually attractive. She also made headlines when the protagonist of one of her novels refers to Alain Juppé, the 77-year-old former prime minister, as the sexiest guy in France. Using the pen name Marie Minelli, Schiappa has written a number of books on feminism as well as sex and erotica books such as “Dare to Have a Female Orgasm,” “Indecent Marriage,” “How to Turn Your Guy into Brad Pitt in 30 Days,” and “Good Girls Don’t Swallow.” Also read: Out of Time? Why French president Emmanuel Macron is receiving flak over a watch Protests over pension reforms The pension reforms, which have sparked violent outbursts and strikes, have prompted thousands of French citizens to take to the streets in recent weeks. According to the Independent, the French government claims that increasing the retirement age is essential to prevent the pension system from going bankrupt. However, critics contend that there are alternative methods for funding pensions, such as raising taxes on the wealthy, and surveys suggest that the majority of voters are opposed to pension reforms. With inputs from agencies Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News , India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.