"What could save love? ", on France Culture: Ovidie, his charming princes and his toads

It took him a little time and pushing a few walls but, and that's more than happy, Ovidie is now essential in the documentary landscape, and his achievements have become references and as many sources of inspiration

"What could save love? ", on France Culture: Ovidie, his charming princes and his toads

It took him a little time and pushing a few walls but, and that's more than happy, Ovidie is now essential in the documentary landscape, and his achievements have become references and as many sources of inspiration. There was What Do Maidens Dream? (2015), Where whores do not exist (2017) and You will give birth in pain (2019). On the France Culture side, she notably signed a Living without sexuality (2021) and returns today with What could save love?

Suffice to say, the series lives up to the title: ambitious. But one could add joyful, particularly well set to sound (by Julie Beressi), scholarly (philosophers, authors and neurobiologists to the rescue), sometimes pessimistic, certainly political. In short, Valentine's Day or not, this is a podcast to be shared as widely as possible - so that young girls don't always get fooled. Because it all the same starts a bit like that, this story. With Ovidie who, at 40 years old and a little, and despite having thought about the subject and rather three times than once, finds himself heartbroken.

Episode 1. In Fairy Tale Land, Ask for Cinderella: "Two toxic stepsisters, a downgraded chick who dreams of a powerful, wealthy, more experienced guy: the prince." Add Sleeping Beauty and an unconsented kiss. Then Pomegranate Heart and Fifty Shades of Gray and check that the man may "be an asshole, we still love him". Then ask yourself why.

Camille Emmanuelle, who writes erotic novels on the chain, sheds light on the backstage of this editorial production (the new romance) where everything is regulated: the man must be handsome, mysterious and a billionaire (but not an heir), that the woman - younger than him - is not too bright but possibly in danger to be saved by him. For all intents and purposes, it should be noted that the girl does not masturbate, never has her period and comes after a few minutes of penetration.

feminicides

"Can it be erotic to love each other in equality? “, asks Ovidie, who in the next episode is interested in toxic loves. Feminicides too, especially when, in 2003, the press still speaks widely of a crime of passion while Marie Trintignant dies under the blows of Bertrand Cantat. And Ovidie rightly insists: "Cantat is the tree that hides the forest of the 140 women who die each year in France murdered by their spouses (...) We kill because we feel authorized to do so", she adds, while historian Christelle Taraud calls for a change of vocabulary to change the paradigm: "Violence must be banished and is inexcusable. »

The only way out could be "a political project to destroy patriarchal regimes". Ovidie campaigns for a "feminist rehabilitation of marriage" (episode 4) and questions love after

But it is impossible to embrace this sum of questions here. We can just salute the work of Ovidie who comes to stimulate us intellectually on this highly sensitive and largely universal theme. Especially since she does it with real intelligence and, which doesn't spoil anything, a lot of love too.