Controversy Over a New French Stamp

I am a stamp collector, and have been for probably three full decades now. I cannot remember exactly when my own collection began, because I was just a little kid at the time, and my memory really is not clear on this any longer. It was my grandfather who got me into it, having a very impressive stamp collection at the time, particularly since stamps and such were far more difficult to obtain back then. After all, there was no internet, no Ebay.

He helped me to get my own collection started, but it remained week for years and years. His collection was always the model to aspire to from my perspective. It still is, in fact.

My interest in stamps waned at times. It was a kind of on again, off again sort of thing. It remained that way until I grew out of childhood, and into adulthood.

The thing is, stamp collecting can easily be put into the backburner. There is a lot of appeal to collecting stamps, at least if you open your eyes to it (although most people never do). But it is also something that can easily be forgotten, because you do not tend to hear too much about it, and maintaining a collection requires some level of discipline, money, and time. Those are things that are not always in abundant supply, and since this is a collection for pleasure, you can probably excuse me for losing sight of my collection, more or less, during younger years, when there was some growing up to do.

Eventually, I did get back into it. It took a while, admittedly, but it happened. And the reason it happened is because stamps have a lot to offer. They reveal a nation as it wants to be portrayed. There can be political messages. Some are overt, some are more covert. There usually are historical figures or events that are honored. Often times, a region or city or some place or building of historical or cultural significance will be honored. If you are not familiar with a nation, or it's history, collecting stamps will surely make you more so, and it can be a fun way of taking a figurative tour of the world, all the while seeing something that is a literal and figurative piece of history. That is intriguing, and makes stamps rewarding to collect.

Still, you do not hear about stamps too often. I knew of a handful of stores that specialized in stamps (and often coins), but some of them seem to have gone under. Not surprising, since the internet offers the chance to get precisely the stamps that you are looking for, and you even can look for the best price, all within the comfortable confines of home. How can stores with actual locations compete with that? They were not too numerous to begin with, and would attract specialists, generally. The internet surely limited their customers even further. Now, you can obtain stamps, but the easiest way by far, much like almost everything these days, is doing it via the internet.

You do not hear much about stamps, either. If you live in the United States, then mostly, what you hear about the postal service tends to be bad news: an increase in the price of stamps, or a reduction of hours and locations of post offices. Indeed, at times, it seems like the US Postal Service itself might become extinct, which would be very sad news indeed. Things will likely get worse, and considerably so, although people won't recognize that until it's too late. Too often, you don't know a good thing until it's gone. That's one sad truth we learn in this life, isn't it? One of just many, unfortunately.

For now, the US Postal Service, and stamps in general, still exist. It is not often that you hear about them, as they make less news generally than ever before. You might think it would be the reverse, since the internet also provides a bigger and more diverse forum for them to make news on. But, since the world also has far, far more distractions then ever before, stamps seem to be increasingly relegated to the background.

But not always. They do make news every now and then, and when I see it, it seems almost a necessity then to share it here on this blog. There might not be tons of stamp collectors around, and so this will be of interest to a small amount of people. Yet, I wanted to post it, because it is newsworthy, and it involves stamps - something that you generally do not hear much about anymore.

This particular controversy has to do with a new stamp from France, with a kind of updated portrayal of Marianne, the woman who has served as a traditional symbol of the Republic of France for many years now, and who has graced both French stamps and coins for many a decade. Yes, she has been updated, but not without controversy. Here are a couple of articles, with the links to be able to view them on your own, which go into further details:



"Femen Stamp Sparks Controversy In France"

Amid the celebrations marking Bastille Day on Sunday, French President Francois Hollande unveiled a new stamp that had been printed in secrecy for the past two months. Little did he know that the drawing of the pretty young girl would spark a nation-wide controversy.

Representing the features of the revolutionary icon Marianne, the cartoon-style drawing shows the beautiful face of a young women holding up her hand. According to Le Parisien, Hollande lauded the effigy as an "illustration" of the youth that he had declared a priority during his presidency.

Following the release of the image, many begged artists David Kawena and Olivier Ciappa to reveal who they had modeled the design after. Ciappa ended the mystery on Sunday in a post on Twitter:

"For everyone who asked [to know] the model for Marianne, it's a mix of different women but most of all Inna Shevchenko, founder of FEMEN," he wrote.

 

Ukrainian-born Shevhcenko is one of the founders of FEMEN, a feminist activist organization famous for its topless protests slamming misogyny and homophobia around the world. The activist group has its European headquarters in Paris and has staged numerous demonstrations in the country, including one targeting a march by far-right groups to celebrate Joan of Arc earlier this year. Shevchenko, notorious for destroying a wooden cross with a chainsaw to protest the arrest of the members of the Russian band Pussy Riot, applied for political asylum in France earlier this month.

The announcement sparked a storm of reactions. Former head of the French Christian Democrats Christine Boutin voiced her contempt for the design on Twitter, even retweeting a post by her party calling for a boycott of the stamp.

Opponents of the design launched a petition calling on Hollande to revoke the design.

France24 notes that Ciappa's work has drawn criticism by the political right in the past. In June, opponents of a French bill that would have granted same-sex couples the right to marry vandalized the artist's photo exhibition on marriage equality, called, "The Imaginary Couples."

Ciappa said on Monday that he found Boutin's reaction bizarre, adding that he had received other threatening and hateful messages on Twitter.

In a blogpost for HuffPost France, the designer explained: "I chose Inna Shevchenko as model, after days and days of trials and searches. She embodies the values of the [French] Republic best; liberty, equality, fraternity. Feminism is an intrinsic part of those values."

Ciappa adds he considered several other models for the stamp, including actress Marion Cotillard.

Femen leader Shevchenko, on the other hand, seemed thrilled by the news. She tweeted: "Femen is on French stamp. Now all homophobes, extremists, fascists will have to lick my ass when they want to send a letter." 

This was taken from The Huffington Post article, "Femen Stamp Sparks Controversy In France",

from July 15, 2013. Here is the link:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/15/femen-post-stamp_n_3599671.html

"French stamp with activist's likeness raises ire"   

by by Masha MacPherson of the Associated Press (see link below):

PARIS (AP) — The new face of France — or at least the official postage stamp for the President Francois Hollande era — is modeled after a Ukrainian woman who takes her top off to defend feminist causes.

Not everyone thinks that's appropriate, and some are calling for a boycott.

Hollande on Sunday unveiled the new stamp, meant to represent Marianne, a symbol of France since the revolution and French youth. Afterward, artist Olivier Ciappa said the image was modeled largely after Inna Shevchenko, an activist with the group Femen who received political asylum in France.

Hollande's office would not comment on whether the president, a Socialist who has pushed for more women's rights, knew about the Femen inspiration.

An official in Hollande's presidential palace said the image was chosen by a panel of young people from a selection of sketches. The official was not authorized to be publicly named according to presidential policy.

Ciappa described his choice as an homage to the idea of Marianne, who is meant to symbolize liberty and reason and is sometimes depicted topless.

"Marianne, the symbol of France, was a revolutionary woman. When you look at the Delacroix paintings a few centuries ago, she was bare-breasted," he told The Associated Press. "She was fighting for equality, and she was fighting for friendship, which are the values of France. And all of them they are the values of Femen. In a way, Marianne was the first Femen."

Shevchenko herself expressed pride in being "the new icon of the modern interpretation of Marianne."

"I am definitely proud that France is still following the tradition of representing, of showing its national symbol as a woman that is fighting," she told the AP, adding that she was particularly honored that the woman on the stamp has a garland of flowers in her hair, as Femen activists often wear.

The small, conservative Christian Democrat Party is calling for a boycott of the stamp. On their website and on Twitter, the party said the postal service should withdraw the stamp, saying it "insults the dignity of women, the sovereignty of France."

Femen activists frequently stage protests in France, often with slogans scrawled across their bare breasts.

The group causes controversy, not only by demonstrating topless but also because it is increasingly seen as seeking attention more than fighting for freedoms. Its protests are usually quite small and organized carefully to attract police and journalists.

Femen's demonstrations, which began in Ukraine five years ago focusing on women's rights, have spread across several countries now and its message has become increasingly diffuse.

Its targets have included Russian President Vladimir Putin, the pope, the Islamist government in Tunisia, capitalist bosses at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, gay marriage critics in France, and abusive husbands in Turkey.

In Ukraine, some have grown disillusioned with the group, particularly after its activists shocked many by cutting down a massive Orthodox cross in Kiev last year to protest the conviction of members of the Russian punk band Pussy Riot.

Angela Charlton, Nicolas Garriga and Sylvie Corbet in Paris and Maria Danilova in Kiev contributed to this report.

Here is the link to this story "French stamp with activist's likeness raises ire" by Masha MacPherson of the Associated Press:

http://news.yahoo.com/french-stamp-activists-likeness-raises-ire-093029804.html