SCUM MANIFESTO contexts 18

Insoumuses — resonates with “the cries of the women taking ac-tion” 6 and announces a counterattack. This neologism, associat-ing the words “insoumises” (that translates as “insubordinates”) and “muses”, was conceived shortly before for the emblematic Maso et miso vont en bateau (Maso and Miso Go Boating), co-directed in 1976 with Ioana Wieder and Nadja Ringart. The play on words is a way to ironically suggest their rejection of stereotypical images reduc-ing women to the roles of passive inspiring muses, silent icons — the product of a male, heteronormative model. It is also a way to assert themselves as revolted and rebellious women, who refuse to remain subject to the patriarcal order, speaking up and taking over their own image as they seize the camera with humor and impertinence.

The lightweight video camera at the heart of feminist struggles

Later than in the United States, the arrival in France of the first Japanese, small format — 1/2 and 1/4 inch — video recorders co-incided with the events of May 1968. Their collective use in social and political practices echoed what was happening in the United States and Canada. In the beginning of the 1970s, a militant stream began to emerge around video groups — structures of production and informal distribution, financially and politically independ-ent — which demanded a new right: the access of ordinary men and women — neither public figures, journalists, nor professionals — to these “communication devices” 7. The lightweight video camera asserted itself as a “new guerrilla weapon” 8, the ideal tool for free