Profile: Les Filles Affranchies
Les Filles Affranchies (The Liberated Girls) is - at its core - a group of women who love women, but comes together concerning issues other than sexuality. It organizes varying cultural events across several genres in Switzerland's French-speaking city of Lausanne. Les Filles Affranchies is a not-for-profit organization and any extra money brought in from club events is donated to organizations that work to improve the lives of women and children.
www.lesfillesaffranchies.com

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The highly active group Les Filles Affranchies (The Liberated Girls, herein referred to as LFA) has been organizing new kinds of all-genre lesbian events in French-speaking Lausanne for the past four years. Five out lesbians each do their part in managing the events and the group's leader, Pauline, offers, "We are increasing the visibility of liberated girls". These women plan and host events covering every conceivable genre - including picnics, hiking, film viewings, exhibitions, 15-hour marathons of The L Word, and club events.

Though the themes for events are fundamentally lesbian-based, they aren't limited to that, and one characteristic of the gatherings is the open acceptance of participants of any sex and sexuality. LFA activities are indeed 'hetero-friendly'.

LFA is particularly known for organizing events, yet Pauline explains, "Our work is foremostly the administration of the website. Since so many people feel it's difficult to attend club events alone, we offer forums and magazines accessible on the web. Then, once someone finds a theme that they're interested in and has chatted with others in a forum, it's only a matter of time before the courage to attend an activity follows. I think then that it's natural for many women to take the next step and join a daytime event, like ones at cafes or a theater. "

LFA does not now refuse entry to men at its parties but in the beginning it did, just as many other lesbian events do. "First of all, we were fed up with the fact that there was not a single, in our opinion, worthwhile lesbian event so we set out to plan a party. Early on we held a Girls Only party. However, we soon realized that over time our event had pretty much become some sultry 'pick-up party' - something far from what we had originally intended (laughs). We also began to sense that as long as we continued holding lesbian events, our visibility would not improve and we’d be fueling the same cycle. Therefore, later we allowed men in only as long as they were accompanied by women. That was simply to restrict the entry of curious bands of men with clear ulterior motives (laughs). After a short while we went ahead and completely made the party 'mixed', which we soon saw was ultimately the best option of all. I mean, because our purpose is to promote lesbianism, right?"

This year LFA has been hosting a regular party at Le Romandie, the coolest club in Swiss Lausanne's alternative scene, and has recently been gaining wide recognition in the straight world as well. The event, known as "Kill Your Idols", is now being held every other month. Also, word of LFA's innovative work has taken hold of not only the lesbian scene but also the mainstream, as evidenced by coverage in 24heures, a major regional paper, and growing radio appearances.

LFA events may now be quite successful but one member, Lia, reminds us that there were many difficulties in their earlier days. "We were the target of much criticism at the beginning. And not so much by straight people but, rather, by lesbians. Since we offered activities that touched on a multitude of cultural themes and not just lesbian ones, people were roundly calling us elitists and stuck-up snobs." When asked if people still make the same accusations, Pauline adds, "It has gotten better compared to before, but I guess there is still a bit of a problem. BBS's and forums at these old-school lesbian sites see us as some kind of bad guy. It seems like the women that meet there are all half-depressed anyway. They just go on and on talking about their dogs or the reasons that they have suffered in love or been cheated on (laughs). At LFA, we refer to some people as 'country lesbians' or 'old-generation lesbians' and so on - basically these women are 'THE lesbians' (laughs). This type of lesbian enjoys going out with her girl for walks on Sundays and playing guitars by a bonfire...which is fine, but that's not for us!"

"In the eyes of 'THE lesbians' LFA is just too avant-garde, and they make it obvious that they see us as the competition - our name has been blocked from posting, no one can write our name there. But even so, LFA has been able to carry through with its style and demonstrate its passion by continuing to offer events, unlike any other, where lesbians are brought together by themes outside of their sexuality. As Pauline says, LFA will contribute to create new images of lesbians unlike those of "crude women who sit drinking at bars sizing up other women." As an aside she then adds, "Up till now lesbian parties functioned as nothing other than pick-up joints - and everybody knows the music there sucks!" (laughs)

translated by rayna rusenko