Cathy Bernheim is now an author, speaker, journalist, editor, and activist wo has translated several English feminist literature.
Bernheim, an influential and well-known feminist activist, is considered a pioneer of the Mouvement de Libération des Femmes (Women’s Liberation Movement).
The Mouvement de Libération des Femmes fought for bodily autonomy and challenged patriarchal society and all the problems that come with it.
This movement led to transformations within the political and social society in France, giving women more rights in regard to birth control and parental equality.
Therefore, when the Mouvement de Libération des Femmes held gatherings the lesbian activists of the Gouines Rouges would come to make their case heard and fight in unity alongside their feminist peers.
Bernheim spearheaded the movement’s first protest by laying a wreath under the Arc de Triomphe on August 26, 1970, which marked the 50th anniversary of women obtaining the right to vote in the United States.
Their argument was that, while the unknown soldier is respected for doing what was expected of him through heroic military service, the woman of the household had been working in this selfless position for centuries.
[7][8] Bernheim focused on issues ranging from sexual assault, domestic and political equality, a rejection of misogynistic beauty standards, and the fight for reproductive justice for women.
With messages like, “Workers of the world, who is washing your socks?”, the MLF fought for the principle of gender pay equality and paid housework.
Perturbation, My Soeur contributes to French feminism by exploring female experiences, autonomy, identity, and societal pressures within a patriarchal framework.
It also navigates sexuality and intimacy, including elements of lesbian desires or relationships that challenged societal norms in the sisters' lives.
Cathy Bernheim was a very influential figure in the French feminism movement, fighting for gender equality, reproductive rights, and against sexual violence.
In an interview on lesbian liberation and desire, author Renate Stendhal explains that shehad been looking for years for a book that would recapture that first discovery of women’s condition as the "second sex" (Beauvoir) and as "colonized people" (as French feminists put it).