Girlcott, the female equivalent of the boycott, belongs to women’s struggles. It was first used in 1891, in California. Since the petition calling for a boycott of the Angoulême festival, relayed in Humanity in April, the authors are on the front line of the mobilization.
Like Anouk Ricard, grand prix 2025, who reaffirmed her decision to boycott the festival a few weeks ago, they organized collectively and became the spearhead of the general mobilization. Alongside them, women and all gender minorities in the comics world, to move the lines. Behind Chloe1this festival communications manager fired after filing a rape complaint, they emphasize that gender-based and sexual violence (SGBV) is at the heart of the problem and that sexism is a mistreatment that spares no one.
Today, they are publishing a manifesto which brings together 285 names among the best-known authors. They recall how they conquered their place in the sexist and masculine world of comics and demand “a more ethical treatment of individuals (…) so that comics are considered as a cultural good, accessible to all and not as a pure commercial product”.
“This has to stop”
This manifesto originally emerged from a WhatsApp group that spontaneously formed the day before the company’s RC designation 9e Art + to succeed itself at the head of the festival. In this informal debate space, we discuss, we inform ourselves, we coordinate, each with its own sensitivity and disagreements. The group made small ones according to the different action projects.
It was during the discussions that the designer and feminist Mirion Malle imagined two posts published on her Instagram. The first summarizes the origin of the festival crisis; the second focuses on the scandal surrounding Chloé. His posts already have millions of views. For this author who believes in the collective, “Instagram allows us to inform the public, go beyond the comics world, and show that artists are not disconnected, but precarious workers like any other”. As for the post on Chloé, the author insists: “the scandal created a spark”but does not prevent VSS from continuing to do damage. “The limits have been crossed many times. This has to stop. »
Another “Support for Chloe” group has emerged. We are thinking about the current procedures: a hearing at the industrial tribunal is scheduled for this week and on November 27, Chloé will be heard, in Angoulême, by the investigating judge following her criminal complaint. A fundraiser was launched to support it. Some authors offer to sell their drawings to help young women who are now unemployed and without resources. All call for a “girlcott” of FIBD 2026. “Chloé we believe you! » they conclude with one voice.
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