Concept
Marie-Josèphe Bonnet (born 1949 in Deauville) is a French specialist in the history of women, history of art, and history of lesbians. She has also published books in the history of the French resistance and occupation. Bonnet obtained a BA in history at the Pantheon-Sorbonne University, and went on to get her Master and PhD from Paris Diderot University. Working with Michelle Perrot she published her thesis, Romantic Relations between women of the 16th and 20th centuries (Les relations amoureuses entre les femmes du xvie au xxe siècle), in 1995. As a doctor of history, Bonnet has taught art history at Columbia University and Carleton University (in Paris), and hosted several radio and television programs for France Culture France Inter, and France 2. As an art historian, Bonnet has written several books and various articles, participating in conferences about the theme of art, women artists, and the representation of women in art. Bonnet has never had a permanent academic position in France, despite being one of the first professionally trained historians working in LGBT history. In 1971, Bonnet was a member of the Women's Liberation Movement (Mouvement de libération des femmes), and a founding member of both the Front homosexuel d'action révolutionnaire and the Gouines rouges. She was a part of recording several songs of the, including the Hymne du MLF. In 1974, she joined La Spirale founded by the artist Charlotte Calmis, and later helped found the Charlotte Calmis Association. Bonnet is a member of the Société des gens de lettres, and the current president of the Lire à Pont-L'Evêque. She opposes surrogacy, and is a member of the Collectif pour le respect de la personne. Bonnet was instrumental in the rediscovery of the French Resistance work by Éveline Garnier and Andrée Jacob, which led to two pathways being named in their honour in 2019. Un choix sans équivoque, Paris, Denoël-Gonthier, 1981. Les Relations amoureuses entre les femmes du XVI au XX (reissued in a pocket edition by Les Éditions Odile Jacob in 2001).
