1. History
     An original idea from Fabrice Florent    Steps to madmoizelle.com    Mediatic expansion (website, YouTube channel, facebook, app)  

2. Editorial choices
     Diversity of subjects    Writing style    Madmoizelle’s staff    MadmoiZelle’s community  

3. A feminist media
     Feminist implication    Polemic issues or “badmoizelle”    Polemic answer to “badmoizelle”  

MadmoiZelle is a French webzine (to not confound with the fashion American magazine Mademoiselle) and a feminist media stated loud and clear, but also a YouTube channel. It had been created by Fabrice Florent in 2005 in Lille, while the editorial board moved in Paris in 2013. The public targeted are especially women between 18 and 30 years old. With 25 rubrics available on the website, madmoiZelle is a societal and cultural magazine covering a large content (psychology, cinema, news, sex, high tech, fashion, etc.). Today, the website is established in France as a women’s magazine reference. The tone used is fresh and entertaining to inform its readers, share experiences, make them laugh and defeat any taboos.

History

An original idea from Fabrice Florent

The birth of the project is rooted in an original idea from Fabrice Florent. The aim of the website is to create a source of information for women between their teenage and adult years, between their exit from high school and their first child. Madmoizelle like to quote a sentence from Britney Spears to sum up this state of life: “no more a girl, not yet a woman”^[1]. Its interest is also to create a generalist source of information mixing both superficial things (beauty, fashion) and more intellectual things (actuality, cinema, etc.) with a desire to defeat any taboos (sexuality, periods, harassment, etc.). To choose a title, Fabrice Florent had to find something up to all the values of the editorial policy: something feminine, fun and authentic. In one of his Youtube video^[2], Fabrice confesses that he first wanted to call it “Bouge ton boule” ("Move your butt"), but he finally decided to give a more meaningful name. In French mademoiselle is the equivalent word for miss. By deleting the “e” and replacing the “s” by a “Z”, the interest was to emphasize the words “mad”, “moi” ("me" in French) and “elle” (French feminine form for they).

Steps to madmoizelle.com

Fabrice Florent is the founder of the project. During his studies in a school of communication, a group work pushes him in contact with the firm of Pimkie. After welcomed him for an internship, the company notices Fabrice’s interest for the web and get him a job as a webmaster before he is even graduated. At this period, in 1998, internet is not as much important as it is nowadays, so the firm does not hesitate to give him carte blanche in the conception of their website. Fabrice takes this opportunity and creates “move and be”, Pimkie's website made for young girls. This auto-apprenticeship gives him strong skills in programming and propels him into the universe of women which has always fascinated him. In 2005, after working for 7 years for Pimkie, Fabrice decides to quit his job with the desire to create his own website. He wants his magazine to be for a special public not yet satisfied at that time in the landscape of web medias: women between their 18 and 30 years. Indeed, it existed women’s webzine like Aufeminin for adult women or its teenage version Ados.com, but there was nothing for women between these two ages.

The website is launched the 1st of October 2005 with a self-financing of 100 000 euros. Fabrice Florent starts to work in the attic of his father. Then, he gathers a work team and uses the money to pay his employees, find premises in Lille and make the website grow up. In his business plan, he does not pay himself because his wife, Catherine Florent, brings enough money to maintains the comfort of the family home. In interviews^[3], Fabrice Florent often wants to thank his wife saying that without her nothing of his project would have been possible. All these efforts are rewarded because 9 months after the creation of madmoizelle.com, the website records 100 000 regular visitors.

In February 2013, the editorial board leave Lille to Paris^[4]. It was a practical decision because most of their media contacts were there.

Mediatic expansion (website, YouTube channel, facebook, app)

Since its creation, the website had been in constant progress. In 2014, the website reached the 4 million of visitors^[5]. In the same year, Fabrice Florent is at the head of the rankings established by Europe 1^[5] for the 100 best French who does the web in the category “trendsetter”. In 2016, the Netobserver considers madmoiZelle as the 4th women’s favourite website of French ^[6]. In November 2007, a Facebook page had been created and is still used to relay the major articles on the social network. This presence is essential to spread the renown of madmoiZelle by making people share the content and react. In 2014, the facebook page reached the 150 000 likes^[5]. This number keeps evolve as we can now count in October 2018 more than 267 000 likes. The presence of website is also extended to Instagram and Snapchat.

The official YouTube channel is created the 16th of February 2007. In October 2018, it records a number of 470 000 followers. Today, the community posts a video every day at 6 pm according to this program^[7] :

• Elise on Mondays
• Sister Sister on Tuesdays (discussion on important subjects of life).
• QueenCamille on Wednesdays and Mymy every two Wednesdays.
• Manu on Thursday (beauty).
• Charlie on Fridays (humour).
• Street styles and street tattoos on Saturdays.
• VlogMad on Sundays (a vlog of madmoiZelle's backstage).

The magazine was never meant to be a paper version. In front of all the questions from madmoiZelle’s readers, Fabrice Florent answers that he does not have the experience neither the desire to create a paper version^[2]. He knows that the management of a paper magazine is a completely different job from the one of a webmagazine. Otherwise, since March 2014, madmoiZelle extends the content of the website to an application available on smartphone and tablet.

Editorial choices

Diversity of subjects

Many different subjects are chosen to cover all many different aspects of life that women are interested in. There are 25 rubrics available on the website as “fashion”, “beauty”, “decoration and DIY” and these light subjects are balanced with other categories such as “society”, ‘music”, “video games”, “sex”, “job and studies”. Every article is thought as an occasion to learn something new and to arouse the curiosity of the readers. The topics are made to defeat any taboos of the society (politics, money, religion, sexuality, etc.) and especially the ones about women (abuses, contraception, periods and women’s body, etc.). As they are addressed to a public of women in a specific age group (women between their exit from high school and first child), it is a rare women’s magazine which does not talk about children and maternity. Also, we can note that madmoiZelle is not only read by women but covers about 80 to 90% of men’s interests^[8].

Writing style

In its "manifest”^[1], giving and claiming the transparency of its editorial choices, madmoiZelle guarantees the freedom of expression of its writers. Indeed, madmoiZelles often give their own opinions, share their experiences in testimonies or share their interests. This liberty is attested both in form (slang language, humour) and content (committed articles, quirky subjects, etc.). The sense of humour is something often raised and appreciated by readers when they talk about the webmagazine^[8] (an example with the title of this article: “A ticket for the Titanic, without the drowning part, makes you dream?”^[9]). Among other things, it reaches an authenticity and create a sensation of a direct and intimate conversation with the readers.

Madmoizelle’s staff

MadmoiZelle is thought as a school for writers^[1]. As a result, the firm is always looking to welcome new talents in its team. The purpose is to give amateurs their opportunity to shine. Fabrice Florent does not hide that he is less interested in finding someone with a good formation than finding someone with an original personality^[3].

The editorial board is essentially composed of girls from 20 to 25 years old^[10]. In the interview of Antonin Archer^[3], we can hear Fabrice Florent bringing the problem of the image and stereotypes. He explains that some people could not help making comments and tha it is still suspicious in today’s society that a man wants to lead a women’s magazine. He notices two judgments from the others that he often heard about him considered as a “womanizer” or the “best friend gay". He regrets that, even unconscious, the society cannot get rid of these stereotypes. Since February 2018, we can note that Fabrice Florent is no more the only man in the office because Cédric Begoc had been hired in February 2018 as a commercial director^[11].

MadmoiZelle’s community

MadmoiZelle, more than just a website, is a whole community. The term of “madZ” is used to define writers while readers are often called “madmoiZelles”. To gather both, many different kinds of interactions are organized:

• The freedom of expression from readers. Every reader can react by commentaries, mails or on the forum in order, express his experience and opinion or add information, as long as the discussion is respectful. These contributions are encouraged by the editorial board because it enables to go deeper in a subject and favorizes debates. He also has the opportunity to send his own article that may be selected to appear in madmoiZelle^[12].
• Cultural meeting with CinemadZ. These events are only possible thanks to partnerships between a cinema and the editorial board. All madmoiZelle’s readers are invited to gather and enjoy a chosen movie with a special discount. It often takes place in Paris, where people may have the opportunity to meet some “madZ” during the screening, but it is now extended to Toulouse and Strasbourg.
• “La grosse teuf" is a party in Paris where everyone is invited to dance and have fun with the members of the editorial board. It is a way to break the wall between writers and readers thanks to a meeting in real life.
• The possibility to buy a “Madmoizelle box”^[13] for a monthly subscription of 22,90 euros (postal rates included). It is a box of gifts (40 euros of value) confectioned every month by a member of the madmoizelle’s team with themes such as “bloody blood”, “back to school”, “Date yourself”, etc.

A feminist media

Feminist implication

The webmagazine displays its feminist orientation with a special rubric dedicated to this subject on the website and linked with the desire to inform the reader. Consequently, some articles intend to explain the nature of the feminism. For instance, in the article “how the feminism has changed my relationship with the pop culture”^[14], Mymy wants to fight against the association of feminism with the “hate of men” and gives her own definition “be feminist is to accept everyone”. MadmoiZelle also share feminist events and encourage its readers to participate in these efforts of mobilization (“After #MeToo, come to denounce sexual violence in the street on November 24th!”^[15] ).

The magazine already took the initiative of some feminist projects like the “Seinte Fresque" ("Holy Boobies Fresco”)^[16] . This one was a project meant to get rid of women’s complexes in a body positive attitude. The purpose was to invite readers to post a picture of their breast to fight against the perfect image of body spread by medias, TV, cinema, etc. and show real breast without the injunction of perfection. We can also note the effort of madmoiZelle to write in a gender-inclusive language. An article had been made recently on the subject^[17]. This kind of writing is a way to include both men and women in sentences.

Polemic issues or “badmoizelle”

In 2016, whereas the firm was in a constant expansion, the founder of madmoiZelle had to face a controversy. During the night between Wednesday the 21st and Thurday the 22nd, an anonymous Twitter account, called @SaferBlueBird, posted testimonies of about ten former employees making serious accusations against Fabrice Florent. Indeed, he is accused of different sorts of moral harassment:

• Work pressure. Women are complaining about oppressive solicitations impinging on their time off: “one thing that any employees of madmoiZelle had known is Fab who calls you every night at 11 pm, on week-ends and public holidays…”^[18]
• Inappropriate remarks considered as “smutty jokes” and public humiliation: “I heard a lot about me of course, and on many other girls. It was always with a humorous tone but, still, you felt that it was not normal, that nobody has the right to exploit your weaknesses like that. And, of course, as it was in public, so you could not say anything”^[18];
• Unexplained layoffs or invalid reasons of layoffs: “at madmoiZelle, members of the editorial board are fired because they are considered as too old”^[18].
• The “Seinte Fresque” had been also very criticized. Someone said: “it was the worst collaboration of my life”^[18]. Fabrice Florent would have put a lot of pressure the women of the editorial board to participate in this project.

Polemic answer to “badmoizelle”

In reaction to the bad buzz around his person, Fabrice Florent had lodged a complaint against X for defamation which is still underway as it is a long procedure^[3]. Surprised and hurt, he refutes all the accusations saying that the words have been “taking out of context”. To answer the press, he specifies that the late messages sent to the employees are only “reminders”. He also reacts on the “Seinte Fresque” project defending himself: “I only said: 'if you want to participate, go do it!' But that is all. Nobody had been forced”^[18]. In this story, Fabrice regrets that if his employees felt offended they did not come talk to him rather than acting in a way which prevent him from any discussion. Myriam, the assistant director, agree on this point when she says, “It is true that he has a specific way to communicate, but if he messes around, you can talk to him, ask him a lunch and talk about it.”^[18]. With the support of his actual employees, Fabrice Florent keeps managing the webmagazine today.

• Joseph Auslander
• Joseph Autran
• Joseph Avenol
• Joseph A. Walker
• Joseph A. Wapner
• Joseph A. Wright
• Joseph Ayloffe
• Joseph Babinski
• Joseph Babinsky
• Joseph Bajza
• Joseph Balthasar, comte Simeon
• Joseph Balthasar, Comte Simeon
• Joseph Balthasar, comte Siméon
• Joseph Balthazard Siméon
• Joseph Bamford
• Joseph Bancroft Reade
• Joseph Banks
• Joseph Banks Rhine
• Joseph Bara
• Joseph Barbara
• Joseph Barbera
• Joseph Bard
• Joseph Baril
• Joseph Barnby
• Joseph Barondess