A Dozen Portraits of Pétroleuses Paris, spring 1871. Women
participate in great numbers in the Paris Commune people's
rebellion. Characteristically, women figure as ambulancières,
orderlies and cantinières who bring boxed food to the front. At
the front, men are predominant, but women take part in the armed
fight just as well. They are considered brave lionesses by some,
ugly dragons by others. Especially appealing to the imagination
is the pétroleuse, the female arsonist. Whether she really
existed is not certain. But in the statutes of the 'Union des
femmes pour la défense de Paris', the organization founded by
communardes in April 1871, the 'purchasing of petrol and weapons
for the fighting female citizen' is announced. Some government
buildings burn down during the last week of the Commune, the
'Semaine Sanglante', in which tens of thousands people get
killed. During these events, women - often accompanied by their
children - are seen, bearing cans of petroleum. Degenerate
mothers, madwomen: the pétroleus