The Stories People Tell: Gendered Stories of Social Class in the Bigouden Region, France

This paper explores the social dissonance between the stories told by women from fishing families and those told about them in the Bigouden region of Brittany, France. In this paper I draw upon stories told by and about women collected in the course of ethnographic research in the fishing communities of this region since 1992. Women from local fishing households tell stories that emphasize the importance of women in the local economy and that highlight their strength of character and abilities. These stories document the daily activities of women in the maintenance of family fishing enterprises and in the running of their households. However, these stories are not the only tales told about Bigouden women from fishing households. A counterpoising thread of stories are also told by non-fishing folk. Whereas the stories told byfisherfolk are complementary, those told by non-fisherfolk are not. Ultimately the argument is advanced that the stories told by non-fisherfolk are part of an attempt to maintain local class distinctions between the fisherfolk and the local professional and propertied classes.