Megan Clement
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meganclement.bsky.social
Megan Clement
@meganclement.bsky.social
860 followers 690 following 420 posts
Europe correspondent, The Observer.
Writing a book about feminism and football.
Author of DESIRE PATHS, a memoir.
Lecturer in journalism at the Université Sorbonne-Nouvelle.
Co-founder of The Gender Beat.
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meganclement.bsky.social
I'm an English writer who moved to Montreuil four years ago – can't believe no one has tried to dismember and devour my puny body yet.
Towards the end, the book takes a darker turn: “Shocking footage of a sensitivity reader, who had been tarred and feathered and then shackled to the railings on Mecklenburgh Square, was broadcast.” Then there’s the fate of the English writer Patrick Berkman, who moves to Montreuil but soon finds the banlieue population makes him feel he doesn’t belong, “just as they had been made to feel they did not belong in France”. He’s later found dismembered, his “puny body” partly devoured. Here, Gallix reinforces the notion that comedy is the best place to say something serious; in this instance, about France’s alienation of migrant communities. This is also evident in his unstoppable puns and word games. With their subversive, rebarbative edge, they stay just the right side of clever-clever.
November 12, 2025 at 3:02 PM
meganclement.bsky.social
It's a story that encapsulates everything I love about France, everything I love about football, and everything I love about the banlieue (where I live!). And in these horrible times, to work on a piece that is nothing but pure joy is a real privilege.
A group of people in coloured shirts playing football a blue playing field in front of a replica of a window.
September 15, 2025 at 1:42 PM
meganclement.bsky.social
I'm so happy I finally got to write this piece. I could have written 10,000 words about the lucarne and all it represents, but a full page in the paper, with stunning pictures from Nathan Lainé, will have to do.
A page of the observer featuring three photos of children trying to kick a ball through the lucarne d'Évry. The headline reads Back of the fenêtre: football's toughest spot kick is through a French window.
September 15, 2025 at 1:39 PM
meganclement.bsky.social
If you would like to see how hard this is for a normal person, witness my extremely poor attempt.
September 15, 2025 at 1:37 PM
meganclement.bsky.social
These boys eliminated all the adults in the competition, including a police officer in full uniform. It was an absolutely glorious demonstration of the talent, passion and entrepreneurship of the Parisian banlieues – places that are often stereotyped and neglected, not least in the Anglophone press.
September 15, 2025 at 1:35 PM
meganclement.bsky.social
His opponent in the final was – I kid you not – a boy named Zinédine.
A boy in a backwards cap and a purple shirt with Zinedine 93 written on the back. He is lining up to kick a ball through a window.
September 15, 2025 at 1:27 PM
meganclement.bsky.social
Here is 13-year-old Ismaël, who practised in front of the fake window for weeks ahead of the final, with the winning shot. Yes, that is me screaming in the background.
September 15, 2025 at 1:26 PM
meganclement.bsky.social
The challenge became so popular that the local town hall constructed a full replica of the window in a nearby park for people to use to spare the neighbours from the hullabaloo. Pictured below: the original (which has has a fresh coat of paint) and the fake.
A concrete structure with a door painted on and a small window. A door and small window in an apartment building.
September 15, 2025 at 1:14 PM
meganclement.bsky.social
Editing an article about tradwives.
Two Google docs comments by Megan Clement. One says aaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrgggghhhh and the other says AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHH.
September 10, 2025 at 1:13 PM
meganclement.bsky.social
Regarding the debt in France. Is it bad? Yes. But as this chart from Libé shows, the country sits squarely between the US and Canada and not far off the UK.

Source: www.liberation.fr/economie/la-...
A bar chart showing the public debt of all OECD countries. France is 5th.
September 9, 2025 at 7:57 AM
meganclement.bsky.social
C'est fini alors.
Olivier Faure : « Il est inimaginable que les socialistes votent la confiance à François Bayrou » Vote de confiance, mobilisation du 10 septembre, primaire à gauche… Le premier secrétaire du Parti socialiste détaille pour « Le Monde » ses positions et entend proposer une autre solution au « plan Bayrou ».
August 25, 2025 at 8:41 PM
meganclement.bsky.social
French PM François Bayrou will hold a vote of confidence in his government on September 8 over his plans to address the national debt. The hard left, the greens and the far right will vote to bring down the government. It all comes down to whether the traditional left will join. Visuals by Le Monde.
Parliamentary projection showing what will happen if the PCF, LFI, Greens and RN vote to censure the government. The government will not fall. Parliamentary projection showing what will happen if the PS, PCF, LFI, Greens and RN vote to censure the government. The government will fall.
August 25, 2025 at 4:15 PM
meganclement.bsky.social
Glorious Bercy.
A swimming pool in the Seine viewed from above with sunbathers, parasols, deck chairs and all round great vibes.
August 11, 2025 at 3:34 PM
meganclement.bsky.social
I will never understand any of it when you have guys like this just waiting for you at your local refuge.
A very good, sandy-coloured dog with an underbite curled up in a ball and looking at the camera.
August 7, 2025 at 4:37 PM
meganclement.bsky.social
Still thinking about Jess Carter. To have a bad night in the quarters (it happens to everyone), to be dropped from the starting XI, to be subject to the most horrific racist abuse online then to come back against SPAIN in a final and to put on such an immense performance. Incredible.
England player Jess Carter, her hair tied back and wearing a winner's medal while carrying her football boots.
July 28, 2025 at 7:10 AM
meganclement.bsky.social
England player Chloe Kelly poses with the corner post after scoring a penalty. Megan Rapinoe puts both hands in the air in a goal celebration
July 22, 2025 at 10:20 PM
meganclement.bsky.social
This picture of a chihuahua faithfully waiting by the crevasse its owner had fallen into has finished me off for the day.
A very tiny, very fluffy good boy sits on a rock on a snowy mountain next to a huge hole that his person has fallen into. Rescue equipment is set up around the hole to winch the man to safety. An extremely good boy with brown, black and white fur sitting patiently in the snow.
July 8, 2025 at 1:57 PM
meganclement.bsky.social
Our resident baby pigeons are getting bigger.
A photograph of two baby pigeons curled up in a hanging basket.
July 7, 2025 at 12:55 PM
meganclement.bsky.social
Paris! I'll be launching DESIRE PATHS on June 17th at Le 18 aka the best wine bar in the city, with the inestimable @katyinparis.bsky.social of @europeanspod.bsky.social moderating.

Copies will be available for purchase and signing on the night. Venez nombreuses et nombreux !
PARIS LAUNCH Desire Paths by Megan Clement Tuesday, June 17th, 7pm Le 18 — 18 Rue Oberkampf, 75011 In conversation with Katy Lee A photo of the book DESIRE PATHS and a photo of its author, Megan Clement, who has shoulder-length hair and wears a blue Detroit Pistons bomber jacket and pink lipstick
May 26, 2025 at 11:25 AM
meganclement.bsky.social
A lovely election-day launch in Albury's gorgeous independent bookshop, Booktique, with my great friend and co-conspirator Jane Rawson.
May 3, 2025 at 9:13 AM
meganclement.bsky.social
Victoria! I am heading off on a small book tour to launch DESIRE PATHS starting next Tuesday at one of the world's best book shops, @readingsbooks.bsky.social.
Tuesday, April 29th, 6pm Readings, Carlton Megan Clement in conversation with Jane Rawson Bookings recommended Desire Paths, Megan Clement Australian Book Tour, Tuesday, April 29th, 6pm, Readings, Carlton, Saturday, May 3rd, 2pm, Booktique, Albury, (With Jane Rawson), Tuesday, May 6th, 6pm, The Bookshop at Queenscliff, Thursday, May 8th, 6:30pm Brunswick Library. With a photo of the author Megan Clement - a woman with shoulder-length brown hair, pink lipstick and a blue jacket. And a photo of the cover of Desire Paths.
April 23, 2025 at 6:22 AM
meganclement.bsky.social
There is a word missing from this headline and the word is 'white'. Pronatalists in the US and Europe don't want more children in the world, they want more white children in the world.
Screenshot of a New York Times article. The headline says 'The Women Who Think The World Needs More Babies'. The dek reads 'at a convention of the pronatalist movement, the relatively few women in attendance agreed: Motherhood needs a rebrand.' The picture shows a white blonde woman, a white man with black-framed glasses, and a white woman with glasses wearing a white bonnet.
April 20, 2025 at 2:19 AM
meganclement.bsky.social
Funding is being ripped away from accountability journalism by billionaires while violent, racist, misogyny goes mainstream.

My speech at @journalismfestival.com last week on the challenge of doing investigative journalism into gender inequality in 2025.

www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-t...
A woman with medium-length brown hair and red lipstick speaks at a lectern.
April 14, 2025 at 2:35 PM
meganclement.bsky.social
My book about East Brunswick (and Paris and Harare and London and Stoke-on-Trent and Mexico City) has made it to East Brunswick.
Two stacks of Desire Paths by Megan Clement in a box on a table.
April 2, 2025 at 10:15 PM
meganclement.bsky.social
I wrote about Le Pen.

www.crikey.com.au/2025/04/02/m...
The investigation and subsequent trial uncovered reams of damning correspondence. In 2014, former party treasurer Wallerand de Saint-Just had written to Le Pen about the party's financial troubles, saying "the only way we're getting out of this is if we make serious savings thanks to the European Parliament." One purported assistant wrote to ask Le Pen for an introduction to the European MP for whom he was supposed to have already been working for four months. Another claimed at the trial that his job as a European parliamentary assistant consisted of sorting pieces of paper for a publicly funded salary of €2,560 a month. It all goes to show that, from Trump's meme-coining and Tesla-boosting to Javier Milei's Argentine crypto-gambits, the "drain the swamp" far right are much more likely to be found with their noses deep in the trough than to be doing anything to clear it out. Figures from the French left and right have said they would prefer Marine Le Pen be defeated at the ballot box than in the courts. This rather misses the point. I quite fancy beating her at backgammon, but if the fact that she is too busy being held accountable for a series of obvious and poorly concealed crimes prevents her from playing me, then so be it. How this affair will affect the grand sweep of political history remains to be seen. If Le Pen truly is ruled out of contention in 2027, that may not hurt the chances of her fellow travellers in extremism. From Paris to Brussels, Berlin to Budapest and Amsterdam, the European far right has more power than ever before in this century (and it is worth remembering what happened in the last one). But this is not about results that people may or may not want. Strange as it may seem, as the world's eyes are fixed on the spectacle of mass capitulation on the part of the US judiciary, the courts and the executive must constitute fully independent, separate branches of state power. The three judges in this case, who have been predictably yet depressingly subject to a hate campaign following the verdict, analysed a mountain of evidence and applied the penalties set out in French law. If the RN or anyone else found those laws wanting, they could have proposed to change them in the French Parliament. The judges were independently carrying out the job they are paid to do with public funds. Perhaps that's a concept Marine Le Pen still struggles to understand.
April 2, 2025 at 8:40 AM