Odette Dulac was a French singing actress, born 14 July 1865 in Aire-sur-Adour a diseuse in the manner of Yvette Guilbert

Yvette Guilbert

Yvette Guilbert was a French cabaret singer and actress of the Belle Époque.-Biography:...

, who became a militant feminist and novelist. Her La houille rouge: les enfants de la violence ("The Red Coal", 1916) narrated the horrors of raped and impregnated Frenchwomen at the time the First World War was being waged, in an anti-abortion

Abortion

Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...

 diatribe of triumphing French nationalism. She became a member of the Ligue des droits de femme (League for Women's Rights).

At the start of her public career, as a singer-actress, she appeared in light opera at Antwerp in 1895 and was soon a star at the Théâtre des Bouffes Parisiens

Théâtre des Bouffes Parisiens

The Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens is a Parisian theatre which was founded in 1855 by the composer Jacques Offenbach for the performance of opéra bouffe and operetta. The current theatre is located in the 2nd arrondissement at 4 rue Monsigny with an entrance at the back at 65 Passage Choiseul. In...

, where she appeared in André Messager

André Messager

André Charles Prosper Messager , was a French composer, organist, pianist, conductor and administrator. His stage compositions included ballets and 30 opéra comiques and operettas, among which Véronique, had lasting success, with Les p'tites Michu and Monsieur Beaucaire also enjoying international...

's operetta, Les p'tites Michu (1897). In London, at the Empire Theatre

Empire Theatre

Empire Theatre or Empire Theater may refer to:In the United Kingdom:*Empire Theatre of Varieties, now the Empire, Leicester Square, City of Westminster, London*Glasgow Empire Theatre, Glasgow*Hackney Empire, in Hackney...

, she scored a hit with "The Honeysuckle and the Bee".

Turning her hand to modelling witty caricatures, she showed a Don Juan of Boulevard X at the Salon Humouriste, Paris 1908.

Aside from La houille rouge, she published Le droit de plaisir (1908), her first novel; a feminist erotic text, Faut-il? (1919), a case of love for a mutilated soldier; Les Désexués: roman de moeurs (1924) co-authored with Charles-Etienne about the downfall of a gay man in 1920s Paris; Tel quel (1926), denouncing social and religious hypocrisy and encouraging women to speak up for themselves; and Leçons d'amour (1929).