Maîtresse Françoise (pen name Annick Foucault) is a publicly known dominatrix in Paris, France. Her autobiography was published in France by publisher Éditions Gallimard.
 Annick Foucault was born in the South of France. Her childhood was marred by the loss of her father. After having been the victim of an accident, she consecutively had no real other alternative but dropping out of university. Thus she chiefly became a self-taught woman. She first ran a ready-to-wear shop and then became interested in Minitel, which she considered to be "an excellent means of communication, a kind of no-man's-land where anything is allowed". She subsequently participated in various forums and set up a "debate forum", 3615 Fetish[citation needed], which was devoted to sadomasochism, before launching in 1994 her own specialized "minitel network", under the name of Miss M. Marc Daum described her as "a major messaging authorizing officer 3615 on behalf of a foremost player in telematics, given that the good intellectual performance of her forums [had built] the loyalty of her knowledgeable readers". During the same period, she was the chief editor of a magazine—La Scène—with a circulation of 5,000 copies. In October 1996, she provided a "precious collaboration" to the journalist Monique Ayoun by the time she was writing an article dedicated to Minitel on behalf of the newspaper Biba [fr].
 
 In 1994, Annick Foucault—who already enjoyed a strong reputation in specialized circles—published a writing under her real name: Françoise Maîtresse. This book—which, as pointed out by Anne-Élisabeth Moutet [fr], was edited by Gallimard— is an autobiographical narrative which content, according to Jean Pache, appears to be "strange and meaningful". The common thread unfolds over "her history, her childhood, the discovery of her cerebral sexuality, her experience as a dominatrix, in a style as precise as lively and literary". The script is prefaced by Pierre Bourgeade, who considered the literary quintessentiality of this essay as part of the expression of an "unconscious freedom of its own", while Jean-Jacques Pauvert displayed it as a "major work of erotic literature over the past ten years". In this autobiography, the author presented herself in two ways: Françoise, the dominatrix, and Marianne, "who discovered her masochism by watching the whip scenes in pirate movies as a teenager". Anne Larue [fr] emphasized on the link which appeared to prevail between those two paradoxical idiosyncrasies: "Françoise, it is first of all the name of a little girl of twelve years old [...] who plays the mistress".
 
The book introduced sadomasochism into mainstream literature, "without censorship, but also without complacency towards the reader", by focusing on the "breaks" that lead to it, from an angle that, according to Annick Foucault, gains the consent from partners. Annick Foucault suggested that they be recognized as being endowed with "some weakness" and, further on, she commented the aforesaid point as follows:  Should this weakness be dramatized or simulated, what would be the concern? They come out strengthened  while trading their cumbersome chains for a three-piece suit, then they return home feeling both soothed and comforted. 
She pleads for the abandonment of some biases:  By eroticizing barbarism, fetishists and sadomasochists castrate the true executioners through their own weapons. Her intellection echoes the philosophical thought of Gilles Deleuze, to whom she pays tribute, in a way that, according to Charles J. Stivale, conveys a "perceptive and fascinating reflection on La Vénus à la fourrure, Présentation de Sacher-Masoch de Deleuze". According to Céline du Chéné, Mistress Françoise turns out to be "probably the most intellectual of the dominatrixes of the Parisian scene", owning "all the editions" of Leopold von Sacher-Masoch and "having maintained a correspondence" with Gilles Deleuze, who, as per Jean Pache, would have sealed "this unexpected disciple friendship and consideration".
 After the publication of her story, which, as duly noted by Giovanni Firmian, was "a great success in France", she was invited to various French talk shows and gave interviews about sadomasochism.
 On the occasion of the release of a translation of her book in Italy, Giovanni Firmian described her author as "the queen of dominatrixes and sadomasochistic practices, the most famous one in France, but also known throughout the rest of Europe and United States". However, the Italian periodical La Stampa reveals significantly more critical comments recorded by the journalist Mirella Serri, who believes that the author of Maîtresse Françoise considers herself to be the embodiment of "an outstanding artist belonging to a scarce and special breed: i.e. the "mystics" of sex".