Mom, did you hear about the “51 in France”? It’s horrible, Mom! No, what are you talking about? That’s when a quick Google search reveals the facts of the case, and a wave of indignation, and also shame reverberates through my body. Shame for her, for me, and for all women. Reality is once again harsher than fiction, however twisted it may be. No matter how many “advances and achievements” we are told we have made in civilized and democratic Europe, the brutal reality reminds us that, for some men, we are still “their” property. And what’s worse is that they are not alone.
By Laura R. – Corriente Roja, Spain
The facts: “Rape is not the word, it is barbarism”.
67-year-old Gisèle, a resident of the town of Mazan in southeastern France, was repeatedly raped by more than 50 men over 10 years. During this time her husband Dominique Pélicot, a 71-year-old retiree, offered the “sexual services of a sleepwalking and obedient wife”, on a web portal that was shut down by the French Police in June of this year. This same web portal served a now dismantled child pornography distribution network, which extended into eight countries both in Europe and the Americas.
With respect to the case, which is being tried in Avignon, the authorities have identified 51 aggressors, who are on trial for an aggravated rape offense punishable by up to 20 years in prison. Although it is suspected that the number of aggressors could be as high as 83. There were at least ninety-two rapes that occurred between July 2011 and October 2020. The newspaper Le Parisien has reported that several of the assailants are dead and one is on the run.
The victim refused to watch the videos of the rapes until May 2024, when she first watched the tapes of the sexual violence she had suffered for ten years. Her description of what she witnessed speaks for itself: “Rape is not the word, it is barbarism”.
As a result of these abuses, and the drugs that had been administered for years by her husband, Gisèle suffered blackouts, intense and inexplicable fatigue, and discomfort that led to several visits to the gynecologist. The man responsible, Dominique Pélicot, could also be implicated in other cases of rape and even in a 1991 murder.
A system that objectifies and commodifies women’s bodies
We want to send all our support and solidarity to this brave woman, who, despite suffering from post-traumatic stress, has decided, together with her three children, to testify in open court in a trial that, in all likelihood, will drag on for months. As she herself declared before the Criminal Court of Vaucluse, in the southeast of France: “For me, the damage has already been done. I do so in the name of all the women who may never be recognized as victims”.
Beyond the horror and rejection the case elicits, it is one more sign that we live in a social and political order that is based on the control and oppression of women. It is what some feminists call “rape culture”, in which more than half of the sexual assaults, which are not always as easy to prove as this case, take place in the victim’s social, family, or work environment. And most of them are not reported, either out of fear or shame. It is this climate of impunity that some of these sexual predators rely on to commit their acts. On the other hand, the sex and entertainment industry of this increasingly violent and oppressive capitalist system objectifies, sexualizes, and commodifies our bodies, especially women’s, to such an extent that they become just another object, ready for consumption.
Only Yes is Yes, the rest is rape
Of the 51 men who have been summoned to the Avignon trial, some haved defended themselves by stating they were deceived by Dominique Pélicot, and they claim they were led to believe it was part of the couple’s “libertine delirium”. Others said they did not believe it was rape, “because her husband was there and they believed he could give consent for both of them.” So far, only 14 have pleaded guilty.
This trial, which has shocked French society by putting the question of consent front and center, is taking place in the context of an electoral rise of the far right, and at a time when the law regulating sexual crimes in Frances is under revision. There is talk of a “historic trial”, which would be considered the most serious rape case ever tried in France. It should be recalled that rape is currently defined in French law as an “act of sexual penetration” committed “by violence, coercion, threat or surprise”.
In France, as elsewhere in the world, we must come out and fight to change the law that defines and punishes sexual assault, to make it clear that sex without consent is rape. It must be clear that consent can be withdrawn at any time, and that there can be no consent if the sexual aggression is committed “abusing a state that prevents the judgment of the other”, as happens when the victim is drugged, the instances of which are increasingly frequent.
In the Spanish State, the Integral Law for the Guarantee of Sexual Freedom, better known as the “Solo Sí es Sí” (Only Yes is Yes) Law, came into force in October 2022, thanks to a struggle in the streets that lasted five long years. Unfortunately, it is a law that has many shortcomings and loopholes. Among several of its problems is that the economic resources that are to support all the non-criminal aspects of the law, including programs for prevention and sexual education in schools, have not yet been provided.
In spite of the above issues, we at Corriente Roja defend the law against attempts by the right and far-right to repeal it, because it was a demand that was won first in the streets, and which places the question of consent at the center of cases of sexual aggression.
But we cannot forget that no law can put an end to sexual violence in this system of oppression and exploitation. Sexual violence is a complex structural problem that needs to be addressed in many ways. Currently, this law is still no guarantee of anything, because the laws in favor of the working class and oppressed sectors in this capitalist system become a dead letter if we do not continue to fight to make them effective. And, above all, they are always threatened as long as capitalism exists.
It is also necessary to point out that experience shows that under bourgeois democracy, where the separation of powers is in reality a fiction, it is not enough to change laws. The judicial system in all countries is full of male chauvinist judges who often revictimize women when they dare to denounce sexual aggression and rape. These same judges often apply a very different yardstick according to the social class to which the person being judged belongs.
One example is what happened in the first months after the adoption of the Solo Sí es Sí law, when some judges interpreted and applied some of its articles in a whimsical way, in order to reduce the sentences already imposed on sexual offenders and pedophiles. In France, the defense lawyers of these rapists qualify the images as “sexual relations” and not rape, and have questioned the victim about her “sexual preferences and practices”, although the harsh images speak for themselves.
Achieving more resources to combat sexual violence and all forms of violence against women and oppressed sectors such as migrants or LGTBQI people, is not only an issue that belongs to women or youth, but the working class as a whole. It is necessary to organize so that working class organizations, starting with the unions, take these demands and make them their own, putting the whole working class and oppressed sectors at the forefront in the fight for them.
