By Brune Ernst
On September 2, 2024, the trial began in France against Dominique Pelicot, the man accused of being the organizer of numerous rapes of his wife. For almost ten years, Gisèle was drugged by her husband and raped without her knowledge, more than a hundred times by about fifty men, who are also accused of aggravated rape.
A so-called “historic” case is emblematic of systemic oppression
In 2020, Dominique Pelicot was caught taking photographs under the skirts of women. An investigation followed, where numerous photographs and videos were found on his computer of Gisèle, unconscious, being raped by dozens of men. Four years later, the trial has begun against Dominique Pelicot and the rapists who could be identified thanks to the photos and videos.
In court, the rapists’ lawyers have resorted to the well-known strategy of invisibilization or minimization of the facts, describing the images as “sexual relations” and not rape, and questioning the victim about her “sexual preferences and practices” – threesomes or swinging. But the images speak for themselves, and in France there is talk of a “historic trial” that would be considered the most serious rape case ever tried in France.
Putting the notion of consent at the heart of the definition of rape
This trial is taking place in France in a context in which the definition of rape has been debated for several years. Indeed, following the proposal, in 2022, by the European Commission to unify the characterization of rape in Europe around the notion of consent, France was one of the 11 countries that opposed this definition. In France, rape is defined as “an act of penetration where sexual aggression is committed under threat, coercion, surprise or violence”. Thus, the notion of consent is not taken into account, which leaves enormous scope for the defense of rapists and ignores, among other things, the psychological dimension of the act and the trauma created, which can, for example, lead to states of shock in which the victim is unable to react to the violence they are experiencing. This definition also makes possible a “gray area”, particularly in cases of marital rape, which is almost impossible to characterize as such.
France’s refusal to unify the definition of rape around consent on a European scale has been strongly criticized by certain left-wing political groups, but especially by feminist collectives and associations fighting to defend all those who are victims of rape and violence in this system of oppression represented by patriarchal capitalism. This debate seems to have experienced a “180-degree turn” on March 8, 2024, when, on the sidelines of the sealing ceremony of the law constitutionalizing the voluntary termination of pregnancy, the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, declared that the notion of consent should be enshrined in French law.
The parallel with the inclusion of abortion in the Constitution is interesting. Indeed, the pressure exerted on society by campaigns such as MeToo, social movements, or feminist strikes that have emerged in several countries around the world including Spain, Argentina, Poland… and the progress they have sometimes made possible, have also made it possible to put these debates at the center of society and the media, which are beginning to seriously address the issue of sexual and gender-based violence. The French government (and other parties claiming their radicalism on these issues) are not free from these pressures and often resort to “pinkwashing”, to give the appearance of taking this violence into account, and of acting in a progressive way towards it. The media coverage of the Pelicot affair is no doubt also a consequence of this pressure. But it should not make us forget that beyond the singularity of Gisèle’s case, there are many violations committed against victims of chemical subjugation, most of which remain unknown and unaddressed.
Keeping up the pressure through struggle
Beyond these effects, it is not difficult to blow up appearances and show their emptiness. For example, the constitutionalization of abortion, which had been strongly supported in particular by France Insoumise, did not fool everyone, and some feminist collectives very quickly demonstrated that it remained insufficient without the material means to carry it through with effective measures. Indeed, there are no guarantees that this right will be effective without the means and resources given to maintaining existing centers for carrying out a VTP (Voluntary Interruption of Pregnancy) or the creation of new ones, especially in the countryside, without removing the conscience clause behind which many health professionals still hide, and without an explicit opening of abortion for trans persons.
The same goes for the inclusion of the notion of consent in the law. In fact, rape cases are emblematic of the systemic sexism that permeates the State and society on all sides. First, because the places where it is possible to talk about this issue are not numerous or, when they do exist, they lack funding and human resources to fulfill their function. And, when people do come forward to denounce rape or sexual violence, the way they are treated in the gendarmerie or in police stations is violent to say the least. Finally, because the cases – few in number given the previous obstacles – that are actually tried, often end up being shelved for lack of evidence.
Thus, what makes the Pelicot case so resonant is above all the presence of a large amount of evidence in the form of videos and photographs found on the defendant’s computer. We can easily imagine that without this evidence, and despite the unexplained psychological and gynecological disorders that the victim had been presenting for years, the trial would not have taken place and that the violence against Gisèle would have continued, in the shadow of the “private sphere”.
Therefore, including the notion of consent will not be enough. As with abortion, financial and human resources must be dedicated to the issue of rape and, more particularly, to sexual and male chauvinist violence. Mandatory training is also necessary for all those who receive, defend, or judge cases of rape. But these means, as well as the transformation of the society that supports them, will only be possible if the pressure on them is intensified. Like the mass mobilizations in many countries around the world on these issues, it is necessary to strengthen existing self-organized collectives, and in particular the coordination of collectives that give themselves the task of organizing the feminist strike – a strike to demand rights for women and minorities, and to demand a society free of the systemic oppressions that characterize it.
From this perspective, and although this struggle must be continuous, it is important to take advantage of November 25 and March 8, to denounce their use by the political class, and to organize together with trade union organizations, which must be open to self-organized collectives on these issues, to present a platform of demands, as well as a general strike. In all the numerous cities where the dates of November 25 and March 8 are celebrated, let us join the collectives organizing the struggle and the planned demonstrations, and build demands that allow the convergence of all struggles against oppression.
