The Pelicot Trial: Outcomes, consequences and ramifications
The conclusion of this trial offers feminism an international hero, but also an understanding that platitudes get us nowhere if attitudes are to change.
TW for sexual violence and rape.
They came from all over the place, within a forty-mile radius of his house. It had all been meticulously planned, furtive messages sent by depraved men who knew exactly what they were doing. They came from a variety of different jobs and vocations. Many were partnered, still more parents. Their ages ranged from 26 to 74 years old; it was cross-generational.
The Dominique Pelicot Plus Fifty trial has laid out, in real life, a horror story so grotesque that it couldn’t get made as a movie, and this is in a culture which is fascinated by serial killers to a point of veneration. The convictions came through yesterday; 51 men, a number beyond horrific, for rape and assault.
It is important that Dominique Pelicot should not become the sole focus of attention at this point. Sure enough, he was the monster in excelsis, the organiser and the inviter, but those other fifty also deserve their moment in the spotlight, no matter how many of them there may be and no matter how long it may last. They deserve everything they’ve lost. They deserve their lengthy prison sentences. They deserve for their names to be forever tarnished by an internet that will never forget.
So, what next? Writing in The Guardian on Thursday, Rebecca Solnit asked about the difference in engagement with the trial by gender: “But have men? Until men engage earnestly and honestly with the pervasiveness of sexual assault and the aspects of the culture that celebrate and normalise it, not enough will change.”
What might that look like? What does it mean to engage with it? The notion that men are going to sit around in groups ‘earnestly’ discussing the pervasiveness of sexual assault certainly doesn’t feel like something that anybody beyond an extremely privileged few would even have the time for, let alone the inclination.
I can only speak for what I’ve seen, but the extent to which I’ve spoken to my friends about this trial has been limited; not because it’s an ‘uncomfortable’ subject or any other reason like that but that… what else was there to say, between ourselves, beyond expressing revulsion? This was clearly an open and shut case, in terms of the likelihood of their legal guilt. It was at points difficult to know how to process it beyond, well, “Holy shit”. The sheer near-industrial scale and coordination of what happened in France makes it feel almost unfathomable, even for those amongst us already aware of just how common sexual crimes are.
But perhaps that’s what needs to be mentioned at this point. Because any ‘conversation’ about this that we have is nowhere near as important as the actions we take, and the headshifts that we make. Speaking up and speaking out is a start, but it’s nowhere near what we really need to achieve.
Because it really is about that headshift. It’s about a change in attitude. Jokes about rape, sexual assault and misogyny should be called out for what they are, as should those who talk about women as objects or other demeaning terms. A mate getting a bit “handsy” with a woman on a night out after a couple of beers shouldn’t be something that you can brush aside by thinking that it’s none of your business.
It doesn’t have to be hectoring and it doesn’t have to consist of a stern finger-wagging. It should always be remembered that none of us are ultimately responsible for the behaviour of others. So this change in culture has to be about upholding higher standards in terms of what we tolerate, from ourselves, our friends and acquaintances, and everybody else. We have to make it clear that we will not tolerate such behaviour and act accordingly.
It also doesn’t have to be about the conversations that we have, because they can and should only be jumping-off points. It’s about changing our behaviour and attitudes, and particularly the values that we teach our children. It’s about responsibility in the media over the way they represent women. It’s about facing up to really uncomfortable truths, whether we like them or not. It’s about understanding that this isn’t about easy quick fixes or superficial platitudes, much as we might want it to be. It’s about changing the ways in which we, as a society, talk about, treat and perceive half of our entire number.
But in another extremely important sense, the legacy of this dreadful story needs to not be about the perpetrators, because if there is anything positive to be taken from this whatsoever, it is surely that feminism has a new hero, a rallying point around whom the calls of “NO MORE” can gather. It has been an astonishing act of bravery on the part of a woman who could have protected her anonymity but chose not to for the benefit of the greater good.
To say that Gisele Pelicot is a hero feels almost trite, a shorthanded failure in our ability to truly sum up the scale, the implications and the ramifications of her bravery. Consider the gamble that she took and the position of danger in which she put herself; what would have happened to her name, had those involved been found not guilty, the amount of abuse that she would have taken from men. Consider all the whispering that she has already been subject to, all the talk of how she was either a liar or complicit in what was done to her, from those who will always seek to defend the rapist over their victim.
Political leaders, never slow to make a statement when they think it might enhance their reputations, have come crawling out of the woodwork. For the time being, the story of what was done to Gisele is all over the press. But what matters isn’t the next few days or weeks. It’s what happens over the next few months and years. Because it is simply a fact that men have always raped, assaulted, coerced and otherwise mistreated women, and undoing a culture that deeply ingrained is not going to be a quick fix, though obviously this doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t fight tooth and nail to do so.
A hero has been born, and 51 living, breathing examples of evil have been locked away. It’s a drop in a vast, vast ocean, but it’s a start. What’s critical is that this does lead to a fundamental change in attitudes rather than making the very obvious point that rape is bad and no more. We can’t just acknowledge it. We can’t just talk about it. We have to live it and breath it. In that respect, it is to be hoped that this case and its outcome is the start of a different way of thinking.