‘Honestly, we don’t know where to stand anymore’

Before the Pelicot rape scandal emerged, Fabien, a 40-year-old married father of two, was learning about cases of sexual violence from afar without taking any particular interest. “There was a strong potential presidential candidate (Dominique Strauss-Kahn) who could attack a black cleaning lady in a hotel. As for (Michel) Fourniret and Guy George (two serial killers who also raped their victims), the media system put it this way: Marseille’ “They were on the devil’s table, and that suits us all,” said the quality manager of the metal industry in China.

Since the trial began in the criminal court in Avignon on September 2, every day of the trial has been broadcast live on social media and 24-hour news channels. This coverage in the international media was possible thanks to the fact that the trial was not held behind closed doors and the figure of 71-year-old victim Gisèle Pelicot, whose dignity and courage were unanimously recognized. According to Fabien, the normality of the profiles of the 51 defendants, 37 of whom were fathers, and the chilling nature of this case shook the “peace of mind behind which men had hitherto hid.”

Over the course of 10 years, Gisèle Pelicot was drugged more than 200 times by her husband, who raped her and had her raped while she was unconscious, by strangers recruited from the Coco website, while also filming these heinous crimes. The defendants’ insistence that they were not rapists also created shock waves. They were ordinary men, ages 26 to 74: firefighters, lawyers, factory workers, truck drivers, journalists. Our neighbors, our colleagues, our brothers.

“Knowing that these dozens of men live not too far from me keeps running around in my head,” Fabien said. “How can you say to yourself: ‘Tonight, I’m going to fuck a woman whose husband has drugged her, and then I’m going to go back to my life, to morning coffee with my colleagues, to football practice, to my life with my wife?’ The father wonders: Does this violence exist in every man? The same question was asked in public debates. Some male voices in the media portrayed the trial not only as the trial of Dominique Pelicot and 50 other defendants, but also as the first trial of masculinity as a system of domination, at a time when nine in 10 women knew their attackers and 97 women knew their attackers. 100 percent of sexual violence is committed by men 2021 report By the French National Institute of Statistics and Economic Research (INSEE).

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