They line up in front of a courthouse in southeastern France, from morning to evening, and have gathered in the thousands in cities across the country. They hold signs reading, “one rape every six minutes,” “not all men but always a man,” and “giving in is not consenting.”
They chant: “Rapist we see you, victim we believe you.”
Women across France are rallying in support of Gisèle Pelicot, a 72-year-old reluctant icon whose husband is on trial in the city of Avignon for systematically drugging her and inviting dozens of men, 50 of whom are now his co-defendants, into their home to rape her over nearly a decade.
The shocking case has sparked what many women in France call a long-overdue reckoning over “rape culture” and systemic sexism in the way the judicial system handles sexual violence.
Right, in many municipalities it’s impossible for a woman to be charged with rape for forcing someone to have sex with them through coercive means. Until that is no longer the case “men rape more than women” is like saying “you’re more likely to starve without food.” No shit, because definitionally woman legally cannot be charged with rape for raping.
You see how that skews the data, right? Sure “it’s all men” if you don’t count the women, why would that surprise anyone?
those cases are not relevant here. the data we’re talking about is not skewed. they cover all these other situations independent of municipality. also these are not numbers on reported cases (they’re included in the study) but estimated actual numbers.
With how unlikely men are to report (or sometimes, they don’t even realize they have been raped), I’m not sure how they can accurately estimate.
In any case, making it a gendered issue and lumping me, a victim, in with the perpetrators simply because I was born with a penis, and lumping my rapists in with the victims because they were born with vaginas, isn’t what I call “cool.” I’d much prefer if we made it a victims VS victimizers thing, rather than a men VS women thing, personally.
Furthermore this whole “women can’t rape men” thing needs to be fixed. I simply will not have the conversation about “who rapes who more” until it is fixed, by acknowledging it as a legitimate law I am erasing my own experiences and enabling others to do so.
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I don’t remember silencing you mate. as I said, it’s embellishment and pointing to a societal problem. same with the bear question. you’re not supposed to take it literally.
maybe go counter protest with a sign that says “make your signs more precise and less attention grabbing” I don’t know. then we could be talking about that issue as well, because it is an issue. “men can’t be raped” is the result of our patriarchal society, and part of the problem with toxic masculinity. we should indeed talk about that too. systemic sexism hurts everyone.
Don’t make me tap “the sign.” Y’know, the one you keep defending? The “always men” one? Idgaf if it’s supposed to be literal or not, fuck that sign either way.
If it’s an issue why attempt to silence me on the issue? If you agree it’s an issue why are you not calling it out when you see it? Would you agree racism is an issue? Do you also police when victims of racism can speak or only victims of rape?
Sure it does, so stop trying to get me to stop speaking against an example of it right now. If you don’t have anything good to ad don’t add anything at all.