Gisèle Pelicot and the reversal of shame

There is a criminal case so shocking and repulsive, a symbol and culmination of everything wrong in the relationship between men and women and the power dynamics of patriarchy, that it has even managed to escape the somewhat unsettling obsession with true crime that defines our era. This is the case of Gisèle Pelicot.

The Gisèle Pelicot Case

If you haven't heard about it, you're probably living under a rock like Patrick Starfish and, incidentally, still manage to hold on to a shred of faith in the male gender, or rather in what masculinity means today and throughout history, and what it entails to be born a man in a heteronormative and patriarchal society. Gisèle Pelicot is a 71-year-old woman who was subjected to years of abuse by several men with the help of her husband, who drugged her, hired the rapists, and filmed everything. The files involve more than 50 men. These men come from various backgrounds, from working and middle class, and range in age from 26 to 74 years old. Many of them have children or partners. Only 15 have contested the charges. Many claimed they "didn't realize" that Gisèle Pelicot was drugged and was, in fact, completely unconscious. Others blamed Mr. Pelicot, calling him a psychopath and manipulator. Since the beginning of the trial, there has been an outpouring of anxiety and solidarity for this woman, who decided to do more: she decided to put her case in service of society.

The Decision on the Trial

As you might imagine, the case has shaken public opinion and sparked debates about how these men were raised, their relationships with women, and their connection to intimacy and sex, and the rape culture surrounding it. The trial is being conducted with open doors at the explicit request of Ms. Pelicot and her legal team. But that's not all. She also decided to make the videos public (and there are more than 20,000, found on her husband's devices, in a folder labeled "abuse") that show the violence she endured at the hands of more than 50 men. She fought for this and won. She did it to transform the horror into something useful. In her own words and those of her lawyer, she did it to force the public to face rape, to not look away. She did it, again, to protect other women, to shift the burden of shame, turning it around and throwing it off the victim and onto the perpetrators.

Reversing the Shame

The use of the word "shame" is no coincidence; it is, in fact, vital. The shame felt by victims — the kind that prevents them from reporting, that silences them, that is thrown onto abused individuals when we ask if they were drinking, what they were wearing, or why they were out alone late at night — is the bread and butter of rape culture. It feeds and sustains it, allowing it to grow and thrive unchecked. This is a feminine, virginal shame that stems from a violation, a symbol of weakness, locking us in the box of a fragile sanctity that doesn't account for the body, and therefore not for the violence done to it. If a woman is always the passive subject of a man's animalistic urge, how can she not be ashamed of it? And thus, all sex becomes shameful, whether consensual or not. And rape culture grows and spreads, erasing the difference, putting the man's desire at the center, again and always. To reverse the shame, to shift it, to make the perpetrator feel it rather than the victim — and to do this by showing the violence suffered, despite everything, without sugarcoating or hiding it out of modesty — becomes an extreme act of resistance, a powerful signal that something must change, a cry and a call to action. Thanks to Gisèle Pelicot.