Post #MeToo Rape Culture through the Mazan trial and the need for a consent-based definition of rape

Trigger Warning: This article discusses rape culture as well as a case of sexual violence, with descriptions of different forms of sexualised gender-based violence which may be distressing to some readers.

About

This article addresses sexual violence and rape culture in France, examining the Mazan trial’s far-reaching implications at the French and EU level. The Mazan Trial is a personal story: the story of a French woman named Gisèle Pelicot who survived the sexual violence perpetrated and orchestrated by her husband for 10 years. But she decided to turn her story into a momentum to fight against gender-based violence. Why? Because it is a collective one. It is the story of how widespread sexual violence against women and children remains, in France and across Europe. It is the story of societies which normalise rape, through myths, discourses and practices. It is the story of societies whose institutions do not respect the rights of the victims nor hold the perpetrators accountable. There must be a wave of change, as we no longer want to live in such societies.

Written by

Morgane Thomas, WAVE intern (2024)

On the 10^th of September 2024, in the hall of Vaucluse Criminal law Court, French and international media are interviewing Guillaume de Palma, the lawyer of some defendants charged with rape, in the Mazan trial. When asked to comment on the case, he states with confidence: “There is a distinction between “rape” and [real] rape […] When the perpetrator’s intention to rape has not been demonstrated, there is no rape.”¹ This revolting statement triggered a strong reaction from feminists and parts of the public opinion alike. But no matter how shocking it is, it remains grounded in an interpretation of the French legal definition of rape and is a common defence strategy in similar cases. This instance reveals the pervasiveness of rape culture in the post Me too era and the need to denounce as well as challenge those narratives.

The Mazan Trial: A political case shaking the French public opinion

The Mazan Trial, which started on the 2^nd of September 2024 and should end at the latest on the 20^th of December 2024², is historic in many regards. It has already made its way to the list of groundbreaking cases in France’s recent history, such as the Bobigny trial in 1972 about abortion, which brought women’s rights on top of the political and social agenda at the time. The Mazan case puts under the spotlight such an extreme level of gender-based violence that it can no longer be ignored. 51 men are convicted, 49 of them for rape, and it is believed that at least 92 rapes were committed.³ Most of these abuses were perpetrated in the house of the victim, located in a small French town named Mazan, while the victim, Gisèle Pelicot, was unconscious, due to the chemical submission orchestrated by her husband, Dominique Pelicot.⁴ The events happened between 2011 and 2020.⁵ For nearly 10 years, her husband used a website to find male strangers willing to have nonconsensual sex with his wife. He also recorded videos of these abuses and shared them on this online community.⁶ The website has been shut down since June 2024, but the evidence remains and is unbearable. No one can deny the sexual violence which has been perpetrated nor the responsibility of the partner with whom she had lived for nearly 50 years.⁷ Another striking aspect is that the 51 men convicted come from all straddles of French society.⁸ Anyone delving in this case must recognise what women’s specialist services have been emphasising for decades: abuse does not have an age, a race, a religion, nor a socio-economic and educational background and most of the times is perpetrated by those closer to the victim.

This case could have been another countless example of how widespread violence against women and girls is. What turned it into a national and even international matter was the strong media coverage and the consistent mobilisation of civil society actors, particularly women’s rights organisations in France and beyond. Some journalists resorted to the traditional framing of the human-interest story, insisting on the horrendous details of the case and on how monstruous the perpetrators were, particularly Dominique Pelicot.

But this time, mainstream media also framed it politically and mobilised the feminist concept of rape culture to shed light on these events. Why? Because the survivor herself, Gisèle Pelicot, did so and insisted on having public hearings so that other women victims of violence could think “Miss Pelicot did it, I can do it too”.⁹ She strongly states her intentions, underlining that she’s here “with the determination to change society”¹⁰, and maintains that this trial is the trial of “a sexist and patriarchal society, normalising rape”.¹¹ Her voice could not be silenced nor the feminist agenda she was pushing for. By accepting to play this role, despite the high risks of secondary victimisation and of public exposure, she turned her story into a momentum to fight against gender-based violence.

Rape culture and its pervasiveness in the post #MeToo movement era

The term rape culture has now entered the French public debate, and its use extends way beyond feminist circles. However, it is crucial to recognise the valuable contributions of gender scholars, who are the ones who forged this concept, as well as to have an in depth understanding of its meaning and implications. This core concept was originally developed by U.S feminists in the 1970s¹², such as Brownmiller and Griffin.¹³ In the following decades, other gender scholars continued to discuss its relevance and added new dimensions to address its flaws, such as an initial lack of an intersectional understanding.¹⁴ Kessel defines rape culture as “a set of intersubjective and collectively reproduced myths, discourses, and practices that individuals use to assign interpretations of rape victimhood and perpetration, innocence and guilt, and power and powerlessness that, in turn, reproduce a culture that normalizes rape and other sexual violence […]”.¹⁵ It reinforces relations of subordination, such as patriarchy but also white supremacy and heteronormativity.¹⁶

Through rape culture, society regulates the behaviour of women by typically restricting their presence in the public space and framing certain styles of dress as appropriate to protect them from the “ubiquitous threat of rape”.¹⁷ Marcus underlines that rape culture scripts women as passive in the sense of “weak, defenceless, fearful and therefore inherently rapeable” while men are scripted as active.¹⁸ All those narratives are supported by rape myths which are “widely held misperceptions about sexual violence”.¹⁹ Typically, they consist in the following beliefs: “women fantasize about being raped, husbands cannot rape their wives, healthy women can resist unwanted sexual advances, men can be sexually provoked to the point of no return, alcohol use causes rape, strangers usually assault victims, women who dress provocatively are “asking for it,” only attractive women are raped, all rape is forceful or physically violent, and false reports of rape are ubiquitous”.²⁰

Rape culture deeply impacts the capacity of the criminal-legal system to protect and believe the victims and hold the perpetrators accountable. It shapes police officers’ attitudes and beliefs, therefore affecting case outcomes. The victims whose experiences do not echo the rape myths may face victim blaming discourses and see their credibility strongly undermined when they try to report the abuse. They may not be able to file a complaint and even if they do, it has been demonstrated that officers are more involved in investigations when there is “a stranger perpetrator, forcible penetration, weapon use, or evidence of physical force”.²¹ Vulnerable groups are particularly exposed to this type of institutionalised violence. For instance, Amnesty International France has recently documented that migrant women and other vulnerable groups face significant discriminations when they want to file a complaint for sexual violence and are often blatantly denied the right to do so by police officers.²² These obstacles have a very strong deterrent effect on the victims and fosters impunity. According to official statistics collected by public institutions, only 6% of the victims of sexual violence filed a complaint in France in 2021.²³

Moreover, rape culture permeates judicial decisions as well as court proceedings. The defence strategies and the narratives used by the defendants during the Mazan trial exemplify this very well. Gisèle Pelicot’s credibility has been repeatedly undermined by certain lawyers, who stated that it was a sexual game she consented to or also insinuated that she had exhibitionist tendencies.²⁴ Most of the men convicted evaded responsibility by co-opting victimhood, stressing that they had been manipulated by her husband and that they had been on the wrong side of a misunderstanding.²⁵ However, most of the cases never go to that stage. In France, between 2012 and 2021, 94% of rape cases were closed with no further action by judicial authorities, an extremely high rate.²⁶

Considering all these elements, all women victims of violence, and particularly marginalised women, are at risk of experiencing secondary victimisation, which occurs “when the victim suffers further harm not as a direct result of the criminal act but due to the manner in which institutions and other individuals deal with the victim”.²⁷ Therefore, even in the post-MeToo era, where progress has been made, sexual violence remains widespread, and impunity is still the norm.

A unique momentum for a consent-based definition of rape

The Mazan trial is highly political. Its implications at the French and European Union level could be significant, and this ripple effect could be turned into a wave of change. One core demand has attracted a lot of media attention: the need for a consent-based definition of rape in French law. This issue had already been on top of the agenda during the debates around the EU Directive on combating violence against women and domestic violence, adopted in May 2024. Back then, Member States, particularly France, had managed to derail this unique opportunity to criminalise rape.²⁸ In March 2024, French President Emmanuel Macron declared that he was willing to incorporate a consent-based definition of rape in French law, thus demonstrating the political shifts and the new momentum for this legislative change in France and beyond.²⁹ The adoption of such a definition is generally viewed by women’s rights organisations as a key step ahead to tackle the widespread impunity of sexual violence. The Istanbul Convention itself, adopted in 2011 and ratified in 2014 by France, has a consent-based definition of rape in its article 36.³⁰ Additionally, the independent monitoring body of this treaty, GREVIO (Group of Experts on Action against Violence against Women and Domestic Violence), has urged France, in its 2019 report, to adopt a consent-based definition of rape, considering the flaws of its current legal framework.³¹ However, there is no full consensus . Certain feminist activists and legal professionals express concerns regarding the legal consequences of such a change. They emphasise its potential impacts on the presumption of innocence and warn that the burden of proof would fall even more on the victims, by placing greater scrutiny on their behaviour.³²

What remains certain is that the current definition of rape is inadequate because it fails at holding the perpetrators accountable and does not respect the rights of all the victims. To put it shortly, the main flaws of this definition are the following: it assumes the sexual availability of female bodies and only cover a limited number of rapes.³³ A penetrating or oral sexual act can only qualify as rape if it has been perpetrated by resorting to violence, coercion, threat or surprise.³⁴  If the evidence does not demonstrate the existence of a sexual act meeting one of these four criteria, the case will be closed with no further action by the public prosecutor.³⁵ The French judiciary is also severely underfunded and public prosecutors consequently have a very restrictive view of evidence. They focus mostly on material evidence (videos, DNA, chemicals, wounds) that is always extremely hard to collect in rape cases, especially if the victim went through psychic sideration³⁶ (also called freeze response) and gave in before the perpetrator had to use one of the aforementioned means.³⁷ A consent-based definition of rape would significantly address these flaws by putting the emphasis on circumstantial evidence³⁸ and above all, on how the author of the sexual act made sure that their partner had voluntarily, freely and fully expressed their consent.³⁹ Those who defend this change argue that the burden of proof would fall on the alleged perpetrator and no longer on the victim, thus counterarguing those who oppose it.⁴⁰ An expert consultation has been launched in December 2023 by members of the French Parliament to examine this issue and explore how it could be translated into a law proposal, with the hope that it may be debated in March 2025.⁴¹

Nonetheless, this groundbreaking legislative change would not be enough to tackle sexual violence and put an end to rape culture. WAVE French members, such as National Federation of Women Solidarity (Fédération Nationale Solidarité Femmes – FNSF) and Protect Children (Protéger l’enfant), and other civil society organisations are fully aware of this. They formed a feminist coalition, which formulated 130 precise and concrete recommendations to French policymakers.⁴² Together, they advocate for a truly comprehensive and ambitious state response, in the sense that it should integrate all three prevention levels (primary, secondary, tertiary)⁴³, be supported by sufficient funding and address all forms of sexual violence, ranging from rape to obstetric and gynaecological violence.⁴⁴ It is only through policymaking combining the criminalization of rape with a comprehensive prevention approach, that we will get closer to a world free from violence for women and children.

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Morgane Thomas, Winter 2024 intern of the WAVE Office. She is currently pursuing her Master´s degree in Human Rights and Humanitarian Action at Sciences Po (PSIA), with a focus on women´s rights and LGBTQI+ rights. She is a human rights activist, part of the Women’s Rights Commission of Amnesty International France. Her areas of interest are, among others, how to tackle gender-based violence, reproductive justice, as well as gender, peace and security.

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1. Lucie Alexandre and Chez Pol, “L’inscription Du Consentement Dans Le Droit Français Peut-Elle Se Frayer Un Chemin Au Parlement ?,” Libération, October 14, 2024, https://www.liberation.fr/politique/linscription-du-consentement-dans-le-droit-francais-peut-elle-se-frayer-un-chemin-au-parlement-20241014_A37A44DUYJGH3N46ZN4ETOA5GY/. ↩︎
2. Le Monde, “Procès Des Viols de Mazan : ‘Il Est Grand Temps Que La Société Machiste, Patriarcale, Qui Banalise Le Viol, Change’, Déclare Gisèle Pélicot,” Le Monde (Le Monde, November 19, 2024), https://www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2024/11/19/le-proces-des-viols-de-mazan-est-le-proces-de-la-lachete-denonce-gisele-pelicot-qui-reclame-que-la-societe-patriarcale-change_6402505_3224.html. ↩︎
3. Juliette Campion, “RECIT. Procès de La Soumission Chimique : Le Calvaire Vécu Par Gisèle, Droguée Par Son Mari et Livrée à Des Dizaines de Viols,” Franceinfo, September 2, 2024, https://doi.org/10/2024/08/21/illustration-66c6454e58cbf734576424. ↩︎
4. Ibid. ↩︎
5. Ibid. ↩︎
6. Ibid. ↩︎
7. Ibid. ↩︎
8. Ibid. ↩︎
9. Christophe Gueugneau, “Au Procès Des Viols de Mazan : ‘Je Veux Que Les Femmes Se Disent “Madame Pelicot l’a Fait, Je Peux Le Faire,”’” Mediapart, October 23, 2024, https://www.mediapart.fr/journal/france/231024/au-proces-des-viols-de-mazan-je-veux-que-les-femmes-se-disent-madame-pelicot-l-fait-je-peux-le-faire. ↩︎
10. Ibid. ↩︎
11. Le Monde, “Procès Des Viols de Mazan : ‘Il Est Grand Temps Que La Société Machiste, Patriarcale, Qui Banalise Le Viol, Change’, Déclare Gisèle Pélicot,” Le Monde (Le Monde, November 19, 2024), https://www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2024/11/19/le-proces-des-viols-de-mazan-est-le-proces-de-la-lachete-denonce-gisele-pelicot-qui-reclame-que-la-societe-patriarcale-change_6402505_3224.html. ↩︎
12. P1, Alison Phipps et al., “Rape Culture, Lad Culture and Everyday Sexism: Researching, Conceptualizing and Politicizing New Mediations of Gender and Sexual Violence,” Journal of Gender Studies 27, no. 1 (February 7, 2017): 1–8. ↩︎
13. P131 Alisa Kessel, “Rethinking Rape Culture: Revelations of Intersectional Analysis,” American Political Science Review 116, no. 1 (July 30, 2021): 131–43, https://doi.org/10.1017/s0003055421000733. ↩︎
14. Ibid. ↩︎
15. Ibid. p132 ↩︎
16. Ibid. ↩︎
17. Ibid. p131 ↩︎
18. Ibid. p131 ↩︎
19. P 3867 Brittany L. Acquaviva, Katherine A. Meeker, and Eryn Nicole O’Neal, “Blameworthy Suspects and ‘Real Rape’: Assessing the Effects of Rape Culture-Specific Suspect Culpability Factors on the Police Decision to Arrest,” Violence against Women 28, no. 15-16 (January 25, 2022): 3865–85, https://doi.org/10.1177/10778012211070314. ↩︎
20. Ibid. p3867 ↩︎
21. Ibid. p3866 ↩︎
22. Amnesty International France, “‘“Rentrez Chez Vous, Ça va Passer…”’’ – Porter Plainte Pour Violences Sexuelles : L’épreuve Des Femmes Migrantes, Transgenres et Travailleuses Du Sexe En France.,” Amnesty.fr (Paris: Amnesty International France, September 18, 2024), https://amnestyfr.cdn.prismic.io/amnestyfr/Zulj47VsGrYSvbNJ_EtudeAIF_Rentrezchezvous%2C%C3%A7avapasser_versionlecture.pdf. ↩︎
23. Observatoire National des Violences faites aux Femmes (MIPROF), “Les Chiffres de Référence Sur Les Violences Faites Aux Femmes,” Gouv.fr, 2022, https://arretonslesviolences.gouv.fr/je-suis-professionnel/chiffres-de-reference-violences-faites-aux-femmes. ↩︎
24. Ellen Salvi, “Au Procès Mazan, La Défense A-t-Elle Tous Les Droits ?,” Mediapart, September 25, 2024, https://www.mediapart.fr/journal/france/250924/au-proces-mazan-la-defense-t-elle-tous-les-droits. ↩︎
25. Henri Seckel, “Au Procès Des Viols de Mazan, Une Plaidoirie Sobre et Subtile Contre ‘La Culture Du Viol,’” Le Monde.fr (Le Monde, November 21, 2024), https://www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2024/11/21/au-proces-des-viols-de-mazan-une-plaidoirie-contre-la-culture-du-viol_6406603_3224.html. ↩︎
26. Solène Cordier, “Introduire Le Consentement Dans La Définition Du Viol : Piège Ou Avancée ?,” Le Monde.fr (Le Monde, October 14, 2024), https://www.lemonde.fr/idees/article/2024/10/14/introduire-le-consentement-dans-la-definition-du-viol-piege-ou-avancee_6351483_3232.html. ↩︎
27. European Institute for Gender Equality, “Secondary Victimisation,” European Institute for Gender Equality, June 9, 2023, https://eige.europa.eu/publications-resources/thesaurus/terms/1248?language_content_entity=en. ↩︎
28. Women Against Violence Europe (WAVE) and EuroCentralAsian Lesbian* Community (EL*C), “Joint Women against Violence Europe (WAVE) and EuroCentralAsian Lesbian* Community (EL*C) Reaction to the Adoption of the EU Directive on Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence 2022/0066 (COD),” Women Against Violence Europe, May 7, 2024, https://wave-network.org/eud-07052024/. ↩︎
29. Le Monde, “Emmanuel Macron Dit Vouloir Inscrire La Notion de Consentement En Matière de Viol Dans Le Droit Français,” Le Monde.fr (Le Monde, March 13, 2024), https://www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2024/03/13/emmanuel-macron-dit-vouloir-inscrire-la-notion-de-consentement-en-matiere-de-viol-dans-le-droit-francais_6221813_3224.html. ↩︎
30. P17 Council of Europe, “Istanbul Convention – Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence” (2011), https://rm.coe.int/168046031c. ↩︎
31. p. 61, n° 192, GREVIO, “Rapport d’Évaluation de Référence – France – Convention D’Istanbul” (Council of Europe, November 19, 2019), https://rm.coe.int/grevio-inf-2019-16/168098c619. ↩︎
32. Solène Cordier, “Introduire Le Consentement Dans La Définition Du Viol : Piège Ou Avancée ?,” Le Monde.fr (Le Monde, October 14, 2024), https://www.lemonde.fr/idees/article/2024/10/14/introduire-le-consentement-dans-la-definition-du-viol-piege-ou-avancee_6351483_3232.html. ↩︎
33. Elodie Tuaillon Hibon, “Définition Du Viol : Non Pas Si Elle Doit Être Modifiée Mais Comment Elle Doit L’être,” Mediapart, November 20, 2024, https://blogs.mediapart.fr/elodie-tuaillonhibon/blog/201124/definition-du-viol-non-pas-si-elle-doit-etre-modifiee-mais-comment-elle-doit-l-etre. ↩︎
34. Audrey Darsonville et al., “‘Faire Du Consentement Libre et Éclairé à l’Acte Sexuel La Norme,’” Dalloz-actualite.fr, June 5, 2024, https://www.dalloz-actualite.fr/node/faire-du-consentement-libre-et-eclaire-l-acte-sexuel-norme. ↩︎
35. Elodie Tuaillon Hibon, “Définition Du Viol : Non Pas Si Elle Doit Être Modifiée Mais Comment Elle Doit L’être,” Mediapart, November 20, 2024, https://blogs.mediapart.fr/elodie-tuaillonhibon/blog/201124/definition-du-viol-non-pas-si-elle-doit-etre-modifiee-mais-comment-elle-doit-l-etre. ↩︎
36. Fanny Zarifi and Adrien Vande Casteele, “‘Sidérées’ : Pourquoi Certaines Victimes de Violences Sexuelles Ne Réagissent Pas,” Lemonde.fr, July 25, 2021, https://www.lemonde.fr/societe/video/2021/07/25/siderees-pourquoi-certaines-victimes-de-violences-sexuelles-ne-reagissent-pas_6089490_3224.html. ↩︎
37. Ibid. ↩︎
38. Ibid. ↩︎
39. Audrey Darsonville et al., “‘Faire Du Consentement Libre et Éclairé à l’Acte Sexuel La Norme,’” Dalloz-actualite.fr, June 5, 2024, https://www.dalloz-actualite.fr/node/faire-du-consentement-libre-et-eclaire-l-acte-sexuel-norme. ↩︎
40. Ibid. ↩︎
41. Lucie Alexandre and Chez Pol, “L’inscription Du Consentement Dans Le Droit Français Peut-Elle Se Frayer Un Chemin Au Parlement ?,” Libération, October 14, 2024, https://www.liberation.fr/politique/linscription-du-consentement-dans-le-droit-francais-peut-elle-se-frayer-un-chemin-au-parlement-20241014_A37A44DUYJGH3N46ZN4ETOA5GY/. ↩︎
42. Coalition féministe pour une loi cadre intégrale contre les violences sexuelles, “Pour Une Loi Cadre Intégrale Contre Les Violences Sexuelles,” Coalition Féministe Loi Intégrale, November 21, 2024, https://www.loi-integrale.fr/. ↩︎
43. Women Against Violence Europe (WAVE), “Ending Violence against Women: A Vision for Collective Feminist Liberation and a Future without Violence,” Women Against Violence Europe, November 25, 2024, https://wave-network.org/ending-violence-against-women-a-vision-for-collective-feminist-liberation-and-a-future-without-violence/. ↩︎
44. Ibid. ↩︎

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or opinion/position of Women Against Violence Europe (WAVE).