Will Gisèle Pelicot's rape case be a catalyst for change in France?
French psychologist who studies violence and coercion says the grisly trial could lead to meaningful change
WARNING: This article includes discussion of sexual assault and intimate partner violence.
When Gisèle Pelicot waived her right to anonymity and insisted the world know her name, she created an opportunity for real, meaningful change in France, says social psychologist Andreea Gruev-Vintila.
But now, she says it's up to the people of France to decide what to do with that opportunity.
Gisèle Pelicot, 72, is the French woman at the heart of a rape trial that's made headlines around the world and sent shockwaves throughout France.
Her former husband Dominique Pelicot, 71, testified in court on Tuesday that, for nearly a decade, he repeatedly drugged her and invited dozens of men to rape her while she lay unconscious in their bed in the small French town of Mazan. Fifty of those men are on trial alongside him.
Gisèle Pelicot, who insisted the trial be open to the public, has become a powerful symbol for victims of abuse. Hundreds of people rallied in France over the weekend in solidarity with her, and her supporters have gathered outside the courtroom, greeting her with applause.
Gruev-Vintila is an associate professor of social psychology at the University Paris-Nanterre who studies the impacts of violence and coercive control, a tactic employed by perpetrators of abuse to control, isolate and intimidate a victim into submission.
She says Gisèle Pelicot's courage and the solidarity she's inspired are incredible, but the trial's impacts on French law and culture remain to be seen. Here is part of her conversation with As It Happens host Nil Köksal.
Dominique Pelicot said [in court today]: "I am a rapist like the others in this room." But he then went on to try to explain why he did this to his now ex-wife, Gisèle Pelicot. What did you take away from his explanation?
He is one of the few rapists who admits their deeds. But he also ... justified what he did by the fact that he had been abused as a child.
This is something that we should not be misled about, because it is not because someone experiences the unfortunate experience of being sexually abused as a child that they become sexual abusers later.
In fact, if this was true — because we know the majority of sexually abused children are little girls — then most of the perpetrators, when they grow up, would be women. And this is not the case.
There are so many extraordinary aspects of this case. At the top of that list, certainly, though, is that Gisèle Pelicot chose to go public. She did not want her name hidden. She allowed for videos of the assaults that happened to her for so many years to be played in court as part of the evidence being presented. What did you hear in court about why she chose to confront these men so publicly?
Gisèle Pelicot's courage is tremendous and her testimony has really broken the silence surrounding this extreme form of domestic violence.
I think that by refusing the closed-door proceedings ... she really wanted society to be aware of the mechanisms of what is called coercive control and to contribute to a collective awareness of the reality of what she experienced.
What has this trial done, this case, in terms of underlining ... the profile of who a rapist can be and is?
It's a criminal trial, so judges have to look into what happened in this specific case.
But for me, as a social psychologist, this trial really ... seems to expose the systemic failures that allows this violence to persist. And it underscores the need to question societal attitudes that minimize or has us ignore signs of domestic violence, of chemical submission, of sexual assault, as a society.
I dare to hope that the Mazan trial could catalyze significant legal reforms, particularly in strengthening the legal recognition of coercive control.
And it also highlights the need for better training for health professionals, for all the doctors that have seen Gisèle over the years and who could not connect the dots.
According to police, the defendants came from all different walks of life. Many of them had wives and children, what people would describe as "normal" lives. And many have no criminal records. Again, these cases are proceeding, but what does that signal to you?
There was a very interesting paper written by French philosopher Camille Froidevaux-Metterie, who points out that this trial reveals the very "ordinary" dimension of sexual violence perpetrators, challenging these stereotypes about abusers as monsters and really highlighting the prevalence, and the ordinary prevalence, of this violence in our society.
Some of the accused men are denying the allegations, saying, in some cases that ... this wasn't rape because her husband was present.... What do you make of what they're arguing in their own defence?
What this says is that there are still people in France today that can believe that men can give a better guarantee for his wife's will, as if she wasn't a human person herself, as if she didn't have her own words, her own conscience, her own consent. So it's really deeply troubling.
The Mazan trial, while it is deeply troubling, it does offer an unprecedented opportunity to confront the reality, of course, of control and sexual violence within as a marital rape in France.
There's been such a response, an outpouring of support for Gisèle Pelicot. You know, I've seen people holding signs that say "I am Gisèle." I've heard references to the chant, "Shame must change sides." What do you think the impact of this case and her willingness to be so open about what happened to her?
The solidarity that's gathered around Gisèle Pelicot is amazing. There are tons of women that attend her trial, many feminists. There were gatherings throughout Paris and other French cities this weekend and it was amazing.
There was such a positive energy and such support within these really widespread demonstrations across France to show, hopefully, growing collective consciousness and certainly solidarity with Gisèle Pelicot and the other victims.
Do you think it will actually trigger meaningful change, or is this just a moment that will pass?
The moment is what we make out of it, and social change does happen with persistent action. So it's, in a way, up to us to take this to a cultural shift.
Maybe the Mazan trial does represent the turning point, at least an opportunity for a turning point, in French culture that may challenge deeply ingrained attitudes about gender, about power, about violence and intimate relationships and coercive control.
But it's up to us to be persistent, to take this change further and to not let it just be a moment.
For anyone who has been sexually assaulted, there is support available through crisis lines and local support services via the Ending Violence Association of Canada database. If you're in immediate danger or fear for your safety or that of others around you, please call 911.
For anyone affected by family or intimate partner violence, there is support available through crisis lines and local support services. If you're in immediate danger or fear for your safety or that of others around you, please call 911.
Interview produced by Sarah Jackson, edited for length and clarity.
