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.

  • narc0tic_bird@lemm.ee
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    8 hours ago

    Exactly. If anything, signs like these drag the attention away from the actual issue.

        • Doomsider@lemmy.world
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          5 hours ago

          From your article, “In fact, 96 percent of women who report rape or sexual assault in the NCVS were abused by men.”

          • affiliate@lemmy.world
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            2 hours ago

            that quote you gave was taken entirely out of context. here’s the very next sentence:

            In presenting our findings, we argue that a comprehensive look at sexual victimization, which includes male perpetration and adds female perpetration, is consistent with feminist principles in important ways.

          • snooggums@lemmy.world
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            2 hours ago

            Those are the kinds of numbers that come from laws defining rape as penetration and then only counting convictions.

            Kind of like how the US had zero married women that were victims of rape by their husbands when it wasn’t a crime for husbands to rape their wives.

        • buddascrayon@lemmy.world
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          5 hours ago

          No but the number of assaults by men far outweigh the number by women. And that Scientific American article is just your way of brushing off the fact that men are the primary offenders when it comes to sexual assault. You are exactly like the gun enthusiasts who throw the statistics on mental illness as the true cause of gun deaths and not the guns they use.

          Edit: Just cause you seem to be including that link everywhere you post here I’m going to include this link to the 2024 study of sexual assault in France.

          https://www.statista.com/topics/8875/violence-against-women-in-france/#topicOverview

            • buddascrayon@lemmy.world
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              5 hours ago

              Oh yeah, you got me there. Statistically small number of women who commit sexual assault completely absolves all men of being complicit in the sexual assault committed by mostly men. We definitely have to correct our perceptions on that one. Sure okay.

              • IMNOTCRAZYINSTITUTION@lemmy.world
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                5 hours ago

                hey as a guy who was assaulted, please stop saying all men are complicit. do you understand what you’re saying when you say that?

                • buddascrayon@lemmy.world
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                  5 hours ago

                  You are basically validating the people who are trying to dismiss the assaults by men by using the “women do it too!” defense.

                  I’m sorry for what happened to you and you deserve justice and support. But so do the literally millions upon millions of women who have been assaulted by men who are basically ignored or intimidated by our society into staying silent about their experience.

                  • IMNOTCRAZYINSTITUTION@lemmy.world
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                    4 hours ago

                    incredibly ironic. how can you dismiss assault and say I’m the one dismissing it? jesus please get a grip and get off the fucking internet. why did I even try?

              • TSG_Asmodeus (he, him)@lemmy.world
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                4 hours ago

                Sorry you’re getting this reaction. I am a man who was abused by women and all the support groups lead to me taking to a room full of women about it. Do men come forward less often? Yes. It would have to be like 1 in 100 men coming forward for it to be equal. I’ve had one other male friend who has been assaulted, but over half of the women I’ve been friends with have.

                If it helps anyone with that being anecdotal, you have to look at the statistics of who is doing it: people in power. Just that alone means more men simply have the opportunity. Add to that that men are told sex is power, and that men who have sex often are virile, whereas women who do are slut shamed. It’s getting better, but still far off.

                Anyway I’ll take the downvotes, but every statistic we have shown is that men are the primary antagonist in the vast majority of sexual assault against both men and women.

                • buddascrayon@lemmy.world
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                  3 hours ago

                  I’m sorry you were abused and I really wish this were a world where this sort of thing didn’t happen.

    • Kusimulkku@lemm.ee
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      7 hours ago

      I mean this thread is a good example of that and why such signs are bad