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.
I’m not one of them, but the problem is the sign in the thumbnail. Without that I doubt it would’ve upset as many people.
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Nah lol I literally would be in here in full support without the sign, but with the sign I am reminded that even though I have been raped by two different women, not only am I seen as a horrid abuser for the crime of having been born with a penis, the women who raped me are seen as victims for the virtue of having a vagina. Erasing male victims and woman perpetrators in one fell swoop really isn’t a good look, it makes the issue gendered rather than about abusers V victims, and then to turn it around and claim that men are making it “all about us” as if the sign didn’t lead us there in the first place is some A+ victim blaming.
If women don’t like that the conversation becomes about male victims in response to their erasure of male victims (and in this case woman perpetrators), then women should start speaking up for ALL victims instead of erasing us, regardless of how insignificant they think we are ignoring us is hurting OUR cause, yes “ours:” victims’ regardless of gender.
“yea I’d like this protest, but there’s literally one sign that offends me and they didn’t chant my name so fuck them all” you’re a piece of work omg xD
No u lmao, you literally are trying to silence victims of rape as we speak and you think I’m the piece of work? You having a stroke or something?
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Then put that on the sign, not “always men” ffs. The sign is a lie and a problem and the fact that you can’t see that means you’re part of that problem.
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Oh thank you for clarifying why you think me being raped is insignificant and doesn’t matter. Wanna go for the rest of the hits while we’re here? “You must have enjoyed it because you’re a man” and “she was hot you should consider yourself lucky,” or who could forget the classic “get over it pussy?”
Fine, if there’s nothing left to say, then say nothing. That’ll be better than what you’ve been doing.
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Hell no I’ll advocate for myself and those like me until my fingers fall off to combat people like you, how 'bout you quit trying to silence rape victims, hmm?
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Just say you don’t care about men and you’re sexist. Would be way easier for you
There’s a BLM protest over the police shooting an innocent black person 100+ times while they had their hands up. Someone posts about it on lemmy. A bunch of white people come to the thread and mention that the protest is bad because they’ve also been abused by police, and one (1) person there had a sign that says “fuck white people”. They say that sign is evil and racist and spoils the whole protest, and that the protest is garbage anyway because aLl LIveS mAtTEr and how dare they only protest violence against black people? White people are victims too! And BLM is a bunch of racist assholes who hate all white people for not catering to them 24/7 and having the gall to protest issues they disproportionately face rather than protesting for all victims of police violence.
This is you, to the letter. This is you and every other man coming here to distract from the issue at hand bc your issue is more important and bc you don’t give a shit about the people protesting or the fact that they face disproportionate amounts of violence.
This Is Not About You
If there ever is a protest against raping men, I hope nobody trolls it with the same AllLivesMatter bullshit that you are here
I’ve been abused, abuse is about me you ignorant and sexist fuck. You dont get to decide what is about me and what isn’t
How about you just say you don’t care about women and you are also sexist? Would be way easier for you, too.
Cause I do care, I dont hold up signs that say I’m racist or sexist either or normalize it and say it’s ok like you do
I didn’t even look at the thumbnail. I’m a man btw. If I had to rewrite that sign it might say ‘NOT ALL MEN - JUST TOO MANY’. Or, I dunno, something like that.
I kinda feel like, for blokes there are two important things we can do. Aside from stop having arguments about who’s the bigger victim (it’s women). First is just don’t do that shit. Just don’t. It’s actually easy and rewarding to not be a bad person. Second is don’t let any other guys get away with even talking like that. Even if they’re mates, step the fuck up and let them know that talk is not okay. Let’s be honest, many of us have heard our mates talk about women in a way we weren’t quite comfy with and afterwards thought we should have said something. Say something.