French women are protesting in the thousands to support Gisèle Pelicot, whose husband is on trial for inviting more than 50 men to rape her.

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.

  • @[email protected]English
    2•5 hours ago

    Sure, and if you’ll notice, I have only taken issue with the sign, as many like it have hurt men continuously including myself. It reinforces the idea that men are defacto rapists and women are defacto innocent and it’s a bad sign. We should strive to be better than that with our slogans to include EVERYONE who gets raped, not just men or just women. The sign is a problem, and it’s hindering the goal of what should be the “stop raping” movement without qualifiers like gender rather than a movement that openly admits that they, like the rest of the world, do not give a shit about male victims.

    I’m not trying to shut their protest down, I want us to be fucking included.

    The assault has nothing to do with me, but the sign does. I will not stand for such erasure (great band, btw).

    Yeah I deleted that, I was hot on the heels of another person who is being a bigot (and literally writing “m*n” instead of “men” which I found hilarious) and I thought you were them until I read your Uname. That’s my mistake I tried to get it before you saw it, sorry! In my defense your Uname is different in my inbox vs in the comments, I would have recognized “cheese!” Lol.

    All victims matter, yes. Thanks for all but admitting you don’t give a shit about male victims though, why not just go full mask off and say it outright instead of “AlL lIvEs MaTtEr” hmm?