Dec 22, 2024 08:37 PM IST
The Pelicot rape trial has reminded the world of the tenuousness of a woman’s sense of safety. Gisèle has done her bit. But where do we go from here?
There is something about a woman unafraid. A woman uninterrupted. A woman unperturbed by what she can lose. Mostly, it’s a woman who has nothing left to lose. Or so she thinks. Gisèle Pelicot’s world of marital stability, trust, and security came crashing down four years ago. “My world fell apart,” she remarked when she first recognised the woman (getting raped by a stranger) in a photograph shown by the police as herself. The Pelicot rape trial has reminded the world of the tenuousness of a woman’s sense of safety.
“I am a rapist just like all the others in this room,” Dominique Pelicot, Gisèle’s husband, said during the trial. And that’s what it is all about. Though he made this statement referring to his co-defendants, the 50 men he invited over for almost a decade to rape his sedated wife, it has far greater resonance for women across the world.
Gisèle’s decision to waive her anonymity during the rape trial made this resonance even stronger. She became an Everywoman. It’s making men uncomfortable, as usual. “Not all men,” runs the hackneyed refrain. It’s a discordant note: The fact is that it’s easy to turn a man, any man, into a rapist if there’s an assurance of no consequences for their actions.
This trial has opened more wounds than it sought to heal. The list of Gisèle’s rapists is quite eclectic — drivers, workers, journalists, nurses, soldiers and DJs, all played this game. Imagine finding 72 men within a 50 km radius of Pelicots’ home in a sparsely populated village, Mazan, with a total population of about 7,000. At least 2% of all men in this region chose to rape by invitation.
All of Gisèle’s rapists have been found guilty of rape, but not before more than 20,000 photos and videos were presented in a trial, which was made open to the public at her insistence. This is what makes this case historic. It has, once and for all, made it clear: He would if he could. It’s time to trash, yet again, George Etherege’s 17th-century comedy, She Would If She Could, about women’s lustfulness. It’s time to revisit the alleged cuckold-making Lady Cockwood’s life.
Dominique’s love of cuckoldry is yet another cautionary tale for women across the world. It’s clear today that what men love can hurt women they claim to love very badly. But most men do not care about hurting women. Dominique could find at least 72 rapists. Coco, the website that facilitated Dominique’s rape-my-wife set-up, is awash with men sharing similar proclivities. And this is just one site.
Many of the convicts pleaded for diminished responsibility during the trial on the grounds that they couldn’t resist the temptation and were manipulated by Dominique. Men get tempted a bit too easily. “Men will be men.” Hurting women is the easiest temptation. Shakespeare’s “Most dangerous/Is that temptation that doth goad us on/To sin in loving virtue” and other similar lines across literatures and cultures have glorified this temptation to force oneself non-consensually.
Talking about how men hurt women is often mislabelled, rather conveniently, as hatred for men. Women do not hate men enough. If it were so, women would be burning the world down because they are angry. Just like Kannagi, the heroine of Adigal’s Cilapattikaram, who burnt the city of Madurai by wrenching her left breast out and using it as a bomb. Or Wanda, the most powerful superhero in the Marvel universe. Gisèle was more heartbroken than angry.
Gisèle has done her bit. But where do we go from here? Unfortunately, nowhere. Because, like Gargi, the scholar, they’ll still care to be civil towards the ill-tempered Yagyavalkya even when the latter threatens to destroy her. Women will, collectively, continue to fight the fair fight and find non-destructive ways to channel their anger even when pushed to the brink. If only that were enough to stop men from hurting women.
Merci, Gisèle!
Nishtha Gautam is an author, academic and journalist. The views expressed are personal
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