Georgia Turner

TW: This article discusses sensitive themes of sexual violence and rape.

In late December, the highly publicised, three month trial of Dominique Pelicot and 50 other men concluded. During a nine-year period, Gisèle Pelicot was repeatedly drugged and raped, by both her husband of five decades and dozens of strangers. 20 still remain unidentified. On December 19th, these 50 men – found through photographic records of the assaults that Dominque had recorded – along with Dominique himself, were convicted. 

The majority were sentenced for aggravated rape, but several only received sentences for sexual assault. The landmark nature of this sentencing is welcome with Dominique, already 68, facing a 20-year sentence, and all accused found guilty. However, persisting stereotypes around rape and sexual assault have haunted the case. Along with the length of some sentences – some as few as three years- these narratives remain an open wound for Gisèle Pelicot and survivors of sexual violence everywhere.

The nature of the trial shone a spotlight on the treatment of rape victims in court: the details are not flattering. In September, when the trial was only beginning, defence lawyers made claims that ‘humiliated’ Gisèle, painting her as an alcoholic and accomplice to her husband.¹ Lawyers even went as far to display intimate pictures of Gisèle – images that she argues she has no recollection of- in order to claim that her rapists were lured to the Pelicot home by the promise of a sexual game.² A grandmother in her 70s, Gisèle Pelicot was not promiscuous, nor drunk, nor dressed inappropriately: in short, she fulfilled none of the usual victim-blaming criteria which places the victims on trial, instead of their rapists. This did not stop the defence from demonstrating that ritual humiliation is an intentional feature, rather than a bug, of rape trials. Nor did it guarantee her justice: many of the convicted received sentences shorter than the prosecution had asked for.  Some are as short as 3 to 5 years. These sentences are further proof that in the eyes of the law, even the “ideal” victim, whose rapes were captured in excruciating detail on camera, doesn’t deserve full justice.

The response to the Pelicot case, both in court and out, demonstrates how misogynistic myths about rape infect not only our societal discourses but our legal institutions. The mayor of Mazan argued that ‘after all, no one died,’ so eager to detach the reputation of his village from the case’s horrors that he would prefer to dismiss the trauma of a living woman.³ One of the lawyers representing six defendants suggested that ‘there is rape, and there’s rape.’⁴ We can only wonder which detail of Gisèle’s story that he deems not horrific enough to be regarded as “proper” rape. Clearly, the fact that the court’s medical examiner deemed her drugged state closer to a coma than sleep during the rapes is not enough, nor are the 4 STDs she contracted, or the years she spent terrified of the gaps in her memory. Both Mazan’s mayor and this lawyer, Guillaume de Palma, imply that Gisèle Pelicot experienced a privileged form of rape. The further implication of these attitudes is that rape isn’t something that happens in the family home, without a physical struggle – and if it does, it is a domestic issue, not one of the law.

This traditional understanding of rape requiring outright violence and a stranger in a dark alley that is so ingrained within our culture could not be more divorced from the truth. 1 in 2 rapes against women are carried out by their partner or ex-partner; 6 in 7 women know their rapist.⁵ It is easier to dismiss an epidemic of violence against women when it is portrayed as a random act of criminality, rather than a deeply rooted societal problem. Neither ignorance nor avoidance serve survivors or Gisèle Pelicot.

The deadly misogyny that fuels intimate partner violence (IPV) is the same that trivialises and dismisses marital rape. During the trial, several men defended themselves by pointing to Dominique’s approval and presence. “As long as the husband was present, there was no rape,” asserted defendant Adrien Longeron during the trial while denying the charge of rape against him.⁶ Such a statement was regarded as defence, rather than an admission of guilt – what does this say of the depth of societal misogyny? The sentiment of these rapists is the sentiment of a guilty society: marital rape was only criminalised in the UK in the early 1990s, and in France in 1994. Attitudes that dismiss marital rape as a domestic quarrel rather than a legitimate form of violence beg the question: after how many years of marriage does a husband own his wife?

Gisèle Pelicot is indescribably brave – for waiving her anonymity, for demanding that the shame change sides both in court and the media. 1 in 4 women in the UK has been raped or sexually assaulted since the age of 16. Five out of six of these women have not reported it, deeming it embarrassing (40%), pointless (38%), humiliating (34%.)⁷ Is it any wonder that women are not eager to share something so traumatic with an audience often keen to discount and doubt them, to carve them up and find reasons to place the blame on them? And still, Gisèle Pelicot has intentionally stood as a trailblazer for victims across the world. Her courage is a defiant demand for change – an assertion to survivors that “Mrs Pelicot did it, we can do it too. When you’re raped there is shame, and it’s not for us to have shame, it’s for them.”⁸

The time for shame is over. 

1. ‘I feel humiliated’: Gisèle Pelicot outraged by suggestions of complicity at France mass rape trial ↩︎
2.  Plaintiff comes under attack at Pelicot trial: ‘I understand why rape victims don’t press charges’
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3. ‘French mayor sorry for ‘no one died’ comment over mass rape trial ↩︎
4. French mass rape survivor says ‘humiliated’ by lawyers’ claims of complicity in her abuse ↩︎
5. Rape, sexual assault and child sexual abuse statistics | Rape Crisis England & Wales
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6. Who are the 51 men who abused Gisèle Pelicot? | The Independent ↩︎
7. Rape, sexual assault and child sexual abuse statistics | Rape Crisis England & Wales ↩︎
8. Gisèle Pelicot tells mass rape trial ‘it’s not for us to have shame – it’s for them’ | The Guardian ↩︎