Living With Men
Reflections on the Pelicot Trial
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- $20.99
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- $20.99
Publisher Description
Gisèle Pelicot's story outraged the world. The sickening parade of crimes to which she was subjected and her betrayal are dark pages in our history. Feminist philosopher Manon Garcia decided to attend the trial and to analyse its resonance for our future.
It became the trial that demonstrated that trials will never suffice to serve justice. If the perpetrators, for the most part, seemed so unashamed of what they had done, can we see in their sentencing anything meaningful? If their lawyers defend their clients by relieving them of responsibility for their actions, how will these men, their families, their friends see this trial as anything other than an injustice? If, even as the most explicit proof streamed before the court, the victim was stonewalled with the bland denial of facts, what can juries achieve in cases when the evidence is lacking? The threat of incarceration will never be powerful enough to stop men raping. If trusting the justice system, as those who fret about feminist overreach counsel us to do, gets us nowhere, what do we do?
Above all, one question haunted Garcia: under such circumstances, can we live with men? And at what price?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This contemplative account from philosopher Garcia (The Joy of Consent) ruminates on the implications of the sensational 2024 trial of Dominique Pelicot, a French man convicted of arranging for the rape of his wife Gisele by more than 50 men. All the rapes took place in the couple's bedroom while Gisele was drugged and unconscious, and were recorded on video. As Garcia points out, a shocking element of this horrendous episode is that Pelicot could so easily find so many "normal" men—most from within just a few-mile radius—who were interested in raping an unconscious woman. Arguing that the Pelicot trial marks "the end of the idea that we can place our hopes exclusively in the legal system," Garcia presents an incisive dissection of the concept of "consent," which is at the root of rape's legal definition. Many of the male defendants alleged that they did not know Gisele did not consent, insisting that they assumed the arrangement had been preplanned by both husband and wife; some were exonerated based on this assertion. Garcia incisively examines this issue as a troubling lack of "shame" on the part of the men, as shame adheres to the victims of rape, and not the perpetrators. The result is an unsettling exploration of rape culture's deep roots.
