Yesterday marked the legal conclusion of a horrific case in France, where a man was convicted of orchestrating the rape of his wife by multiple men whom he invited to their home after drugging her food and drinks.
The mastermind behind this disturbing scheme was sentenced to 20 years in prison, while the identified perpetrators received sentences ranging from 3 to 17 years.
What stands out in this case, beyond its horrifying nature, is the victim’s resolve not to hide in shame.
She made the brave decision to expose her attackers, determined to “shift the burden of shame”.
“I wanted all rape victims to be able to say: ‘If Pelicot can do it, we can do it too’… Because when you’re raped, you feel ashamed, but we shouldn’t be the ones feeling shame—they should”, she testified in court.
Her goal was achieved. Through her public disclosure and open discussion of her ordeal, she managed to send a powerful message of awareness and empowerment.
Gisele Pelicot (who will now abandon her husband’s surname) has become a global symbol of survival and courage.
In stark contrast, another woman—the renowned Nobel laureate and Canadian author Alice Munro—achieved quite the opposite. Her response upon learning of her daughter’s abuse by her stepfather (Munro’s husband) effectively undermined her entire distinguished career.
Despite crafting a literary persona as a feminist who constantly explored women’s psychology and social position, when faced with a crucial moment, she chose to side with her paedophile husband.
“Our misogynistic culture demands that I deny my own needs and sacrifice myself for my children to make up for men’s weaknesses”, she told her daughter when the latter revealed the abuse she had suffered at age nine.
When her daughter, by then an adult, filed a police report, the author reacted with fury, branding her daughter a liar. The perpetrator, aged 80 in 2005, pleaded guilty and received a two-year suspended sentence.
However, this case remained unknown to the public until this year, following Munro’s death, when her daughter decided to complete the picture of her mother—a woman revered as a literary genius in Canada and worldwide.
One woman chose to face her rapists head-on, fighting for justice, while another justified her child’s abuser, even cloaking her reprehensible stance in “feminist” theory.