CHAPTER 8

• Jurisdiction: United States

CHAPTER 8

The #MeToo Movement in France: A Wave of Ambivalence

Marie Mercat-Bruns¹

Right before the #MeToo hashtag was posted by Alyssa Milano on October 15, 2017,² Sandra Muller, a French journalist, in New York at the time, reacted to the Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse allegations made in the New York Times and the New Yorker articles. Using the hashtag "#squeal on your pig" ("#BalanceTonPorc," in French), on October 13, she encouraged French women to reveal their story of sexual harassment at work, to express their indignation, and to describe and name their aggressors.³ In a second post, she herself revealed TV producer Eric Brion's verbal misconduct at a professional event one evening: "You have big breasts. You are my type of woman. I am going to make you come all night."⁴ Several months later, he issued apologies. Brion ascribed his behavior to his heavy drinking that night and explained that he was flirting with her inappropriately. He, nevertheless, filed suit against her for defamation and won.⁵

This chapter aims to assess: (1) what occurred in France when the #MeToo movement emerged in worldwide news in 2017; (2) what laws protected persons from harassment and assault, especially in the workplace before this event; (3) in practice, if these laws were enforced and if barriers existed in filing complaints; and (4) if the movements triggered changes both in law and in civil society for better effectiveness of norms, access to justice, and implementation of rights.

The French Paradox After the #MeToo Movement

After Muller's call, a flow of tweets followed in France⁶ with narratives of assaults. Tweets often just described verbal or non-verbal acts, either sexual harassment, sexist remarks, or sexual assaults, named the perpetrator, or just situated him in all walks of life: gynecologists, directors of a summer camp, lifeguards, instructors, diplomats, and TV producers. In a recent book, Sandra Muller describes the outpouring of tweets after her hashtag (900,000 as of July 2018).⁷ Some are also from men like Aurélien: "Of course the feminist and legal battles are important. But let's face it. They have failed completely. Complaints are rejected by the District Attorney, victims are liable for defamation. Feminist movements are ridiculed."

From the beginning, the #MeToo movement triggered very ambivalent reactions in France. Some observers considered this was due to the different nature of the French hashtag.⁸ Unlike the Quebec translation of #MeToo, #moi aussi, the French hashtag was perceived by a part of French public opinion as fostering accusations, instead of a more positive message about bonding of survivors,⁹ even though French citizens also tweeted #MeToo.¹⁰ The risk of false accusations was compared to the infamous denunciations of Jews by their neighbors in Vichy France.¹¹ However, other journalists reacted strongly by saying this view puts the Jewish victims of Nazi Germany and the presumed perpetrators of sexual harassment in the same bag. Furthermore, this associated women who denounced their aggressors with the Nazis or the French who collaborated with them. Even French President Emmanuel Macron, who, from the beginning, took a strong stand against sexual harassment, sexism, and sexual violence, warned citizens against a "culture of informers."¹²

Government Support for #Movement Except When Two Ministers Are Targets of Accusations

From its outset, the # movement was explicitly supported as "liberating" by the President Macron¹³ and backed by his wife Brigitte Macron.¹⁴ The Secretary of State for Equality, Marlène Schiappa, reacted quickly: "Under #MeToo, women describe terrible cases of abuse as well as cat calls. However, the type of violation isn't what's at the heart of the sexism debate, it's the fact that men take the liberty of all sorts of transgressions."¹⁵ From the beginning, Schiappa considered the need for legal reform and new sanctions like on-the-spot fines against people harassing women in the streets.¹⁶

Macron, on November 25, 2017, also felt the importance of the turn of events. He organized with the Secretary of State a specific ceremony at the Elysée Palace, inviting all the feminist NGOs to pay tribute, with one minute of silence, to the 123 women who were abused and killed by their husbands or partners in 2016 and gave a long speech launching a new policy for women deciding that equality would be the great national cause of his term: "Our society as a whole is ill with sexism. Shame has to change sides. The Republic has to do what it takes to cleanse herself too. Criminals who, on a daily basis, harass, insult, touch, assault, should not be excused but spotted, vilified, brought to justice, strongly condemned, without complacency. This is a condition of our Republican pact and France should no longer be one of those countries where women are fearful "¹⁷

However, when two ministers, the Minister for the Environment, Nicolas Hulot,¹⁸ and the Minister for the Budget, Gérald Darmanin, were accused of rape in the past or through ongoing legal proceedings, which in both cases were unsuccessful for different reasons,¹⁹ the whole government, including the Secretary of State for Equality, stood behind their colleagues.²⁰

Mixed Support for the #Movement from Journalists, Writers, and Artists

This hint of ambivalence within the government is reflected also in the writing of journalists, authors, artists, and politicians. For example, women journalists were some of the first to denounce the inappropriate behavior of colleagues.²¹ However, on October 17, on a famous "France Culture" radio show, the writer Christine Angot reflected on the underlying rhetoric of power in France like the one present in gender-blind labor relations and Marxist thought: "I do not think the question is correctly framed . . . by saying that men are pigs and women are only victims. I think men are human. And women are also human. However, these humans all live under a regime of power. And those who profit, men or women regardless, have a serious tendency to abuse it. So, we are amidst abuse of power." "The challenge is not talking about it as one would think. What is difficult is to free oneself from this power struggle."²² A journalist concludes on this shock wave: "It has shaken up the power structures" in France.²³

This critique of the #MeToo approach, as sharing publicly experiences of male assault or harassment, should not negate the massive positive reaction of women in France. For example, on November 7, 2017, petitions were introduced by 100 women to request from Macron an urgent plan for reform. The call was signed by 50,000 people.²⁴

Outright Backlash From Other Journalists, Philosophers, Psychiatrists, Politicians, and Celebrities

Outside of journalist Eric Zemmour's comparison of the use of the hashtag "Squeal on your pig" with the practices of Vichy informers,²⁵ there are those like conservative philosopher Alain Finkielkraut who considered that "this movement is the end of the presumption of innocence required for defendants at trial, the end of an era; a happy mix between the respect of manners and the heart of civilization of mores." He added that "he is proud to be French." For him, "there will always be individuals with perverted behaviors."²⁶ In other words, for some commentators, #balance ton porc serves only to denounce these "twisted minds," the product of individual volition, and not the direct effect of collective sexist norms women and men internalize unconsciously.

This resistance also comes from women, and not only from the far right like Marine Le Pen, who consider the French #squeal on your pig brutal and insulting and street harassment being only perpetrated by immigrants.²⁷ As expressed by a journalist, Maya Kadra in the newspaper Libération, "Limiting the cry of these assaulted women to #balance ton porc, is extracting women's rights from the legal and societal framework.²⁸ The struggle for women takes the form of an emotional, almost irrational, subjectification of the problem. Women appear humiliated but the hashtag can be equated to massive indignation. Collective violence is a retaliation of the victim vis-à-vis her aggressor but, in this way, the victim identifies with him. This violence traps verbal expression and destroys the principle of equality One cannot start from particular situations to create general slogans. Women's struggle must be rational, tempered, not doxing."²⁹

On January 9, 2018, a more formal and organized backlash was organized by women themselves: French film star Catherine Deneuve, writers Catherine Millet and Catherine Robe-Grillet, journalist Elisabeth Levy, and 100 other French female celebrities published an open letter in the newspaper Le Monde, harshly criticizing the "denunciation campaign" against men.³⁰ They spoke out against the #balance ton porc hashtag: "We defend the freedom to be bothered, essential to sexual freedom, trying to pick up someone with insistence is not a crime or a misdemeanor, gallantry is not a chauvinistic assault." "Rape is a crime, but insistent or clumsy flirting is not an offense." "We cannot be reduced to our bodies. Our internal/intrinsic freedom cannot be violated."³¹

The Emergence of the French Feminist Divide in the Press—Or a Strong Need for an Open Conversation Between French Women on Power, Gender, and Sexuality?

However, the next day, a group of 30 prominent feminists, most of them presidents of NGOs for women led by Caroline de Haas reacted on a national news radio station, France Info. This reaction shows both an intergenerational conflict on the issue of sexual harassment and a strong divide in the feminist movement in France, but it at least started an open conversation on the issue. According to de Haas, "Every time rights of women progress and consciousness rises, resistance appears. In general, it takes the form of 'Yes, it is true, but....' What we have in the Le Monde backlash Deneuve...