Liberty, equality, patriarchy
In France, cultural opposition to the #MeToo movement is entrenched
Lucy Wadham
OPINIONS
France’s culture protects powerful men from their misdeeds
“Rape is a crime, but…” So begins a letter sent to Le Monde, signed by over 100 French women—authors, artists, performers and academics—deploring the wave of “denunciations” triggered by France’s version of the #MeToo movement, #BalanceTonPorc (call out your pig). The letter claims that a new British and US-style puritanism has been unleashed on France.
Men, they wrote, must be “free to importune” women and should not be punished for “stealing a kiss.”
A week later, Brigitte Bardot told Paris Match she agreed with the letter. She condemned her fellow actresses as teases, who provoke male producers in order to get parts, asserting that, “in the vast majority of cases [the actresses] are hypocritical, ridiculous, and uninteresting.”