“Rape culture is a culture of secrecy” – Libération

At the Mazan rape trial, which began on September 2, the main accused should not be chemical submission, but male domination, which turns the woman’s body into an object, explains journalist Félix Lemaître, who has just devoted a book to this type of case.

How did nearly a hundred men allow themselves to rape an unconscious woman, drugged by her husband? This is one of the central questions raised by the trial of Dominique Pelicot, known as the Mazan rapes, which is currently being held in public in Avignon. This desire for the inert female body is nothing exceptional, Félix Lemaître tells us in The Night of Men. An investigation into chemical submission (JC Lattès), story of a lively and documented quest inspired by gonzo journalism.

It is by following the traces of his own construction as a man, and of a whole series of affairs, starting with those of the wild injections in 2022, that he arrives at this conclusion: this desire to possess an inanimate woman is not the fruit of a few sick brains, but is part of the most banal male domination, our cultural representations, a culture of rape in which all men grow up and which must be questioned urgently.

What is your view on the media coverage of the Pelicot trial?

Unfortunately, he reduces everything to the figure of the monster and is not up to the task. It should be the trial of male domination rather than chemical submission, which is only a means of the former. This shift risks circumscribing