The Pélicot affair lifted the veil on chemical submission. If this technique consists of drugging a person in order to abuse them, the testimonies highlight the diversity of cases in which the victims were targeted and the multiple consequences.
Chemical submission is “rapists’ best kept secret.” This is what Caroline Darian, the daughter of Gisèle Pélicot, who was drugged and raped by her husband and around fifty strangers, says in the documentary Chemical submission: so that shame changes sides directed by Linda Bendali and broadcast this Tuesday January 21 on France 2. In this film, the daughter of the Pélicot couple, who is convinced that she was also a victim of her father, looks back on the ordeal suffered by her mother for at least ten years without it being known. But she is not the only one to testify about this modus operandi, which we hardly talked about before 2022 and the start of the Pélicot affair. Several victims recount the attacks they suffered and although all were drugged, none tell an identical story.
Few victims say they were drugged with GHB – a substance nicknamed the “rapist drug” – at nightclubs. This threat, if it is very real, is far from being the only one that must be taken into account. “It happens much more frequently than it seems,” assures Rénald, one of the witnesses in the documentary, and in other circumstances.
The attackers can come from all walks of life and the psychotropic drugs used can be both illegal drugs and medications available in pharmacies and sometimes without a prescription. Sleeping pills, anti-anxiety medications, or antihistamines are all options for chemically subduing someone. Zoé, a doctor turned activist and herself a victim of chemical submission when she was 15, says she was surprised to see that “the products most used by rapists are those that[elle prescrit] every day” in Linda Bendali's film.
A single operating mode for very different attacks
The testimonies reported in Chemical submission: so that shame changes sides mention rapes and assaults perpetrated by an employer, a colleague, an acquaintance or a family member. Some victims also report being attacked by strangers.
-As for the drugs used, it is difficult for victims to identify them precisely but it is clear that the effects are not always the same. Some participants in the documentary claim to have been conscious during the attack but immobilized by chemical submission: “I was screaming inside but no sound came out of my mouth, I was locked in my body”, says Rénald, attacked at 17 years in a nightclub by an acquaintance whose advances he had rejected. But most victims say they lost consciousness, suffered from amnesia and blackouts. According to figures cited by France Televisionsone in two chemical submission victims remembers nothing. For her, “rape under chemical submission […] leaves no traces,” explains Caroline Darian.
In either case, drugs and medications render victims completely powerless to fight back and sometimes even erase memories of the assault. But how can we defend ourselves and obtain justice from violence that we do not know we have suffered? And how to become aware of it? This is one of the difficulties encountered by victims of chemical submission.
Chemical submission difficult to detect
Consulting a doctor for pain or disorders caused by assault, rape or ingested substances is not the guarantee of putting your finger on chemical submission, as the Pélicot affair demonstrated. “The fact that Gisèle Pelicot had, for years, been consulted for neurological disorders and that no one had looked for traces of toxic substances in her house questioned me. When talking about it with my colleagues in the office, I had to recognize that we wouldn’t have thought of it either,” Zoé admits in the documentary. Even a doctor's suspicion, a urine and/or blood test can only be conclusive within a few days of drug ingestion. After this time, no trace is detectable. Only a hair analysis can then assess the toxicology, but the examination is expensive and is only covered in the event of a complaint being filed.
More than a difficulty, it is an additional trauma. “The partial or total amnesia that drugs induce causes trauma, forcing victims to work in psychotherapy not on a traumatic memory, but on the traumatic absence of memory. Contrary to what one might believe, black holes do not are not protective and can resurface at any time,” explains one of the victims in the documentary. Chemical submission can lead victims to live with doubts and without ever recognizing the harm done to them or punishing the culprit.
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