Clémentine Autain: "Our political culture favors violent acts against women"<

Grandstand. I am astonished at so many astonishments. The political #metoo, calling for "removing the perpetrators of sexual and gender-based violence" from political life [tribune published in Le Monde on November 16] triggered a wave of amazement that reflects a dramatic misunderstanding.

How can we ignore that our political culture favors acts of violence against women? Already in 2011, commentators followed one another to express their disbelief in the Dominique Strauss-Kahn affair. We remember, there was “no death of a man” [according to former minister Jack Lang], and if the boss of the International Monetary Fund had “jumped a chambermaid, that does not concern us [ait ] not” [according to journalist Olivier Mazerolle]. As I had vigorously denounced, the invisible victim, Nafissatou Diallo, was not entitled to any word of compassion, except for very rare expressions. Ten years later, the #metoo surge having passed by, the women who testified against Nicolas Hulot receive more consideration and empathy. But the expressions of bewilderment are still there, as if it were so difficult to imagine that a man of power could thus violate women.

Yet we should know: historical heritage and cultural practices feed sexual violence in the political world. Contrary to popular belief, the high level of education and integration of bourgeois codes in no way protects against sexist predation. The political world is even shaped by symbolism and social codes that weave a backdrop conducive to the oppression of women.

Dependency report

Formerly because they were formally excluded from it, today, since it is men who still essentially hold the reins of apparatuses, positions and decisions, women's access to politics passes through their relations with men. This relationship of dependence is both very concrete and deeply rooted in our imaginations. Male self-segregation is a matter of simple social reproduction and the costume of the political leader remains calibrated for virility. Possessing women is part of the panoply of a man of power worthy of the name.

Well placed to remind us of reactionary inertia, Eric Zemmour writes in his latest book that “in a traditional society, men's sexual appetite goes hand in hand with power; women are the goal and the booty of every gifted man who aspires to rise in society”. And often, the domination of one sex over the other is doubled by that of the age of maturity over youth. The literature is full of stories to this effect, and the reality of concrete examples.

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