Sexual harassment. Embarrassment, paternalism, silence ... how can men react

Silence, embarrassment, aggressiveness ... How do men react to harassing testimonials on social support systems? Decryption with the researcher in political science Alban Jacquemart. He is mcdougal of Men in Feminist Movements 

 

Embarrassment

"Some men show some embarrassment, question their very own attitude. Sometimes do their mea culpa. The amount of the average person stories, these violences suddenly revealed reveal a massive and structural phenomenon. "

 It is our society that makes these sexist and sexual assaults possible. It forces us to see what men did not need to know until then. This compels men to ask themselves: by my passivity, or my complicity only a little distant, did I, too, make these assaults possible? "

 

Paternalism

"You can find reactions of very violent, sexist, misogynist men. And then men, public, who show their support while saying that we must go further, or do differently. Do not talk about "pork" because it's too violent. Do not make public names because it's negative ...

 The essence of the media male speech adopts this attitude of overbearing, condescending, on the way in which women express themselves. A somewhat paternalistic attitude. Which, basically, reproduces once more the original patterns of domination.

 Moreover, these men who spoke today had never seen fit to seize sexual violence before, while feminist associations have already been fighting for years. They'd never seized it. They seem to complete it today as the subject is debated in the general public space. Suddenly, they seize it. They should be there. "

Silence

"There is also, in some men, a relative silence, perhaps due to this difficulty to intervene without falling into this trap of recovery. Exactly what do I say, as a person, that's not just a reproduction of male domination, paternalism etc.? ? There could be guilty silences, but in addition virtuous silences. "

 

Fragile

"Undoubtedly this movement weakens men. It destabilizes traditional gender relations, the area dedicated to men and ladies in society. Women suddenly denounce their attackers, sometimes by naming their names. This is simply not common in the general public space.

The women say: now we can tell you our limits, we shall express ourselves. Despite all of the progress that society has made, it is relatively subversive for them. "

Change

"Should we believe a possible evolution? It is a fact: every one of these aggressions are manufactured possible by the structure of society, marked by male domination. But the problem is both collective and individual.

As a person, you will find approaches to take part in change. By refusing, specifically, to instill, by the joke, the sometimes light tone, the camaraderie between men, this proven fact that your body of women can be acquired to men. The mere fact of refusing that, at the office, in the family, is just a method of initiating a change. It can be the amount of individual attitudes that'll reverse the situation.

Extent

"Several things have contributed to the truth that the movement is now so big. During the time of Dominique Strauss-Kahn (DSK), we were less inclined to know the language of a black housekeeper, Nafissatou Diallo, whose words were immediately questioned. Conversely, we hear more easily today the language of victims that are actresses, white, popular, often rich, known internationally ...

 There was, also, the ability of social support systems, the mass phenomenon generated by the hashtags #MeToo  which facilitated the testimony, in a training movement. Add to that particular a period that has evolved.

Lately, there has been the DSK case, but in addition the Baupin case, the polemics recurring on Roman Polanski, One of the Inrocks on Bertrand Cantat who caused a scandal ... The business might be more aged to handle these issues but these mutations are fragile. If the movement goes in the proper direction, we cannot talk about revolution yet. "