The 50 rapists who could be any man

[Shouldnellly]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/dec/19/who-are-the-men-convicted-over-rape-and-assault-of-gisele-pelicot-

sickening to read of the normality of these men. From a tiny region. Everywhere

It's like the electric shock experiment they did after WW2 to see how much it would take for people to electrically shock and cause harm to another person Milgrams shock experiment I think it was and there were other similar ones, to see how people buckle to authority. Lots of participants needed little incentive, as soon as they found out they could cause harm without any consequences they were happy to do it.

It is only our laws and society standards that keep us (relatively) safe. This bloke offering his poor wife up with no consequences it's depressing, but doesn't suprise me that they went for it

I didn't read all the bios- too depressing- but of the ones I read, almost all had been abused themselves. Horrible.

Yes, horrible they then went on to inflict abuse on an unconscious woman but let’s not pretend it excuses their behaviour (not saying you were but someone will).

So your husband/male partner, father, brother, uncles males, cousins are all rapists?

I imagine that there were many more who didn't rape this lady despite being invited to, some of whom probably thought it was an awful thing to do - and yet none of them reported it.
So its actually a bigger problem than just the actual rapists, there are many men who just stay silent.

@Edingril "
So your husband/male partner, father, brother, uncles males, cousins are all rapists?"

Who knows?

I think men like to be able to say "Women do that too."
I wonder what percentage of men would do this if they thought they could get away with it.

I talked to DH about it. I’ve tried over the years to explain how it feels to be a woman. A man once said “I could rape you” to me and it made me realise it’s always there. After talking to DH about the consent - how it feels like a huge amount of men honestly believe if someone doesn’t (can’t) say no it’s a yes, I thought we were on the same page. Then he said, putting the consent to one side you wouldn’t have thought they’d want to have sex with a woman that old with her husband watching……and I wanted to cry. Honestly, a good man, no red flags, no backstory etc, but a male view based on male experience.

As the saying goes 'All dogs are capable of biting. You don't know which one will until it has". Same applies to men. All men

I'm not shocked in the slightest, and I'm not just saying that for "effect". It is definitely a true and accurate reflection of how many men live their lives and how they view women. It is what they would do when they thought they could get away with it, this is what men would do. Not all, but a lot. Once you realise this truly, in your heart, you view life differently.

It was interesting how few men were protesting outside the court.

Just what I said to my DH. I said I would have liked to have seen more men outside uniting with the women, but sadly no. And as for the defence lawyers verbally abusing the women, I have no words.

This reminds of a conversation with DH (who is an ex rugby prop and built like the proverbial shit house) when he casually mentioned that he has never once, since he was about 15, ever felt physically threatened or scared for his physical safety.

And I thought what a huge, unthinking privilege that must feel like.

A third of men admit that they would rape in a consequence-free scenario. Numbers increase if the questionnaire uses a euphemism or a scenario without consent without naming the action. So it’s a high proportion, and across their whole lives, with their behaviour underreported and excused by popular culture.
What would be needed is for male role models to characterise enthusiastic consent as a validation of masculinity and absence of it as weak and pathetic. We can’t change the culture on our own.

It was a lot more than 50 men, and all from a relatively small area, around 30 square miles.

When you extrapolate that information and consider how many men in any given area would be prepared to sexually abuse a woman if they thought they could get away with it... THAT is what we are up against as women.

It's fucking terrifying.

Bear in mind that nearly all rapists get away with it. Just look at the statistics.

Correction: not square miles, but 30 mile radius which is far smaller.

A lot of men are just vile. I truly believe many more men would rape if they thought they could get away with it, as evidenced by this case. People will say not all men, but it's enough men that it's hard to trust any of them. I also think the vast majority of men would date someone significantly younger if they'd have them and it was more acceptable.

I find men terrifying, honestly.

A 30 mile radius circle is 2,800 square miles.

Potentially, yes! As uncomfortable as it is to think that, and I would really hope they would be appalled at this, but none of us will ever know what they’re really thinking.

I’ve had my share of unpleasant encounters with sleazy men. I see how they behave in packs in town - few have the strength to call out their mates for poor behaviour towards women. Worse when they’re drunk. The leering, the groping, the “accidental” touching.

Enthusiastic consent. It’s not a difficult thing to understand.

Abuse is a cycle, HOWEVER, many girls and women have also been abused. The difference is the vast majority of girls don't grow up to commit violence or rape.

The older I get, the more repulsive I find men.

What's incredible is that at least fifty people knew this was happening, yet it remained a secret for 9 years and was only discovered by chance.

No secret is kept that well.

There's more to this story yet to emerge. Not least the other victims identified in the perpetrator's statements and the comments given by their current and former spouses and partners.

Abuse is a cycle, HOWEVER, many girls and women have also been abused. The difference is the vast majority of girls don't grow up to commit violence or rape.

Which undermines the idea of abuse being an inevitable cycle, if it was more women would go on to commit acts of violence and sexual harm. Yes abuse creates various degrees of vulnerability but people also choose their behaviours and these men actively chose to rape.

I was shocked by the number of men involved in this case and it has really made me wonder. There are also another 20 or so men out there who were not caught. It is frightening to think that this is far more “normal” than we like to think.

There was also the depressing attitude of the mayor or the local town.

I also think that French politicians have not spoken up enough about this appalling situation.

What gets me about these men, is the number who still say they didn’t intend to rape, or they aren’t rapists. That they didn’t know what consent was.

Sorry, but you are a rapist, and you did know what consent is. Consent is a series of positive affirmations that show the other person is enjoying the experience and has the cognitive ability to participate. Non of this was present.

They went online looking for a sick kick, and they found one. They went round to an elderly couples house and saw the woman lying there unresponsive. In the write ups there are poor excuses about not knowing what consent was, that they had poor Childhoods etc.

Boo hoo you f*cking sick rapists.

This is like a horror movie. I hope these men literally rot in jail and her DH ends up in the depths of hell where he belongs.

All us women can do is carry on with bringing men to account where we can, until eventually they realise that they aren’t getting away with things anymore and they’ll have to change their behaviour.

I know it's not what you meant, but I think it's important to point out that it's not consequence-free. It's consequence-free for them, but not for women. But of course that is the point - the consequences to women either don't matter at all, or they are worth it for men's pleasure.