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Did you ever wonder about your husband after the Gisele Pelicot case?

249 replies

Seymorbutts · 30/09/2026 11:08

I’m a lesbian (thank god!) so I’ve got no skin in this game but I read something on here earlier about the sheer number of seemingly ordinary men who participated in the rape of Gisele Pelicot. I’m assuming their own wives had no idea either. It’s not only horrific but got me wondering are most men actually like this, walking around pretending to be normal but actually have these sick fantasies they’re just waiting for the opportunity to act out? And that got me wondering if you’re married to a man, did the Gisele Pelicot case ever lead you to suspect your own husband could have ever done anything like this, if not to you, to another woman? If so, how did you cope with it?

OP posts:
ThatGoldFox · 01/10/2026 00:01

If I believed my dh could do that I wouldn't be with him.

Harissaontoast · 01/10/2026 06:49

I think it's interesting that lots of people are saying 'surely we would have heard of more cases?'.

There are loads. One of the reasons Mme Pelicot's case got so much attention is that her husband invited strangers. There are lots and lots of these cases where it's the husband who drugs and rapes his partner without inviting strangers. They don't make the news.

If you presented at the Dr with recurring UTIs and fatigue, what do you think they would say? I guarantee they wouldn't suggest it was because you were being systematically raped.

endeyecheck.org/

But the stranger cases we know about are the tip of the iceberg. There's been an international cooperation project between police forces set up to identify these groups online because there are so many. Mr Pelicot did not have to look very far to find men to participate. They were all right there, in their local area.

I think virtually all men either participate or are bystanders to rape culture. Do they call out every comment in their football WhatsApp group? I would be very surprised. A 'hey, that's not cool' loses you friends, a promotion, social cachet for not adequately performing manhood. I am sure people will come on and say their DH always does, and maybe he does, but unless you're with him every day, all day, you wouldn't know.

Lugol · 01/10/2026 07:07

I'm sure someone has already mentioned it but there was a website that was a 'rape academy' teaching men how to drug and rape their wives and it received approximately 62 million visits in February 26 and peaked at over 80 million visits before March 26 so clearly somebody's husbands are visiting it.

Mooselove · 01/10/2026 08:17

EmeraldShamrock000 · 30/09/2026 20:51

For the definitely not voters, the point is, it isn’t obvious.
None of the women who were drugged raped knew. Many thought they were ill as the drugging starts earlier.
Ms Pelicot believed that she had a loyal attentive husband.
It hasn’t happened to me to date. I trust DH. I also know that these things can happen to anyone unfortunately now these date rape sedatives are so accessible on the dark web.

Well it is obvious to me that no, definitely my DH would not do this nor would he ignore it if he knew someone else was doing it.

Not all men are scrum although many on here seem to think that

BinturongsSmellOfPopcorn · 01/10/2026 09:00

JaneJaneAnne · 30/09/2026 12:37

That’s a very poor comparison.

A women is raped every two minutes in England and Wales, there’s a sexual assault every 30 seconds.

If you ask men to self report sexual aggression (rape, assault, coercion, harassment) it’s about 1 in 20.

About 1% of murders are poisonings.

It's way, way worse than 1 in 20, if you're careful about assuring them of anonymity and about avoiding 'bad words' that they know they're meant to deny.

Under those conditions a US study of male college/university students found 1 in 6 (33%) will admit to having raped; 1 in 3 (66%) that they would rape if they knew for certain there would be no consequences. A meta analysis covering more countries and a wider age range gave lower but still horrifying figures (from memory it was around 1 in 12 [8%]/1 in 5 [20%]).

Widen the criteria to cover all attempts to force/coerce/trick women into unwanted sex - whether successful or not - and this study of US/Canadian students found 95% of men had tried it. Of these attempts, 65% were successful. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/08862605261432630

And that only counted attempts on women with whom they did not have a current or previous relationship.

Girlwithavibe · 01/10/2026 09:07

ArtyBartFast · 30/09/2026 23:01

Weirdly when he told me he was going off with someone else I was devastated. Before i felt trapped and powerless to change things. I accepted the sulking and coercion as normal.

Now I'm fucking delighted he's not sexually assaulting me any more but I'm horrified I put up with it and that I still have to have anything to do with him because of DC.

He's still with the woman he cheated on me with AFAIK. Feel a bit sorry for her given his lack of interest in consent. I do not expect she'd take a warning from me.

Happy that your out of it thou ☺️
Men can be so manipulative can't they !
I'm glad I met my DH he honestly is one of the decent ones I count myself lucky I'm with him x

dontforgetofeedthecat · 01/10/2026 09:15

I think virtually all men either participate or are bystanders to rape culture.

wow

The scariest part is that some posters actually believe that's true!

escapegoats · 01/10/2026 09:18

dontforgetofeedthecat · 01/10/2026 09:15

I think virtually all men either participate or are bystanders to rape culture.

wow

The scariest part is that some posters actually believe that's true!

Having twice been on a crowded train carriage where the only person to step in and deal with a sexual assault on a teenage girl was me (and I am small and disabled) I am afraid I have learnt that most men will just look the other way

I was also groped on quite a number of occasions as a late teen/early twenties girl on nights out and not once did another man intervene to stop it

dontforgetofeedthecat · 01/10/2026 09:18

Lugol · 01/10/2026 07:07

I'm sure someone has already mentioned it but there was a website that was a 'rape academy' teaching men how to drug and rape their wives and it received approximately 62 million visits in February 26 and peaked at over 80 million visits before March 26 so clearly somebody's husbands are visiting it.

clearly

and so are the many women, journalists, and other men who wanted to see the content by themselves?

How do you think it came out in the news?

80 million visits doesn't mean 80 million rapists.

nomas · 01/10/2026 09:47

Passaggressfedup · 30/09/2026 13:26

but got me wondering are most men actually like this, walking around pretending to be normal but actually have these sick fantasies they’re just waiting for the opportunity to act out?
Don't you think that if most men were like this, that a case like this would have come out of the woods before.

It hasn't because thank god, this is exceptionally rare and I hope there won't be another such horrific one for a long time.

No because the statistics don’t support it
Do people genuinely think like this? Because it makes no sense. I've just been told that my risk of medical heart incident of any sort are under 2%. Do I think it therefore can't possibly happen? Of course, just that's unlikely. I still take all precautions to keep it like that.

It’s not exceptionally are, there is a whole website dedicated to men filming their unconscious wives and girlfriends and having sex with them.

Chickpeacurrywithrice · 01/10/2026 09:48

No!

Branleuse · 01/10/2026 09:59

I do not suspect my husband would do this.
We've been together ages and we used to do a lot of kinky stuff years ago and so I think I know his sexual likes and dislikes pretty well. He wouldn't want me unconscious. He would never enjoy watching another man doing anything to me, and I definitely don't sleep soundly or reliably enough that he's ever knocking me out with sleepers.
Also the dogs would go nuts.

I do agree that most men are inherently untrustworthy and unsafe compared to women though.

AliasGrape · 01/10/2026 10:08

dontforgetofeedthecat · 01/10/2026 09:15

I think virtually all men either participate or are bystanders to rape culture.

wow

The scariest part is that some posters actually believe that's true!

Nope, in a thread that highlights the sheer endemic levels of sexual and other violence directed towards women and girls, in which both horrifying recent news stories and awful personal stories are being shared, and in a week in which we are hearing about the 7 college students in the US who raped an unconscious woman for SEVEN HOURS, publicising it on a group chat to 57 men who did absolutely nothing to stop it, and whose only punishment was to be asked to write an essay about it - the fact that (some) posters think badly of men is not even close to the scariest thing.

It’s disturbing that you think that would be the worst/ scariest thing about this honestly.

It’s true that virtually all men are bystanders to rape culture - sure they might pontificate loudly about what they’d do to the ‘bad guys’ and how they’re not like that, maybe they wouldn’t actually rape themselves - but would they put pressure on a woman to have sex when she didn’t want to? Would they sulk if they didn’t get what they wanted? If they knew a friend would do these things would they call him out and stop being friends with him? Do they stop listening to music by, watching films by, or supporting teams in which the stars have been shown to be violent towards women? If their mate posts a vile meme or degrading joke about women in the group chat do they say ‘why would you share that and why would you think it was ok?’ Or do they just laugh along even if privately they think it’s wrong?

Why have they all gone quiet about the Epstein files? Where are they protesting on the streets against the rapist currently sitting in the White House or the proven domestic abuser still playing premier league football? Where exactly are they speaking out about this shit?

Did I ever for a second think my husband capable of such acts? No, and I still don’t. But he could do more to call other men out, he could do more to solve what is a MALE problem, and so could most men I reckon.

EmeraldShamrock000 · 01/10/2026 10:16

Mooselove · 01/10/2026 08:17

Well it is obvious to me that no, definitely my DH would not do this nor would he ignore it if he knew someone else was doing it.

Not all men are scrum although many on here seem to think that

I would say the same thing about mine. I trust him with my life.
Unfortunately there are women out there who trusted their DH too and ended up in this situation.

PollyBell · 01/10/2026 10:27

So if women think there male partnes are like this why on earth do you have kods with them? These men would then be fathers of children, don't women care about children?

Passaggressfedup · 01/10/2026 10:29

Oh okay, one website! 🤣

dontforgetofeedthecat · 01/10/2026 10:31

AliasGrape · 01/10/2026 10:08

Nope, in a thread that highlights the sheer endemic levels of sexual and other violence directed towards women and girls, in which both horrifying recent news stories and awful personal stories are being shared, and in a week in which we are hearing about the 7 college students in the US who raped an unconscious woman for SEVEN HOURS, publicising it on a group chat to 57 men who did absolutely nothing to stop it, and whose only punishment was to be asked to write an essay about it - the fact that (some) posters think badly of men is not even close to the scariest thing.

It’s disturbing that you think that would be the worst/ scariest thing about this honestly.

It’s true that virtually all men are bystanders to rape culture - sure they might pontificate loudly about what they’d do to the ‘bad guys’ and how they’re not like that, maybe they wouldn’t actually rape themselves - but would they put pressure on a woman to have sex when she didn’t want to? Would they sulk if they didn’t get what they wanted? If they knew a friend would do these things would they call him out and stop being friends with him? Do they stop listening to music by, watching films by, or supporting teams in which the stars have been shown to be violent towards women? If their mate posts a vile meme or degrading joke about women in the group chat do they say ‘why would you share that and why would you think it was ok?’ Or do they just laugh along even if privately they think it’s wrong?

Why have they all gone quiet about the Epstein files? Where are they protesting on the streets against the rapist currently sitting in the White House or the proven domestic abuser still playing premier league football? Where exactly are they speaking out about this shit?

Did I ever for a second think my husband capable of such acts? No, and I still don’t. But he could do more to call other men out, he could do more to solve what is a MALE problem, and so could most men I reckon.

I stand by my point

It's disturbing that you make everything a MALE problem
putting everyone in the same bag
AND removing any role from us. Why, we don't have a voice? We can't express ourselves, we can't protest as well?

Where are they protesting on the streets against the rapist currently sitting in the White House are you? What's stopping you?

thisismeithinkorisit · 01/10/2026 10:52

Well it's unlikely anyone, including Gisele Pelicot, thought this was happening they'd no longer be in a relationship with them, not excluding abuse etc where they can't get away. Same at the Cornell57. We all have to believe OUR partner wouldn't be complicit.

Sadly, without fitting cameras and reading phones, you never know.

Finding out what my Dad did when I was a child, it totally changed my faith in people.

But of course I still don't bleeive DH would, and I believe I'm raising boys who would have intervened or called for help for Jane Doe.

VeterinaryCareAssistant · 01/10/2026 10:56

CremeDeMure · 30/09/2026 11:14

No.
My husband has many, many flaws but it has never occurred to me that he could be a rapist. He would no longer be my husband if I thought he could.

There have been women who have posted on MN about waking up to find their husbands having sex (raping) with them. I assume in at least some of those situations, they have been drugged.

I've been woken by sex, and I've woken my partner by giving blow jobs. We're in a relationship not randoms off the street.

thisismeithinkorisit · 01/10/2026 11:04

HalzTangz · 30/09/2026 23:24

There is 4.17 billion men in the world and 72 involved in this case. I would take from that the number of men who rape are very much in the minority

You say that like this is the only rape case in history.

72 men raping one woman.
7 men raping 1 woman whilst 50 ignored / wanked off to the thought of it.
71227 rapes reported in 2024 in the UK
127527 rapes reported in 2024 in the USA
40487 in Aus
42500 in S Africa
29536 in India
7112 in Norway

REPORTED.

I don't think it's all men, or even most men, but let's not pretend it's 72.

Heysham1 · 01/10/2026 11:05

DeftGoldHedgehog · 01/10/2026 00:01

I don't know what the OP wants from this thread. Oh shit yeah, DH might be a rapist, we'll all get divorced and become lesbians just in case?

The dumbest post of the entire thread. Well done 👍

slugjelly · 01/10/2026 11:07

Like a pp, my exh tried to have sex with me while I slept (and perhaps succeeded on nights I didn’t wake)— especially when I was prescribed sleeping pills after my dad died. He is a monster and I don’t doubt he would do it again to the next person, or worse.

PollyBell · 01/10/2026 11:08

Heysham1 · 01/10/2026 11:05

The dumbest post of the entire thread. Well done 👍

I don't see why what is expected 'yeah sure i think my husband is like her husband but we are TTC and we have a lunch planned on Sunday and we need to pay the rent so I will just ignore that fact' what are people meant to say?

Error404FucksNotFound · 01/10/2026 11:10

ThePeppyOpalScroller · 30/09/2026 23:46

And?

And what?

dontforgetofeedthecat · 01/10/2026 11:19

Heysham1 · 01/10/2026 11:05

The dumbest post of the entire thread. Well done 👍

yours?

Yes.

Insulting someone without bringing anything to the discussion is a bit childish isn't it

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