Society has its own — curated — ideas about villains and victims. It will not be an exaggeration to suggest that the Gisèle Pelicot case in France has dismantled such unthinking, received ideas regarding villainy and victimhood. Last week, Dominique Pelicot was sentenced to 20 years in prison after he was found guilty of having spent a decade drugging Ms Pelicot, his former wife, and organising for strangers he met online to rape her unconscious body. Fifty of Pelicot’s co-defendants were found guilty too, and have been given prison sentences of different magnitude. Pelicot and his horde — ordinary men with mundane jobs and lives — do not fit the image of the archetypal villain. But the depth of their criminality and perversion not only raises questions about the problematic nature of the male gaze and desire but also reveals that evil is often cloaked in the garb of the mundane.
But the story, in this instance, is not about the triumph of evil. It is essentially about Ms Pelicot’s heroism and her resurrection. Her conduct in the course of what must rank as the most difficult hour of her life has been exemplary. She confronted not just the violation of her body but the potential crushing of her spirit with courage and equanimity that are singular. Her decision to shun her anonymity and for the trial to be held publicly bear evidence of power — not of powerlessness that is usually associated with victims of sexual assault. That she liberated herself from the chokehold of shame which comes in the wake of abuse spoke of a steely will. Ms Pelicot, in fact, was battling multiple adversaries: not just her violators, including the man she had been married to and had a family with, but also the toxic, global culture of silencing abused women whose voices need to be heard urgently. Her ordeal did not diminish her empathy or her inner humanity. She is on record stating that she wanted the trial to ignite a debate on such crimes and their grey areas; this, in her opinion, is necessary for the unveiling of a future in which men and women would be able to live in harmony on the basis of mutual respect. Justice, mercifully, has not eluded Ms Pelicot. But the questions she and her trial have raised must continue to inform public debate and policy.