France explores legislation to combat street harassment
Country considers proposals to fine men for catcalls, extend protections for minors
On Friday afternoon, journalist Sandra Muller turned to Twitter to recall a humiliating and inappropriate sexual come-on from a powerful French executive.
“You have big breasts. You are my type of woman. I will make you orgasm all night,” she quoted him as having said, adding the hashtag #BalanceTonPorc, or “Expose Your Pig.”
By Tuesday, tens of thousands of Frenchwomen had heeded that call, posting disturbing accounts of sexual harassment and abuse, although most stopped short of identifying their harassers.
This response to the scandal engulfing Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein was akin to the Twitter outpouring in North America and elsewhere under the hashtag #MeToo.
In France, however, where a chauvinistic culture has long enabled powerful men to misbehave with impunity, the social-media debate may push forward changes not only in the culture but also in the law.
Proposals are under discussion to fine men for aggressive catcalling or lecherous behaviour toward women in public, to extend the statute of limitations in cases of sexual assault involving minors and to create a new age ceiling under which minors cannot legally consent to a sexual relationship.
Marlène Schiappa, a feminist and writer who is France’s junior minister for gender equality, said Monday that the government was considering precisely how to define street harassment and how much a fine should be. The government would consult legal professionals on its pro- posals and hold citizen workshops across the country, she said, aiming to put measures before parliament next year.
Some commentators argued that sexual-harassment accusations would be better handled in a courtroom than on social media.
“Denouncing sexual harassment on a social network with a hashtag isn’t the appropriate place at all,” Christophe Noël, a labour lawyer, warned on France Info.
“It can rebound on the accuser and create an open door to excesses and defamation.”
Two lawyers for the executive Muller named in her tweet demanded Tuesday that she delete it; one of the lawyers, Nicolas Bénoit, called her accusation a case of defamation but declined to comment further. The executive did not respond to requests for an interview.
Sandrine Rousseau, a former leader of the French Green Party and leading advocate for victims of sexual ha- rassment, said the Weinstein case had particular resonance in France because women had suffered in silence for so long.
Rousseau was one of a dozen women who in 2016 accused a Green Party legislator, Denis Baupin, of sexual harassment, saying he had pushed her up against a wall and kissed her against her will. Baupin, who resigned as vice-president of France’s National Assembly, denied the accusations and the case was dropped on the grounds that too much time had elapsed.
“The Weinstein revelations have had a strong echo in France, because what used to be seen as naughtiness is now being considered as sexual harassment,” Rousseau said.