A platform, signed by 200 men, proposes a “road map” against “male domination”

The writer Gaël Faye, the comedian Guillaume Meurice and the singer Eddy de Pretto notably signed this text published Saturday in Libération.

In response to the Mazan rape trial, a “road map” signed by more than 200 men, including the writer Gaël Faye, the comedian Guillaume Meurice and the singer Eddy de Pretto, was published on Saturday, September 21, by Release. We also find the actor and director Gilles Lellouche, the playwright Alexis Michalik, the rapper Vin’s, and the caregiver and writer Martin Winckler

Objective, according to the signatories of the text: “End male domination”. “The Pelicot affair proved to us that male violence is not a matter of monsters, it is a matter of men, of Mr. Everyman.”writes activist and therapist Morgan N. Lucas, who wrote this column. “To say ‘all men’ is to speak of systemic violence perpetrated by all men, because all men, without exception, benefit from a system that dominates women. And then“If we are all the problem, we can all be part of the solution,” he continues.

Without naming him, Morgan N. Lucas is responding in part to the comments of actor Vincent Lindon, who asked during an interview on France Inter in May for “a road map” to be a better ally of the women’s cause. “Here it is, given by a man to other men because we’re going to have to stop asking women to do the work for us.”writes the activist, listing in ten points the changes to be implemented.

“Let’s stop “Consider that women’s bodies are bodies at our disposal”, “Let’s take charge of our emotions, stop navel-gazing”, “Let’s unlearn what we have been taught, told about masculinity”… Among these ten tips, many have been used for a long time by feminist movements to achieve gender equality. “Let us examine our many privileges to put them at the service of the common good and then, in the long term, accept losing them completely.”we can still read. In conclusion, the text calls for making “all this in silence, without shouting it from the rooftops, without waiting for applause or congratulations.”

This last sentence, in particular, has caused a reaction from feminist activists. On Instagram, essayist Valérie Rey-Robert notes that “That’s what men write in a small confidential journal”highlighting the paradox between a call to act discreetly and the publication of a text in a national daily.

The reception is also mixed among figures of the French feminist movements. On Instagram, Caroline De Haas says “very, very uncomfortable“. “Every time a feminist initiative is launched or shared by men, we find among them violent people who see this as a way to ensure their impunity”she wrote in a post on Saturday. On the social network X, many Internet users share this concern. Finally, Caroline de Haas criticizes the use “contradictory” of the expression “not all men” and the voyeurism of the platform.

Others, like Camille Froidevaux-Metterie, welcome the initiative. In response to Caroline De Haas on Instagram, she deplores the criticism directed at men “as soon as they try to understand and join our fights”. For the author, feminists are thus depriving themselves “of support without which our struggles risk ebbing away, as after the conquest of civil and political rights, as after those of reproductive rights.”