A woman’s book-length account of being molested at the age of 14 by a noted French literary figure has prompted a reckoning in the country over attitudes toward child sexual abuse. Last Thursday saw the publication of Vanessa Springora’s Le Consentement (or Consent), which details how the author was allegedly groomed into a quote-unquote “relationship” by celebrated writer Gabriel Matzneff, then 50, whom she calls a “predator.” That a book detailing such vile acts has sparked outrage in France isn’t surprising—except that its revelations are not new. Matzneff has long been vocal about, by the definition of United States law, sexually abusing children (in his own delusional terms: having sex with children).
Some pronounce that it “was a different time back then.” But the exploitation of power, in its many forms, isn’t so morally tenuous.
France’s legal approach to child sexual abuse, Matzneff’s writing, and the cultural embrace of his work all have to be viewed within a troubling historical context. As thepoints out, “Matzneff is the product and longtime beneficiary of France’s May 68 movement, the social revolution started in 1968 by students and unions against France’s old order.” That movement challenged authority and “fought against imperialism, capitalism, racism, sexism and homophobia.
olds, and landed such noted co-signatories as Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, and Roland Barthes. At the time, defenders of child sexual abuse believed “that France had an ‘aristocracy’ that was not bound to ordinary norms of conduct,” explains the. The “ordinary French appeared revolted by the apologists,” but “writers were considered part of this elite and were even expected to engage in acts of moral transgression.
The sudden reconsideration of Matzneff is happening within France’s unique political and historical context, but there is also broader resonance here. As we saw with MeToo, individual allegations of abuse and the moving personal accounts of victims have the power to introduce sudden perspective. They can shed new, harsh light on behaviors previously tolerated or considered an “open secret.” They can even recast behaviors previously romanticized and celebrated. Suddenly, people begin asking: How did anyone ever think that was OK?Of course, some then cry that the rules have unfairly changed overnight.
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