#MeToo In France is seen as a loss of speed: NPR

As a budding young soprano in the 1990s, Anne-Sophie Schmidt was chosen to perform the lead role in an opera directed by renowned Swiss conductor Charles Dutoit and the National Orchestra of France. It was a great honor to work with Dutoit, she says.

But then the harassment started.

After a concert, said Schmidt, Dutoit pushed her against a wall and kissed her by force and groped her.

"At first, I was just trying to eliminate the situation and I distanced myself from Dutoit," explains Schmidt. "But I had the main role, so I had to work very closely with him on the breathing and the tempo, he understood that I was trying to push him away and he started to be really mean, trying to humiliate me in front of the orchestra saying things like I was singing falsely. "

Schmidt, then aged 29, called her husband to attend each rehearsal and performance. She says that so enraged Dutoit that he fired her.

She did not think about protesting or filing a complaint, she said, because in the 1990s, no one would have thought or indifferent.

"France has clearly not had its account"

Today, France is still looking for ways to recognize and prevent sexual harassment and abuse against women.

The government now has a gender-equal minister, Marlene Schiappa, who enacted a law to punish street harassment of up to 750 euros (about 840 dollars). ). Schiappa announced last month that the courts had inflicted nearly 450 fines in the last eight months.

With regard to women's equality, the country presents a mixed picture: studies suggest that France has the highest percentage of women on the labor market in Europe and that the country seems to be preparing it to succeed.

Mothers can return to work if they wish, thanks to the country's good childcare system. And universal public education begins at 3 years old.

The pay gap between women and men persists: French women earned on average 15.2% less than men in 2016, according to the statistics agency of the European Union.

Overall, many women in France believe that the # MeToo movement is not up to their expectations.

Consider what happened after Schmidt's experience with Dutoit. In late 2017, several women around the world came forward and accused Dutoit, now 82, of being harassed for 20 years. Schmidt is publicly speaking for the first time, in January 2018, adding his voice to theirs.

The San Francisco Philharmonic broke ties with Dutoit at the end of 2017, as did the Boston Philharmonic and the Royal Philharmonic in London. The Montreal Philharmonic said that an internal investigation into allegations of misconduct was not conclusive.

But in February, the Orchester National de France brought back Dutoit, after his principal conductor found himself ill, for a highly anticipated performance of Berlioz. The damnation of Faust.

Schmidt says that it was like a "slap".

"It's outrageous when you see that in France, and with the same orchestra, you hire an old man who is accused of sexual abuse by more than 10 people," she says. "Yet we bring it back against the will of the orchestra.France has obviously ignored sexual harassment.This country thinks that it is normal to lay hands on the breast of 39, a woman. "

Dutoit denied all the charges against him. This month, he begins a new term as Principal Guest Conductor of the St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra (Russia).

"On your pig"

The #MeToo movement in France went through the hashtag #BalanceTonPorc or "out your pig". This expression was invented by the French journalist Sandra Muller, based in New York.

"In France, when a woman speaks, she is perceived as a liar or perhaps hysterical," she says.

Muller says it's hard to change the mentality in France. She cites the example of producer and filmmaker Luc Besson, 60, who has been repeatedly accused of sexual assault and even rape by actresses and other women. Besson denies the accusations and continues to work. But one of his accusers brought rape charges a second time after a judge dismissed his first charges. The case is still going on.

Beyond this, French women have sometimes been unfavorable to other victims of violence. Last year, a group of personalities, including actress Catherine Deneuve, wrote an open letter in which it was written that the # MeToo movement had gone too far. They said that men should have the right to be men. (Deneuve is excused later.)

In 2011, France had its first major report with the sexual misdeeds of the powerful. Dominique Strauss-Kahn, then head of the International Monetary Fund and considered a serious candidate for the post of President of France, was accused of sexually assaulting a hotelier in New York. The charges were dropped after the agreement of Strauss-Kahn and the hotel worker, Nafissatou Diallo.

The scandal has divided France and many have discovered for the first time the harassment that women face, even from seemingly respectable men.

Prosecute the accusers

"The excuse we hear in France is that we have the French type of seduction, and that you can not tell men that they can not seduce women, because that's part of our culture and our tradition and blah, blah, blah "Isabelle Attard, former member of Parliament.

Attard won a seat in the Green Party in 2012 and left Brittany to settle in Paris. She remembers being impressed when she met for the first time Denis Baupin, a strong supporter of the party.

"I was the young politician who did not know anyone and he was the famous member of the Green Party, the expert," she said.

The harassment started immediately, says Attard.

"After only one day, I started to receive [text messages] Baupin, "she says. It lasted a year. And it was more than seduction. It was allusions to sexual acts. And every time during this year, I tried to readjust the conversation on professional topics, and I said "no" a few times and it never stopped. "

Attard published his story before the end of the # MeToo movement. Several other women then joined her in accusing Baupin of misconduct, including trial and error and sexual harassment. Their charges exceeded the statute of limitations, so that they could not lay charges against him.

And then something incredible happened, says Attard: Baupin sued his accusers – and the journalists who had written about the women's experiences with him – for defamation.

"It's very strange, because the journalists who broke the [Harvey] The Weinstein scandal had the Pulitzer prize, "says Attard. They won a prize. And conversely, in France, the two journalists who did the work go to court. "

The end of impunity?

The women were successful at the end of April. Attard says that Baupin never even went to trial. According to her, the verdict marks the end of the pre-#Toooo's impunity. She hopes that the true calculation of France is coming.

Last spring, France was shocked by the revelations of a secret boy journalists' club that had been mocking and harassing women during an online harassment campaign. This happened ten years ago, but was unearthed when one of the victims finally spoke up. Several of the authors have made a public apology and have been suspended from their media.

The director of marketing, Matthias Jambon-Puillet, in his early thirties, was one of the few men targeted by the online group, known as the "League of LOL". He had tried to defend one of the women.

Ham-Puillet says that the French, like all men, often abuse their power with women because they believe that it is so that they are supposed to act.

"When you grow up, you should be charming, sexy and sexy and have a lot of relationships," he says. "When I was younger, the word" conquest "was used a lot.Men think that they should try to get as many women as possible and if she says no, you should try to break her up. becomes a trip for the ego. "

But Jambon-Puillet thinks things are changing.

"It's good for the youngest, between the ages of 15 and 20, to hear about #MeToo and hear the media say it's so wrong," he says.

According to Jambon-Puillet, the #MeToo movement may not have caused an earthquake in France, but it gradually influences a whole new generation of women and men. He says that they will never endure what has been accepted before.