{"id":15632,"date":"2019-03-08T04:28:40","date_gmt":"2019-03-08T04:28:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=15632"},"modified":"2019-03-09T06:27:21","modified_gmt":"2019-03-09T06:27:21","slug":"frances-everyday-sexism-starts-at-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/frances-everyday-sexism-starts-at-school\/","title":{"rendered":"France’s ‘everyday sexism’ starts at school"},"content":{"rendered":"

B\u00e9reng\u00e8re Stassin<\/a>, Universit\u00e9 de Lorraine<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

In France, the #MeToo movement has a livelier name: #BalanceTonPorc, or \u201cName and Shame Your Pig<\/a>.\u201d It inspired hundreds of women to denounce sexual harassment on the streets and in the boardroom.<\/p>\n

The latest workplace harassment scandal, exposed online in mid-February, involved France\u2019s so-called \u201cLOL League\u201d \u2013 an anonymous boys club in the media industry<\/a> \u2013 that in 2010 began bullying female colleagues online.<\/p>\n

Prominent news editors, including the managing editor of the French edition of Slate<\/a> and of the venerable news daily Lib\u00e9ration, had targeted female colleagues on Twitter and on Facebook, mocking them on their looks and ethnic origins or making sexist and racist slurs.<\/p>\n

Many of these men had since climbed up in hierarchy in the news business, and, as #MeToo unfolded in 2017 and 2018, claimed that they were feminists.<\/p>\n

France\u2019s everyday sexism<\/h2>\n

Sexism is an everyday occurrence in France, where clothing advertisements<\/a> still use sex to sell products and men comment on women\u2019s looks at the office and on the streets. Lewd comments are often defended as \u201cjust flirting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Flirtation was the argument some prominent French women \u2013 including actor Catherine Deneuve \u2013 have used to denounce #MeToo. In an open letter<\/a> published in January 2018, 100 women denounced #MeToo as a puritan witch hunt, driven by a hatred of men, and claimed that French culture was simply different<\/a>, more sexually expressive, than American culture.<\/p>\n

\"\"
A recent ad by the French brand Temps des Cerises triggered outrage when it updated France\u2019s revolutionary motto, \u2018Liberty, Equality, Fraternity\u2019 by replacing the last word with the phrase \u2018nice butt.\u2019<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Feminists across France rushed to defend #MeToo\u2019s goals of exposing workplace misogyny and holding sexual harassers accountable. By summer 2018, thanks to their efforts, France passed a law criminalizing street harassment<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But the French backlash against #MeToo demonstrated a certain confusion in the country between what constitutes sexual freedom and what constitutes abuse.<\/p>\n

In France, studies show<\/a>, the tendency to pass off sexual harassment as harmless flirtation starts as early as primary school<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sexual violence at school<\/h2>\n

Children do not always understand the difference between an intimate touch that is a consensual act of sexual discovery and a nonconsensual, inappropriate touch. And violence and harassment that take other forms \u2013 insults, mockery and rumors \u2013 are particularly hard for children to identify, and for adults to detect.<\/p>\n

Both boys and girls may be subjected to sexism or sexual violence in the guise of a joke or of a game.<\/p>\n

Recently, students in a school near Paris were all playing a game they\u2019d learned on the social network Snapchat. It consisted of touching the other children\u2019s private parts to earn \u201cpoints.\u201d During \u201cAss Day<\/a>,\u201d as the students called it, boys and girls allowed each other to touch or squeeze their genitals.<\/p>\n

Not participating in this \u201cgame\u201d was not really an option.<\/p>\n

One female student told a school guard she did not consent to being touched. He looked the other way, and the groping continued. Even after school, the girl was trailed by boys trying to touch her on her way home.<\/p>\n

She informed her parents, who went public with the story.<\/p>\n

Cyberbullying<\/h2>\n

Other common coerced sexual encounters between students include forced kisses and voyeurism, especially spying on the boys\u2019 or girls\u2019 bathroom.<\/p>\n

Smartphones and social networks<\/a> put the tools of voyeurism in kids\u2019 pockets.<\/p>\n

Online variations of the bathroom peeping Tom include upskirting<\/a> \u2013 when kids snap pictures up a girl\u2019s skirt \u2013 and creepshotting<\/a>, or taking a picture of a woman\u2019s cleavage without her knowledge<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cRevenge porn<\/a>\u201d \u2013 when angry friends, school bullies or ex-partners post sexually explicit photos of a person without their content \u2013 is another danger children face on social networks.<\/p>\n

In January 2018, about 50 high school girls in the eastern French region of Strasbourg<\/a> discovered nude pictures of themselves \u2013 previously shared only with friends or boyfriends \u2013 published on Snapchat and Facebook groups linked to the school.<\/p>\n

Boys are not the only ones to ridicule girls for their sexuality, a form of harassment known as slut shaming<\/a>. In a bid to earn male approval and popularity, girls, too, post revenge porn and circulate upskirts<\/a> at the expense of their female classmates.<\/p>\n

Stereotypes create violence<\/h2>\n

Tension and aggressive behavior<\/a> among teens is attributable to various factors in their development: puberty, identity building, peer group influence, seduction games.<\/p>\n

But gender stereotypes are at the heart of this problem, too.<\/p>\n

Stereotypes about how men and women should behave are conveyed by the media, at home and in the classroom<\/a>. In France, teachers\u2019<\/a> own internalized sexism may unintentionally lead them to enforce social norms about \u201cflirtation\u201d and the stereotypical roles of boys and girls.<\/p>\n

This hurts boys, too. In France, where men are expected to display their sexual dominance<\/a>, boys considered insufficiently \u201cmanly<\/a>\u201d can become victims of bullying and sexual violence.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe socialization of boys draws two distinct groups,\u201d says the French educator Eric Debarbieux<\/a>. \u201cThose who manage to show their strength, to be the strongest, the most virile; and others who risk being downgraded to the category of sub-human, or \u2018fags.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n