The Mazan rape trial brings to light the chemical submission of a woman by her husband who orchestrated her rape. While the defense lawyers and the 51 accused continue to make fanciful denials, despite overwhelming evidence, we can wonder what is the role of our collective imagination in sexual violence, particularly when the fantasy of domination takes such extreme forms. .
In mythology, the gods cannot resist sleeping beauties. Hypnos the God of sleep takes advantage of his power, Zeus seduces the sleeping Leda by taking the form of a swan. Ariadne is abandoned by Theseus on the island of Naxos; Dionysus is conquered by her beauty while she is asleep. For enchantresses, like Melusine, sleep corresponds to a time when they are vulnerable. Let us also remember that Hypnos is brother of Thanatos, god of death.
Conversely, the women of mythology do not have the right to surprise the man in his sleep. Psyche tries to see the monster she was forced to take as a husband. She approaches while he is sleeping and discovers that it is the beautiful Eros, god of love. She is immediately punished by trials which notably force her to go to the underworld, to steal a little of Persephone’s beauty.
Many texts and paintings inspired by these myths invite us to look at the beauties sleeping with the lustful gaze of all-powerful men.
In fairy tales
Sleeping Beauty, a princess blessed with multiple gifts by the fairies, is condemned to prick herself with a spindle and fall into a hundred years of sleep.
The first version of the Sleeping Beauty, Perceforest (XVe century) like the Italian version by Giambattista Basile (1634) indicate that a prince, finding her to his liking, takes advantage of her while she sleeps and gives her children. If “Reason” and “Discretion” first retain the prince of Perceforestdesire and Venus will convince him to take action. It is only when the twins are born that her daughter suckling her thumb wakes the heroine.
In Academician Perrault’s version (1697), the forest opens before the prince and the beauty awakens upon his arrival; they talk before falling in love and having children. However, he does not marry her, he returns to his parents and the oedipal ogress stepmother orders the young girl and her descendants to be killed. The young woman who consents does not do so without danger.
In the Brothers Grimm (1812) version, as in Disney, the prince kisses the sleeping princess, blithely ignoring her consent, then he marries her, which is supposed to be the realization of all his dreams.
According to The Psychoanalysis of Fairy Tales by Bruno Bettelheim, sleep indicates the time necessary for the formation of the adolescent’s soul. Psychologically, being asleep means that traumas are repressed, according to a Jungian reading of tales such as those of Clarissa Pinkola Estes in Women who run with the wolves.
But do all readers or spectators understand the metaphorical aspect of these interpretations? And above all, forcing sleep is not without traumatic consequences…
In novels
Enter the intimacy of feminine spaces is at the heart of many male fantasies in 17th century literaturee like from the 18th centurye. In the works of Crébillon, Prévost or Marivaux, many heroes dream of seeing without being seen and of a double sacrilege: entering the bedroom, the place of a woman’s privacy, then into the body absorbed by sleep. Vulnerability as “absorption” of the sleeping body fascinate the voyeur, eager to intrude into this completeness, without worrying about the reaction of the objectified woman. They exonerate themselves by imagining that they were only waiting for a man to come, just as the Mazan defendants defend themselves by declaring that they thought it was a libertine game.
But at the same time, the English novel Clarissa Harloweby Richardson (1748) translated into French by Abbé Prévost in 1751, describes the consequences of rape with chemical submission. Pursued by seducers, the beautiful Clarissa resists. Unable to stand it, Lovelace drugs her, then rapes her. She dies, and her seducers become aware of the strength of feminine virtue. The readers XVIIIe praised this work promoting the resistance of admirable women.
In the 19th centuryein vampire literature, like Dracula(1897) by Bram Stoker, vampires break into the women’s bedroom. They weaken them and put them to sleep by inflicting deadly bites on them..
In the 20the century, eroticism remains but consent is questioned. In a scene from Lady Chatterley’s Lover by DH Lawrence (1928), the sleeping or drowsy heroine is approached by her lover Mellors. Sleeping Beauty by Yasunari Kawabata (1961) presents an old man who visits a house where he can spend the night with sleeping, unconscious young girls. He doesn’t touch them, but their vulnerable presence creates a disturbing erotic atmosphere. In 2000, Léonore, always by Yves Simon (2000) features a woman raped in her sleep by a man she considered a friend. The act is experienced as a profound betrayal, with the denial of one and the guilt of the other.
The desire for the dead or sleeping woman is a sexual fantasy of all masculine power which has fascinated the authors like the painters: Bonnard, Picasso…. Today, the chemical submission rape phenomenon. turns out to be a practice that affects young women in nightclubs as much as mothers in their own beds, the evenings of Hollywood stars as well as those of certain French deputies.
Wikipedia
Change our outlook on our common culture
If these images are part of our culture, it is appropriate to reread them with a new perspective, to deconstruct readings marked by “male gauze” and to rely on counter-examples to better educate about consent.
In the era of #MeToo, many women are showing that the time of silent victims has passed, thanks to the courage of some, such as Gisèle Pelicot. The lifting of the closed session in this trial is essential to face the denial of the accused or those like the mayor of Mazan daring to declare, that there is no “death of man”.
Likewise, MP Sandrine Josso made her complaint public and called for commission on chemical submission, saying shame needs to change sides. Anti-sexist activist Noémie Renard called in 2021 to Ending rape culture. What can we do, on the cultural side, to support these courageous actions?
Reread the classics
A first possibility consists of rereading our classics, as Jennifer Tamas invites us to do, In To the NO of Women(2023)also adopting the point of view of the heroines. The teaching of mythology is part of our education. Murielle Szac, author of Hermès serialwidely used in primary or middle school classes, explains in The Odyssey of the Goddesses(2023)that when questioned about the weak presence of goddesses in her work, she wrote The Artemis soap opera. She demonstrates that “from “Hera to Medea”, women deceived, betrayed, soiled, those wounded by love do not submit”, as some would have us believe, but on the contrary, resist.
Reading stories is a special moment of exchange with children, it is a good time to educate them about consent. The role of teachers is to place the works in their context of production, but also to raise the contemporary problems that their reading poses. We must stop reading texts that depict a drugged or sleeping woman as scenes of gallant seduction. In Dangerous Liaisons by Choderlos de Laclos (1782), Valmont cunningly enters the room where Cécile Volanges is sleeping. He wakes her up but stops her from screaming or ringing the bell. He doesn’t seduce her, he rapes her.
Some women also invite people to stop celebrating kisses without consent. In 2017, a English mother denounced the kiss of the Sleeping Beauty and sparked debate. In 2021, it was Snow White’s kiss that was the source of controversy in the USA during the renovation of a Disney attraction showcasing the heroine kissed in her coffin.
This does not mean that these works should be censored, but rather reread them with a critical eye like Lou Lubie in the graphic novel And in the end they die, the dirty truth of fairy tales (2021) and open the discussion on these behaviors, as Amnesty International and the media are doing Simone.
Getting started with “feminist gaze”
Reading more texts by female authors allows you to open yourself to the female gaze, “feminist gaze” defended by researcher Azélie Fayolle: “We still want to read our old books, and see our old films, but we no longer want to do it with the eyes of the generations who preceded us, we are of our time”.
The authors have distinguished themselves in the writing of tales, such as MC d’Aulnoywith the volumes of Fairy Cabinet or MJ Lhérier. Comparing their versions and those of writers highlights the agency of their heroines. Beautiful, in Beauty and the Beastis a strong heroine imagined by Jeanne Marie The Prince of Beaumont. To the Beast who sequesters her and would like her to give in to him, to the hunk who claims to seduce her, this intelligent girl, an avid reader, says no, and takes the time to make her decision.
The devastating effects of rape on victims have been described by numerous authors: Marguerite de Navarre, (The Heptameron,1559), George Sand, Marguerite Duras, Annie Ernaux, until Fuck me by Virginie Despentes (1994). They tell of the astonishment, followed by trauma and a long “lethargic sleep” of the victim.
Faced with the courage of those who fight for the awakening of consciences, let us not forget that literature is there to help us think and bring women out of centuries of silence and sleep.
