When #MeToo broke out in 2017, a narrative emerged, particularly from the side of heterosexual men: you couldn’t “say anything more”, nor take the elevator with a woman, nor make saucy jokes at work, nor approach a pretty girl in the street. The backlash was combined with the #MeToo movement, it happened in parallel, as if the fear of the prosecution was greater than the number of women victims of gender-based and sexual violence. Five years later, where are the men? Has #MeToo changed mentalities? That’s what wanted to know Simone Mediain partnership with the association for the fight against violence Forward All(s)). 1,115 men over the age of 18 were questioned about their perception of consent, sexist and sexual violence or gender inequalities.
We thus learn in this survey that less than one in two men (45.3%) considers that the #MeToo movement has had an impact on the way he behaves in his emotional and sexual relationships. “After carrying out several surveys highlighting the realities experienced by women vis-à-vis gender-based and sexual violence, I wanted to allow men to speak out on these issues, many having already expressed to me their feeling of be “all in the same bag”. In the free section of the survey, many men confided that answering the questionnaire had jostled them, disturbed them, but also helped them to become aware of problematic behaviors that they had never thought about before” explains Chloé Thibaud, journalist and author of La Pause Simone.
Real awareness?
In the survey conducted by Chloé Thibaud, we find the question of having witnessed problematic behavior… And the fact of having intervened or not. Three quarters of men (75.3%) have already thought that one of their relatives, friends, colleagues, or one of their acquaintances behaved inappropriately towards women. More than three-quarters of the men surveyed (77.7%) have already witnessed inappropriate behavior on the part of a loved one. “The results of our survey draw a reality at the moment T and demonstrate an awareness of the male sex vis-à-vis sexist and sexual violence of which women can be victims” notes Céline Daugenet, deputy editor-in-chief of Simone Media. In this survey, we learn that almost 60% of the men questioned have already intervened when a man seriously called out or insulted a woman.
“This survey was important to do because these are questions that are rarely asked, and the results help to shed light on invisible realities. The relevance of this survey also lies in the fact that we should not go about it by accusing the men, but in an educational way. It is important to ask the right questions, to have an open stance towards men, so that they want to change on their own,” explains Louise Delavier, spokesperson for the En Avant association. All). A realization that nevertheless has a bitter taste: we learn in this survey that nearly one in five men (19.8%) has already witnessed a scene where a relative, friend or acquaintance tried to have or had sex with a drunk or drugged person.
Behaviors that remain problematic and violent
Despite the awareness evoked by the survey, one cannot help but note the prevalence of certain figures, which show that even five years after #MeToo, gender-based and sexual violence is not decreasing. An observation already mentioned in the last report of the High Council for Equality, which pointed to the resurgence of misogynistic rhetoric among the under 35s. In the survey carried out by Simone Media and En Avant Tout(s), we thus learn that nearly one in two men (48.7%) have already doubted that the person he was flirting with or approaching wanted to. In addition, more than one in two men (54.5%) do not systematically ask their partner if they consent before kissing, caressing or having sex. sexual. More seriously, a quarter of men (25.4%) have already insisted on having sex when their partner did not want it. The concept of consent does not yet seem to be integrated.
Sexist behavior does not exclude the digital sphere: cyberviolence is very present in our society, as confirmed by the survey. Indeed, one in ten men (10.3%) have already sent a photo of their sex or an intimate part of their body without being asked (the famous “dickpics”). What’s more, more than one in ten men (13.8%) have ever insisted on having intimate photos of their partner or expressed disappointment if they said “no”. to equality, but also the need for education in consent from an early age, as many feminist associations have pointed out for many years.