Eating right next to a painting depicting sodomy and fellatio scenes does not necessarily lead to indigestion. In recent days, a huge fresco has covered a section of the wall of the refectory of the medical internship of
Toulouse University Hospital, at Purpan Hospital, representing an imitation revised and corrected according to the pornographic codes of Liberty Leading the People by Eugène Delacroix.
A painting in which doctors are represented in very explicit positions with incongruous details such as an oval ball from the Stade Toulousain, just to remind us that we are in the Pink City. If, in the spirit of the rifle, some interns are very far from being shocked, this is not the case for the entire corporation or the employees of the refectory, far from sharing the taste of the “artist”.
Especially since this is not a first. Three years ago, a previous fresco from the Medical Boarding School had already sparked controversy because it featured naked women offered to their male superiors. “When we received the photo of this one, we were completely overwhelmed. It is intolerable, obscene. Women and employees are confronted with these degrading images, we see a naked woman who looks dead, another with quilts who eats garbage ”, describes Enora Lamy, co-president of
Dare feminism of Haute-Garonne.
Sentenced by the management of the CHU
For this activist, this fresco, which features real doctors, is not good-natured or fun, as some defend it. “It’s environmental harassment, it trivializes assault and sexual harassment. We are told of a subversive aspect of the fresco, but it is a pornification of bodies. When we see the way in which women are represented, we are less surprised that there is violent behavior, ”continues Enora Lamy.
As soon as the association was notified, it turned to the Sud-Santé sociaux union at the Toulouse University Hospital. The latter immediately filed an alert procedure for “serious and imminent danger” with the general management and the head of Human Resources. “We have reached the height of vulgarity, homophobia, sexism,” laments Benoît Dupuy, a union member who had a meeting this Tuesday morning with management on this subject. The latter indicated on Monday evening that she asked by mail to the association of Interns to remove the fresco.
The rifle frescoes are contrary to respect for human dignity and to the values carried by the public service; they can only encourage acts of sexual and gender-based violence within establishments by constituting environmental harassment.#fresco
– South Social Health 31 (@ sudsante31) October 25, 2021
“The CHU and the faculties of health recall their strictest commitment to the fight against any form of attack on the dignity of persons. For several years, they have been pursuing a policy of preventing and combating harassment and discrimination. In this spirit, a letter was sent to the President of the Boarding school association asking him to immediately withdraw this canvas, ”explained the management of the Toulouse University Hospital.
Change the rules of procedure
But for feminist associations and the union, we must go further, so as not to find ourselves in six months confronted with a new web. “The CHU lends the premises to the boarding school. This must be stipulated in the internal regulations and review the protocol for lending premises to this association so that there are no more such acts of homophobia and LGBTphobia “, continues Benoît Dupuy who denounces” under the spirit carabin, a law of silence ”.