Should we dissociate the man from the artist when the latter is under criminal charges? The Me Too feminist revolution and the social debates that accompanied it provided a fairly categorical answer to the question, with a clear preference for “no”. This refusal has the advantage of prohibiting alternative narratives where the public figure, whether morally reprehensible or legally condemned (or both), could find refuge. In these “encore” stories, the genius can stifle the bastard, his misdeeds and by extension make his victims invisible.
The ethical question surrounding the case of Alexander Zverev, sentenced by the Berlin district court to a fine of 450,000 euros for acts of domestic violence against his ex Brenda Patea, and whose violent behavior had already been denounced in October 2020 by another of his ex, Olga Sharypova, fits into this complex framework. Or rather, she should.
In fact, regulars on the circuit don’t bother themselves very much with this type of consideration when they don’t turn a blind eye for ease. With the possible exception of Ben Rothenberg, the journalist to whom Sharypova confided for several hours to denounce the moral and physical influence exercised by the German during their toxic relationship. ” The first time [qu’il a été violent], it was in Monaco in her apartment, said the young woman. I was going to leave because we had a really big argument. I was in the hallway and he hit my head against the wall. »
She will fall, he will deny it. “He got scared, then he started lying. He said I hit him first, he said he didn’t do it, he never did it. » One episode among others which will lead the Russian to despair: she will try in vain to commit suicide by injecting herself with insulin, imprinted on Zverev, who is now known to have diabetes.
“Denial, discomfort and difficulty in dealing with this subject”
But why talk about domestic violence when we can cling to an otherwise comfortable narrative thread, that of the German’s successful comeback (2 titles in 2023) after his dramatic exit from the short Philippe Chatrier a year earlier, in tears and the ankle in compote. The German channel RTL is making a fuss about it during the player’s rehabilitation, it follows him to the doctor, shows mom Zverev in tears, photos of Sascha as a child, how not to break down, domestic violence, no, that’s not his like, impossible… Even today, the vein continues to be exploited with each stumble of the German on a court, as was the case on Monday, during his entry into the ATP finals against Carlos Alcaraz.
“I didn’t think about what happened against Nadal at Roland Garros because I knew my ankle hadn’t turned, it was completely different,” Zverev reassured. I just slipped. » Or how to make a (potentially) dangerous man sympathetic (the famous alternative story that we mentioned at the beginning, anyone?) at best through laziness, at worst through cowardice. “There is everything: denial, discomfort or a difficulty in dealing with the matter which discourages some from talking about it,” analyzes an informed observer of the men’s circuit. Some people prefer to close their eyes than ask themselves these pointed questions. »
However, we need to talk about it. Giuseppina Sapio, lecturer at Paris 8 University, is interested in the media coverage of cases of violence against women, and recalls the importance of the media in disseminating the message carried by the Me Too movement.
The role of the media in the fight against male violence against women is recognized from an institutional point of view. It’s even enshrined in Article 17 of the Istanbul Convention. [sur la prévention et la lutte contre la violence à l’égard des femmes et la violence domestique]. »
In the mixed zone at Bercy, the sense of duty did not, for once, not touch many people: after his victory against Ugo Humbert, that is to say a few hours after the announcement of his conviction, there was no question what a yellow ball, and the worst Bercy in history (we include ourselves in the lot). A British colleague will nevertheless save the honor of the corporation by asking a question about the said fine, which Sascha Zverev contests. “I think it’s pure bullshit,” the player said to Times. Anyone with an approximately normal IQ knows what it is.” Charming.
Zverev presented as “comeback king” by the ATP
The ATP’s wait-and-see position also needs to be questioned. The body which governs men’s tennis, contacted in vain by 20 minutes, continues to promote the image of the world No. 7 on his social networks like any other player. On X (formerly Twitter), we present him as a “comeback king”, we praise his elegance on the blue carpet rolled out in Turin before the Masters. On Insta, he participates in a game chaired by Novak Djokovic alongside the six other finalists of the season… “What the institution could do is not do too much, recommends Gilles Delanoë, specialist in the management of crisis for the Heiderich cabinet, particularly on sports issues. Citing the player in the same way as the others is a minimum. Doing interviews with the player might not be smart. Writing a lot about the player might not be smart either. That risks offending the public. » Under the various publications mentioned, we indeed find numerous messages of discontent.
More surprising and important: by burying its head in the sand, the ATP is contravening its own statutes. In the absence of a domestic violence policy, the ATP has said it will rely on the legal system. (ATP Rules 8.05 A (2) (c) and (d): A civil or criminal charge or conviction is sufficient grounds to suspend a player due to “conduct contrary to the integrity of the game” ). However, if it is contested by the player, the order sentence is, under German law, only issued if the judge has no doubts about the guilt of the accused. There were photos, screenshots, testimonies, proof of a contract offered to Brenda Patea to buy her silence in exchange for 100,000 euros, which she declined, reports the South German Zeitung…
The presumption of innocence ? Zverev is obviously entitled to it, but voices are being raised, suggesting the idea of a preventive suspension as for athletes accused of doping. With the merit of avoiding this paradoxical situation where the semi-finalist at Roland-Garros continues to play while confidently embarking on the path to a very probable trial. The Schertz Bergmann law firm, which represents the player, said in a statement that the facts provided by Patea, “the only basis for the order, have already been rejected by a medical report.” Not so much a guarantee of absolution as the appropriation of the story through a posture of counter-attack, by trying to remove the accuser from her posture of ideal victim accepted in the collective imagination. Giuseppina Sapio explains the idea:
The right victim is able to prove the violence she experienced. It’s very easy when we’ve been killed and we’re taking a photo of ourselves, but we still have to think about it. But what do we do with psychological violence which sometimes has even more harmful effects, or if we have suffered moral or administrative violence? [comme la rétention de passeport dont le soupçonne Olga Sharypova au cours d’une dispute à New-York en 2019] , knowing that these are more discredited compared to physical violence? »
Especially since victims of domestic violence often have the reflex to hide when the events occur. “I had collected the testimony of a woman who was a victim of domestic violence,” continues the academic. She told me, “when I saw that he was starting to get angry, my first instinct was not to leave but to close the windows so that we wouldn’t hear.” »
The legal framework alone is no longer enough
In New York, Sharypova would have combined the two: fleeing the couple’s hotel room and hiding on a sofa on the first floor of the building so that no one from the tennis world would notice her. So many factors that can explain why violent people can get away with it on the day of trial, due to a lack of solid evidence. The conclusion of the independent investigation carried out into the Zverev/Sharypova case by the LFG firm, mandated by the ATP, goes in this direction. “Due to the lack of reliable evidence and eyewitness reports,” the court concluded in January, “as well as contradictory statements from Sharypova, Zverev and other interviewees, the investigation was unable to corroborate allegations of abuse or to determine that violations of ATP rules relating to on-site infractions or major player infractions have occurred. »
Moral judgment cannot, however, in the case of such a young social subject and still poorly supervised by justice, take a conviction as the sole basis, says Sapio. “The legal framework would be sufficient in an ideal world, that is to say not in ours. It would actually be much simpler to be able to be guided in our judgments by the legal framework. That would be comforting. Unfortunately, the legal script cannot be the only interpretive framework by which we can read the world. This is why media debates have a certain importance in changing mentalities. They have this important function of bringing to the forefront important social phenomena today. » It is up to the actors, whether media or institutional, not to hide behind justice before asking themselves whether it is necessary to separate the man from the artist.