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Liberty, equality, patriarchy: why so many French women are opposed to #metoo

Women like Deneuve, Bardot and Lahaie are attached to the French myth of freedom. After all, they’ve risen to the top by playing by the patriarchy's rules

By Lucy Wadham  
February 19, 2018
March 2018

Catherine Deneuve is just one of the actresses who has criticised

“Rape is a crime, but…” So begins a letter sent to Le Monde, signed by over 100 women from the highest spheres of French society—authors, artists, performers and academics—deploring the wave of “denunciations” triggered by France’s version of the #MeToo movement, #BalanceTonPorc (call out your pig).

The letter goes on to affirm that a new British and American-style puritanism has been unleashed on France by the sexual harassment scandals. Men, they wrote, must be “free to…

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Lucy Wadham

Lucy Wadham has lived in France since 1987. Her study of the French, “The Secret Life of France,” is published by Faber. Her website is www.secretlifeoffrance.com

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