Let’s start with an amendment. In a column about Catherine Fournier’s Courage, I wrote on Wednesday that times have changed1.
Not too long ago, we would have discovered that a woman who agrees to lie next to a man must have sought it out a bit. Fortunately, society has evolved, I argued with a touch of innocence.
As for evolution, I’m sorry to report that it’s still not complete. Not if I were to believe my inbox, which sent me violently back to 1983. Maybe 1953 too.
Do you think I’m exaggerating? Dear readers, here are some messages I received. If you’re still here, I’ll see you after extraction.
Michael, peremptory: “I want women to understand that sleeping with a foreigner in general, even a bad partner, especially with someone 30 years older than her, can end in assault, especially in the same bed. Such is human nature. Today, Madame Fournier is solely responsible for her misfortune. »
Francine, laconic: “Poor fool charmed by an ambitious little bitch. »
Marcel, incredulous: “A cry to alert a friend in the next room, a phone call to the police? Get dressed and leave because Mr. LeBelle doesn’t like her? »
Pierre, enraged: “Clearly, she is not chained to the bed … Nothing compels her to hesitate to say that she is suffering. She must say no and crush her camp from there. »
Daniel, suspicious: “I was frozen, she says… I don’t believe her. She is an adult, vaccinated as far as I know, and her silence and her presence on this bed is a clear sign of consent. If I were in the gentleman’s place, I would follow this woman. »
Therese, discouraged: “I can’t wait for the girls of this generation to be more resourceful and naive. They should be informed, I can’t believe it. It’s 2023, wake up and be smart. »
France was firm: “One thing is for sure, I will not vote for him in the next election. I don’t believe a woman who is afraid to resist a man’s advances has enough backbone to run a city. »
Luck, Baumstick, addressed the mayor: “Why did not your friend, like you, order the ex-vice-chancellor not to undermine your modesty, and, failing that, to take action against him? »
We’ve greatly admired Catherine Fournier’s courage since she decided to come out of the shadows.
I took all the courage she had to show through my mailbox. The politician was undoubtedly prepared for this kind of reaction. However. Such prejudices send shivers down the spine. In 2023, will the victim be blamed?
Oh, you don’t believe her? Harold Lebel is still on trial. A jury of 12 anonymous citizens of Rimouski delivered their verdict: guilty. The former vice-chancellor was sentenced to prison. He said he was sorry for his actions.
He raped her. He is the culprit. Not her.
“Me, you would have put me in this situation, something like this was going to happen to you, it’s obvious that I would have replied: Well, let’s see! I would have got up, I would have run, I would have screamed…”
Catherine Fournier promised to host Paul Arcand on Wednesday: she would not have thought to act as she did on that night in October 2017.
But yes, she froze. out of fear Because Harold LeBelle was a “completely different” man from the one she knew that night. She went into “defense mode.”
“I was afraid that if I did something, the situation would get worse, especially in the evening, he was very aggressive,” she explained into the microphone. From 98.5 FM.
Still not convinced? Back to science. Freezing is one of the most common reactions of victims of sexual assault. “The brain’s first instinct is to freeze. The victim freezes when the amygdala senses a threat and inhibits brainstem activity,” says a report submitted to Justice Canada in 2019.2.
Under the influence of severe stress, the victim has no way to make a “calculated and rational assessment of the situation”. She loses the use of executive functions. His brain can no longer make decisions, reads a report written by a psychologist and law professor.
These common psychological and neurological reactions mean that the victim of sexual assault will never fight, scream or run again.
The justice system understands that. Quebec also has specialized courts for sexual assault, offering better support to victims.
Above all, stop blaming them.
