In her latest book Le Vertige MeToo ("The MeToo Vertigo"), essayist Caroline Fourest asserts that "not all #MeToo cases are equal" and questions the risks of a "new world" where "it's enough to accuse in order to exist." The book has sparked a heated debate among feminists.

On the contrary, my book comes at just the right time, since it talks about all the benefits of #MeToo, and in particular, the fact that there is more resonance and media coverage in cases as clear and flagrant as the number of accusations made against Abbé Pierre or the system of predation and rape set up by Dominique Pelicot.

In contrast, people like feminist forensic pediatrician Caroline Rey-Salmon are being falsely accused [a complaint of sexual violence, lodged after her appointment as vice president of the Independent Commission on Incest and Child Sexual Abuse, has been dismissed]. It's a pity that today it's no longer possible to defend a wrongly accused person without appearing to be an accomplice of rapists! There are cases where the charges are unfounded. There aren't many, but there are some.

When I say "I prefer 'I'm listening to you' to 'I believe you,'" I'm not talking about justice, but about the fact that we've all become #MeToo judges on a daily basis, without thinking about this new responsibility. We obviously have to be vigilant, to take the slightest report of sexual assault or rape very seriously, and that's what I've been fighting for years and will continue to fight for.

But don't give up on Cartesian doubt. You have to start by saying "I'm listening to you" before you can be sure of saying "I believe you." I witnessed a Stalinist trial within the [feminist equality organization] Collectif 50/50 that ended up destroying a feminist producer for a false assault based on a completely absurd and fanatical reading of "I believe you." This producer, accused by an actress of having touched her thigh during a party, was actually acquitted by the Paris court in May. It was this case that made me want to write this book. I have a duty to alert people to the risks of injustice.

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