The #MeToo movement in France has reached a new stage. On X and Instagram, hundreds of men are testifying to having been victims of sexual abuse in their childhood or adolescence, and sometimes into adulthood. Over the past few days, they have shared their stories: "When I was 11 my older brother asked me to perform oral sex on him," "I was sexually molested by a cousin I saw every summer," "the family doctor was molesting me when I was 16," "from the age of 9 to 15 I was abused by my stepfather," "I was barely 18, a relationship of power and control."
The hashtag #MeTooGarçons, using the French word for boys, was launched on February 22 by the actor Aurélien Wiik, himself a victim of abuse by his agent and members of his entourage from the age of 11 to 15. The actor said he was inspired by the approach taken by actress Judith Godrèche – who recounted in Le Monde her abusive relationship with director Benoît Jacquot, which began when she was 14, as well as the abuse she suffered from filmmaker Jacques Doillon, who has disputed her account.
Wiik's hashtag quickly spread beyond the world of cinema. "The #MeToo wave of 2017 isn't stopping, it's passing through other sectors of life, #MeTooInceste, #MeTooGay, the film world," noted Lucie Wicky, a doctoral student who is the only sociology researcher working on sexual violence suffered by men in France.
Other notable figures have also come forward to give their own testimony, such as radical left MP Andy Kerbrat, who recounted on Saturday, February 24, how he was abused at the age of 3 by a "predator, who has since died." Kerbrat said that his biological mother lived under the sway of this man, who he said was a heroin addict: "Psychogically he tortured me, physically he beat me and sexually he abused me."
"I've been thinking about doing it for months," Kerbrat told Le Monde. "Seeing other testimonies gave me the strength to act." He says he was "lucky" that his adoptive parents "believed and supported" him. "Like many people, I repressed the trauma. I went into a slow depression during my teenage years, without understanding why. At 20, it all came back to smack me in the face."
The vast majority of the testimonies available on social media are those by men of all ages who remain anonymous, recounting the sexual violence they suffered when they were minors or young adults, at the hands of people close to them or, more rarely, strangers. While sexual violence is overwhelmingly suffered by women, 13% of the 87,700 victims counted in 2022 by France's Interior Ministry's statistical services are male.
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