3 days ago
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Caroline Darian said there was “no way” her mother Gisele Pelicot would have been raped more than 200 times over the course of nearly a decade without the existence of online pornography.
Speaking in conversation with actor and presenter Jameela Jamil at the Hay Festival, Ms Darian said “you need to talk between guys” about social issues including “online porn” that contribute to the prevelance of abuse.
“Porn is also part of this story,” she said in the Thursday conversation.
Late last year, her farther Dominique Pelioct was handed the maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for drugging his wife Gisele more than 200 times to rape her and inviting dozens of other men to rape her while he watched and filmed.
Ms Jamil agreed that men needed to talk about issues surrounding sexual assault, especially in online spaces, because the nature of social media meant men and women were seeing different content on their algorithms, and content discussing consent was not necessarily reaching men and boys.
“There are so many men in my life, even who don't know all of the facts of this case in the way that women do,” she said.
“What we desperately need for you to do is to check your mates when they're saying things; is to not watch videos, consume videos, allow the success of manosphere podcasts or all this toxic content; challenge narratives when you see it.”
Ms Darian was speaking at Hay Festival to promote her book, I’ll Never Call Him Dad Again.
She also told the festival she is not on speaking terms with her mother, after Darian told Pelicot she was also a victim of her father.
Ms Darian claims to have also been a victim of chemical submission at the hands of her father, after being shown two pictures of her unconscious and wearing underwear that was not her own.
“She is not able to recognise that I probably was drugged by my father. It is a way for her to protect herself,” Ms Darian said.
“I think my mum is not able to recognise it because, otherwise, I think she’s going to die.”
Ms Darian said some aspects of the case and what had happened to her and her family both before and after the scale of her father’s abuse was revealed was difficult, but she did not want to see herself as a victim.
“I'm not seeing myself as a victim... I'm more seeing myself as a part of the solutions,” she said.
