How the scandal of Brigitte Macron’s 'dirty bitches' says a lot about France Maybe it would be time for the country to applaud those dirty bitches instead of putting up a guard of honor against the rapists
After circulating widely on social media as the target of a shameful transvestigation, Brigitte Macron is once again at the center of online controversy, except this time, she is not the victim, but the culprit. A few days ago, the French First Lady attended the show of actor and comedian Ary Abittan, who, although the case was dismissed, has been accused of rape since 2021. But a dismissal does not mean innocence, as the activists of the Nous Toutes movement understood perfectly when they also attended the comedian’s show wearing masks of his face with the word “rapist” written on the forehead. Activists who say out loud what many whisper, for some, “dirty bitches” for Brigitte Macron.
It seems that lately, France’s own mean girls are cursed, destined to see conversations meant to remain private become painfully public. After a leaked private story showing Miss Provence and Miss Aquitaine insulting other Miss contestants as wh*res cost them their sashes and their titles, it was also a hidden video that got Madame Macron into trouble. After the show, the First Lady went backstage to greet and congratulate Abittan, unaware that someone was filming her as she told the comedian they were simply going to “kick out the dirty bitches”, referring to the feminist activists who stormed the show and interrupted it with their demands. But in the era of the Mazan rapes, and at a time when men like Luc Besson and Roman Polanski are not only praised but awarded despite the accusations and convictions surrounding them, shouldn’t we all be dirty bitches?
Marion Cotillard, for one, is a dirty bitch — and proud of it, as proven by her Instagram post yesterday showing a black background with the words “Je suis une sale conne”, which was quickly reshared and commented on by figures such as Angèle and Judith Godrèche. An army of dirty bitches facing a societal model that continues to encourage not just men, but violent men, men who treat women like inflatable dolls, men who continue to live and thrive without consequences. “Brilliant” men who “don’t deserve to have their careers ruined”, so brilliant that women should feel lucky to breathe the same air, and too bad if they have to endure slaps and insults to earn that place at the foot of their bed. The concept is simple, yet seemingly impossible to grasp. Whether we call it “separating the art from the artist,” “talent immunity,” “the culture of excuses,” or “the industry’s omertà,” it is often tied to another concept: coercive control, perfectly described by Vanessa Springora in Le Consentement, where she recounts her relationship with Gabriel Matzneff, a writer 36 years older (she was 14, he was 50), who exercised an abuse of power disguised under the word “muse.”
Trapped in a gilded cage of adult silence, Matzneff’s impunity, and the judgment of both the public and France’s cultural and literary institutions, Springora was already denouncing in 2020 a major issue that still defines the French entertainment and cultural world today. Last February, we had already written that French television has a serious presenter problem, after the absurd trial of Stéphane Plaza, accused of domestic violence. A few years earlier, it was actress Adèle Haenel who made headlines after walking out of the César Awards that honored Polanski, accused of drugging and raping a 13-year-old girl when he was 44, sparking the “We rise and we leave” movement. So maybe it’s time to applaud activists like those from Nous Toutes instead of giving rapists a guard of honor. In any case, their intervention at Ary Abittan’s show was one small step for dirty bitches, one giant step for feminism. Much to Madame Macron’s dismay.
