The different ways in which the two countries have reacted to the #MeToo movement has been striking. In the United States there was a strong and powerful response whereas in France there has been a backlash, in some quarters. To find out why France has been slower to embrace this movement, which began a year ago, Mediapart asked women who had supported or led the campaign on this side of the Atlantic. Marine Turchi reports.
The gap that separates the 'MeToo' revolution in the United States from its 'Balance Ton Porc' ('Squeal on your Pig') counterpart in France could be summed up by one date, that of January 9th, 2018. On that Tuesday one hundred women, among them the actress Catherine Deneuve, published an op-ed in Le Monde which described the #MeToo as a “campaign of denunciation”. On the other side of the Atlantic, meanwhile, a video was in the process of becoming massively popular; it featured the powerful speech given by Oprah Winfrey at the Golden Globes awards ceremony the night before. The woman who became the first black female presenter to make it big on US television had just announced that a “new day is on the horizon” for women. “This year we became the story,” she declared.
