#Virginie #Despentes #simple #MeToo
DOMINIQUE FAGET / AFP
Virginie Despentes, here in November 2019, in Paris.
LITERATURE – This is the event of this literary season. This Wednesday, August 17, the best-selling author Virginie Despentes returns to bookstores, five years after the publication of the last volume of Vernon Subutexwith a new novel with a scathing title, dear idiotpublished by Editions Grasset.
His story is that of a man and a woman, two stars in decline. The first is called Oscar Jayack. A successful writer, he is accused of sexually harassing his former press secretary turned ultra-followed feminist blogger. Public opinion is against him. The second, Rebecca Latté, is an actress. Since she turned fifty, her contracts no longer knock on her door.
Their meeting will never happen. It is in writing – interposed letters – that they will be exchanged. It all starts (badly) the day Oscar writes a scandalous comment about Rebecca’s physique, whom he met in Paris. Neither one nor two, he answers by email. ” Dear asshole, I read what you posted on your Insta account. You are like a pigeon that shits on my shoulder “, She starts.
The story could have ended there. Oscar could have shut up, made himself small. But no, he answers. ” it was virulent », replies the latter. Oscar explains that he knows her. They grew up together. Her sister was in love with her. Rebecca doesn’t really care. He continues. He feels that she can trust. He tells her what has been going on, her lonely feeling since ” he metooized “.
About #MeToo
#MeToo, the stage is set. ” It is true that in the editorial we are lagging behind there The actress blows on one of her cards. He is ashamed. Not because he did it (he doesn’t get it), but because he thinks he took a jacket,” he said. because I told her that I was madly in love and that she didn’t want to hear anything “.
On her blog, the person who accuses her, a certain Zoé Katana, says that she belongs” to the army of abused girls who come out of silence “. She no longer wants to be silent.” You can find me, threaten me, insult me. It won’t change anything. We raise the lead screed. Shame must change sides “, she says.
Rebecca scoffs at Oscar’s lament. she does notdo not make sacred the word of the victimshe says. Of course, sometimes women lie. […] But the percentage of storytellers remains minuscule among the victims, while the percentage of rapists among the male population should alert you to the deterioration of your sexualities. »
The words used by our two heroines echo current feminist discourse. Those of Óscar, in the face of male resistance, sometimes heard about #MeToo. Here, Virginie Despentes does not provide a guide to good behavior, what to think or do. No, the novelist elaborates a fiction, a kind of observation of our time inclined to duality, good guys and bad guys, where not everything is black or white.
Covid-19, containment and TikTok
RuPaul’s Drag RaceTikTok, Drake… dear idiot it is full of references to the pop culture of our time. We are deliberately in the turn of the 2020s. As in a season of more beautiful lifethe novel incorporates significant moments of French news.
It is about the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, when Rebecca returns from a short stay in Barcelona with her arms full of hydroalcoholic gel. because in Paris you don’t seem to find any and in the space of a week, I have the impression that people are only thinking about it “But also lack of confidence, when he warily observes a group of young people outside”, one wears the mask, one has it around his neck, the other two don’t “.
These impressions speak to us, anchor us in reality to better tell us about the evils of our macho society. ” We very much support the idea that women are killed by men, for the sole reason of being women. “Beats Rebecca, echoing the femicides. Regarding maternity and mothers, I especially notice that we always have something to say about the way they take care of the little ones.she adds. […] Cheated. Mothers, do what you can. »
a derailed society
The former movie star denounces age discrimination in her industry. ” Do you want to know what it’s like to get canceled? Talk to an actress my age. […] For most of us, this purgatory begins at thirty. And I don’t know a sympathetic comedian “, he points out, which is reminiscent of the fact that in France only 8% of the roles were attributed to women over 50 years of age, in 2019.
Diets, beauty canons, “masculine gaze”… Anything goes, when Oscar himself evokes his insecurities in the face of masculinity codes. ” I am weak. I’m not skinny. I’m not a fancy guy, a creeper, a skinny guy. I’m thin “, he regrets. His point is not mocked. His interlocutor takes it seriously.
This reveals the evolution of the exchanges between our two characters who, throughout the story, learn to listen to each other. Although they do not beat around the bush, they go ahead, they tell each other their doubts, their fears. They advise each other, particularly about drug use. In a derailed society, their budding friendship reassures them. The ” dear idiot from the beginning it would become almost endearing. As an ironic preamble to the beginning of a guide to survive 2022.
See also in The HuffPost : At the demonstration for Adama Traoré, Virginie Despentes and Vikash Dhorasoo also thought of Camélia Jordana