an Erasure
by Betsy Mars
Dominique Pelicot and 50 Others Guilty in Rape Trial That Shook France: A court sentenced Mr. Pelicot to 20 years after he admitted to drugging and raping his wife, Gisèle, for nearly a decade, and inviting strangers to join him. The case has made her a feminist hero. —The New York Times, December 19, 2024
they appeared to represent a cross-section of men:
The court heard from their wives,
parents,
friends
and children,
who mostly described them
as kind people incapable of rape
after watching videos of them penetrating Ms. Pelicot
while she lay inert, sedated and often snoring loudly
the defendants didn’t think of those acts as rape
among the terms they used were
“involuntaryrape,”
“accidentalrape”
anddisassociated rape:
“rape by body, but not mind”
every defendant fully knew
after watching videos of them penetrating Ms. Pelicot
while she lay inert, sedated and often snoring loudly
the defendants didn’t think of those acts as rape
among the terms they used were
“involuntary
“accidental
and
every defendant fully knew
he had drugged his wife
without her knowledge
a playful threesome
Betsy Mars is a prize-winning poet, a photographer, and assistant editor at Gyroscope Review. whose poems can be found in numerous online journals and print anthologies. She has two books, Alinea, and In the Muddle of the Night, co-written with Alan Walowitz. Betsy is currently working on a full-length manuscript titled Rue Obscure.
