Sue Wixley 🧡

For me there’s only one contender for Person of the Year. Gisele Pelicot. The woman who has recalibrated how we think about rape by refusing to feel shame. “It’s time we change the way we look at rape”, she said outside the court today. And…more than anyone I can think of… she’s done that. “Shame must change sides”, she said, and perhaps – perhaps – that is a little more true today than it’s ever been. But there’s something else that I want to talk about. Something that’s much more difficult to confront than the inspiration and dignity of Gisele Pelicot. 51 men. 51 men who are not all men… but who are also quite a lot of men. 51 of them in fact. And if you read about them… their backgrounds… their jobs… their families or lack of family… they’re all quite different. A firefighter…a nurse… an unemployed alcoholic. Some were abused as children. Some had comfortable upbringings with kids of their own. Six had domestic violence convictions. 45 didn’t. One was 27. Another was 74. There’s no pattern here. Nothing we can point to. Other than the fact there is no profile of a rapist. Which is perhaps the most frightening thing of all.