Mit Männern leben. Überlegungen zum Pelicot Prozess

Reading and discussion

The monstrous crimes against Gisèle Pelicot, who was drugged by her husband for years and then raped by him and nearly 70 other men, shocked the world. The subsequent trial became one of the most sensational legal proceedings of recent decades - not only because of the severity of the crimes, but because it became clear that what was being tried affects millions of women.

As one of the most important feminists of the new generation, Manon Garcia traveled to the trial in Avignon to document it meticulously. She combines her precise observations about the course of the proceedings, the defendants and their reactions to the charges with reflections on the role of women in patriarchal society. She links them with her own experiences of the everyday danger of becoming a victim. Confronted with the depths of male violence, she arrives at an existential question: how can we still live with men?

Manon Garcia, born in 1985, is a professor of practical philosophy at Goethe University Frankfurt after positions at Harvard and Yale. In France, she is counted among the most influential and widely read philosophers of her generation. Her books have been translated into numerous languages. For "Das Gespräch der Geschlechter. Eine Philosophie der Zustimmung" she received the Prix des Rencontres philosophiques de Monaco in 2022. Recently published: "Wir werden nicht unterwürfig geboren. Wie das Patriarchat das Leben von Frauen bestimmt" and "Mit Männern leben. Überlegungen zum Pelicot-Prozess" (2025).