Delegitimizing sexual violence as a specific category of violence

Abstract

In 2016, a press investigation revealed the violences committed by Denis Baupin, then vice-president of the French National Assembly. While little public questioning of this violence took place at the time (Buisson, 2022), the women who denounced it experienced “processes of delegitimization” (Dobry, 2009) of their accounts, which took place in the ordinary practice of the political profession. This contribution aims to show how these processes, which reflect the manifestation of the “social control of women by men” (Hanmer & E.L, 1977) within the political arena, constitute a specific category of violence, distinct from the sexual violence denounced.