On Living With Men: Reflections on the Pelicot Trial

How can women live with men in a society where so many men are ready to rape an unconscious woman? Gisèle Pelicot's story outraged the world. The sickening parade of crimes to which she was subjected and her betrayal are dark pages in our history. Feminist philosopher Manon Garcia decided to attend the trial and to analyse its resonance for our future.

It became the trial that demonstrated that trials will never suffice to serve justice. If the perpetrators, for the most part, seemed so unashamed of what they had done, can we see in their sentencing anything meaningful? If their lawyers defend their clients by relieving them of responsibility for their actions, how will these men, their families, their friends see this trial as anything other than an injustice? If, even as the most explicit proof streamed before the court, the victim was stonewalled with the bland denial of facts, what can juries achieve in cases when the evidence is lacking? The threat of incarceration will never be powerful enough to stop men raping. If trusting the justice system, as those who fret about feminist overreach counsel us to do, gets us nowhere, what do we do?

Above all, one question haunted Garcia: under such circumstances, can we live with men? And at what price?

In this conversation, Manon Garcia and Lori Marso start from the Pelicot trial to explore the political and philosophical questions raised by men’s violence against women. Together, they consider how patriarchy shapes love, desire and everyday life, while asking whether and how relationships between women and men can be transformed without overlooking the inequalities that structure them.

About the Speaker:

Manon Garcia is Professor of practical philosophy at the Goethe University in Frankfurt. Her primary research is in political philosophy, feminist philosophy, and moral philosophy. She also works on 20th century French philosophy and philosophy of social sciences. She is one of ten laureates to be awarded the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Prize in 2025, Germany's most distinguished award for early-career researchers. Her first book, We Are Not Born Submissive: How Patriarchy Shapes Women's Lives was first published in French in 2018, and an English version was published by Princeton University Press. It has also been translated in German, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Turkish, and Italian. Her second book, The Joy of Consent: A Philosophy of Good Sex was published in French in 2021 and the English version was published by Harvard University Press in 2023. Her latest book, Living With Men: Reflections on the Pelicot Trial, was published in October 2025.

The Moderator:

Lori Marso is Professor of Modern Literary and Historical Studies, Professor of Political Science at Union College in Schenectady, NY. She is a feminist political theorist with a broad focus on feminist film, feminist literary history, and the history of political thought. In Feminism and the Cinema of Experience, Lori Jo Marso examines how filmmakers scramble our senses to open up space for encountering and examining the political conditions of patriarchy, racism, and existential anxiety.

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This is an online conversation and audience Q&A presented by the UK-based journal The Philosopher. It is open to the public and held on Zoom. The event is free to attend but the Zoom registration page has, by default, an optional donation amount that you can change to $0 (or whatever you wish). Donations go to The Philosopher magazine to cover our costs and expand the scope of our series.

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About The Philosopher (https://www.thephilosopher1923.org/):

The Philosopher is the longest-running public philosophy journal in the UK (founded in 1923). It is published by the The Philosophical Society of England (http://www.philsoceng.uk/), a registered charity founded ten years earlier than the journal in 1913, and still running regular groups, workshops, and conferences around the UK. As of 2018, The Philosopher is edited by Newcastle-based philosopher Anthony Morgan and is published quarterly, both in print and digitally.

The journal aims to represent contemporary philosophy in all its many and constantly evolving forms, both within academia and beyond. Contributors over the years have ranged from John Dewey and G.K. Chesterton to contemporary thinkers like Christine Korsgaard, Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò, Elizabeth Anderson, Martin Hägglund, Cary Wolfe, Avital Ronell, and Adam Kotsko.