#Metoo and #Balancetonporc - a critical investigation into discourse around #Metoo and #Balancetonporc in mainstream French media

Abstract

This project explores the development of the feminist digital activism phenomena #Balancetonporc and #Metoo, as seen through the discourses around the phenomena in mainstream French media.
The project does so, through a critical discourses analysis of a number of articles, framed by
theories as presented by Chouliraki & Fairclough, Barker & Galasinski and Lazar.
The project finds that four discursive moment constitute the discursive conjuncture around #Metoo and #Balancetonporc. The discourses present in these four moments relate to the practices of sexual harassment and abuse, as well as to protests against these practices.
Following the analysis, notions of consent in relation to sexual harassment and abuse were
discussed. Lastly, the #Metoo and #Balancetonporc were considered in relation to other instances of digital feminist activism.

Full text

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Intercultural Studies
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#Metoo&and&#Balancetonporc&&
A!critical!investigation!into!discourses!around!#Metoo!and!#Balancetonporc!!
in!mainstream!French!media!
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Table&of&content&
Abstract! 3!
1.!Introduction! 3!
1.1.!#Metoo and #Balancetonporc! 3!
1.2.!Problem statement! 4!
1.3.!Methodology and limitations! 4!
1.4.!Limitations! 6!
2.!Theories! 6!
2.1.!Critical Discourse Analysis - Chouliraki & Fairclough! 6!
2.2.!Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis - Michelle Lazar! 9!
2.3.!Tools for discourse analysis - Barker & Galasinski!10!
3.!Feminism in France!13!
3.1.!An introduction into French Feminism!13!
3.2.!Sexual harassment and abuse in France before #Metoo!17!
4.!Critical Discourse Analysis!19!
4.1.!Personal stories shared on Twitter.!20!
4.2.!From tweets to the streets!26!
4.3.!The right to bother!36!
4.4.!#Metoo and the International Day of Women’s Rights!46!
5.!Discussion and perspectives!49!
5.1.!Discourses and practices!49!
5.2.!Consent and “the right to bother”!54!
5.3.!#Metoo– Aftermath of the Harvey Weinstein scandal or an example of online feminism?!56!
6.!Conclusion!58!
7.!Literature!59!
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Abstract
This project explores the development of the feminist digital activism phenomena #Balancetonporc
and #Metoo, as seen through the discourses around the phenomena in mainstream French media.
The project does so, through a critical discourses analysis of a number of articles, framed by
theories as presented by Chouliraki & Fairclough, Barker & Galasinski and Lazar.
The project finds that four discursive moment constitute the discursive conjuncture around #Metoo
and #Balancetonporc. The discourses present in these four moments relate to the practices of sexual
harassment and abuse, as well as to protests against these practices.
Following the analysis, notions of consent in relation to sexual harassment and abuse were
discussed. Lastly, the #Metoo and #Balancetonporc were considered in relation to other instances of
digital feminist activism.
1. Introduction
1.1. #Metoo and #Balancetonporc
“On l’a eue, notre revolution!” claimed the French feminist magazine Causette in May 2018
(Causette 2018).
The revolution in question was what has come to be commonly known as #Metoo.
In 2006, Tarana Burke founded the non-profit Me Too to help survivors of sexual harassment and
abuse (Rodino-Colocino 2018 p. 97).
More than ten years later, in October 2017, actress Alyssa Milano tweeted using the hashtag
#Metoo. The tweet came in the wake of Alyssa Milano coming forward as one of Harvey
Weinstein’s many victims.
The tweet encouraged survivors of sexual harassment and abuse to share their experiences by using
the hashtag. Within the first 24 hours, the hashtag was used 12 million times (Keller, Mendes &
Ringrose 2018 p. 236).
#Metoo quickly spread across the globe and went viral from London to Moscow (Bernard et al.
2018, Lesnes 2018).
Soon, local variations of the American hashtag started to emerge.
In fact, before #Metoo went viral, the French journalist Sandra Mueller created #Balancetonporc,

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urging women to share their stories, including details on the offender and the situation, in which the
abuse or harassment took place (Mallaval & Coulaud, 2018).
#Balancetonporc became a popular hashtag, with an accompanying website, where survivors could
share their experiences and find resources for legal and psychological help (balancetonporc.com).
However, in France #Balancetonporc as well as #Metoo, remain widely debated.
Most notably, 100 famous women from the Parisian cultural elite, co-signed an open letter
advocating for the 'right to bother,' which they deemed crucial to sexual liberty (Le Monde 2018a).
The chronicle resulted in a renewed debate around gender equality, consent and sexual abuse in the
'post #Metoo era.'
1.2. Problem statement
To understand the implications of the #Balancetonporc and #Metoo movements, as represented in
mainstream French media, this project investigates the development of the phenomenon through a
critical discourse analysis of media discourses on the phenomenon in major French news outlets.
The following section will detail the methodology, theoretical approaches, and limitations of the
project.
1.3. Methodology and limitations
As stated above, this project is a critical discourse analysis into the development of discourses
around the #Balancetonporc and #Metoo phenomenon in France.
The investigation is focused on the media discourses around #Balancetonporc and #Metoo.
Specifically, these discourses are found in articles on #Balancetonporc and #Metoo.
The articles included in the investigation come from a variety of news sources in French
mainstream media, in order to assure a nuanced representation of discourses on #Balancetonporc
and #Metoo. The analysed articles were published between early October 2017 and early march
2018. A vast number of newspaper articles filled these criteria.
The first read of the newspaper articles revealed four different discursive moments.
The discursive moments happen chronologically, one after the other, which testifies to the
development of the phenomenon. Each discursive moment includes a minimum of 10 articles from
a minimum of 8 different news outlets. The diversity in news outlets ensures that each discursive
moment has a particular scope.

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For each discursive moment, one or two articles will be analyzed in depth. These will be either a)
the articles represent a discursive trend present in the remaining articles or b) the most divisive
articles in that discursive moment.
It is recognised that the choice of articles to be analysed is subjective, and that different choice may
have produced a different analysis. However, the chosen articles are only examples of a broader
category.
The number of articles relating to each category, or discursive moment, underline the justification
for the establishment of each category.
As such, although the choice of articles to be analysed in-depth is subjective, the context within
which the articles are analysed is less so.
Additionally, critical discourse analysis is inherently subjective as the researcher performs the
choice of focus in a text. Different researchers may find different results while using the same
methods on the same subjects, as past experiences, beliefs, and perceptions of the world influence
the research.
As explained by Chouliraki & Fairclough "There are of course other things to say about any
discourse which are likely to arise from various other perspectives. We do not see the specificity of
our perspective as a negative one-sidedness (as Toolan 1997 for instance suggests) – providing that
specificity is made clear, and providing that other perspective are recognised, focusing on problems,
power and so forth is not a problem"(1999, p. 66).
Furthermore, feminist historian Bibia Pavard argues that there is ‘le besoin d'un savoir situé'
concerning studies of social problems (Bastide 2018b, min. 15).
Although subjective choices influence the methods, the results of the investigation remain valuable,
as they provide at least one new way of understanding #Balancetonporc and #Metoo, while
recognising that there are many other ways to interpret and investigate the phenomenon.
The project is feminist in its approach, as it seeks to "examine how power and dominance are
discursively produced or (counter-)resisted in a variety of ways through textual representations of
gendered social practices" (Lazar 2007, p. 149).
The investigation is framed by the critical discourse analysis framework presented by Chouliraiki &
Fairclough (1999) and Barker & Galasinski (2001).
The investigation aims to gain a full understanding of the development of a complex discursive
conjuncture, i.e., #Balancetonporc and #Metoo.
As stated by Chouliraki & Fairclough “CDA [critical discourse analysis], like other critical social

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sciences, therefore needs to be reflexive and self-critical about its own institutional position and all
that goes with it: how it conducts research, how it envisages the objectives and outcomes of
research, what relationship researchers have to the people whose social lives they are analysing,
even what sort of language books and papers are written in” (1999, p. 9).
The feminist approach of the project, described above, is in line with the overarching aims of the
protest movement represented in the analysed discourses.
Chouliraiki & Fairclough's understanding of critical discourse analysis provides the structure for the
analysis. Meanwhile, Barker & Galasinski's toolbox for critical discourse analysis of language
guides the analysis of selected texts. To add a feminist and critical view on discursive gender
constructions, the project draws on the work of Lazar.
The following paragraph presents the limitations of the project.
1.4. Limitations
The project is geographically limited to France in its focus. The articles included in the
investigation are all published in French news outlets.
The project focuses on the French context, in order to investigate the unique development of a
global phenomenon within a specific local context.
The project does not provide a semiotic analysis of the effect celebrity involvement in the #Metoo
moment holds, as the project wishes to focus on a broad, accessible and inclusive understanding of
the #Metoo moment, rather than a series of high-profile celebrity scandals.
The project includes and refers to #Metoo in a North American context solely to set the context of
how #Metoo came into being, and will not delve into analysing discourses occurring within North
American media.
After this introduction of methodology and limitations, the following section will briefly introduce
the theories framing the investigation of #Balancetonporc and #Metoo.
2. Theories
2.1. Critical Discourse Analysis - Chouliraki & Fairclough
As described above, the project is centered around a critical discourse analysis of articles about
#Balancetonporc and #Metoo from mainstream French news outlets.

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The analysis will be structured around the framework proposed by Chouliraki & Fairclough in their
co-written book ’Discourse in Late Modernity’ (1999).
Chouliraki & Fairclough explain that ”Critical discourse analysis (henceforth CDA) starts from the
perception of discourse (language but also other forms of semiosis, such as visual images) as an
element of social practices, which constitutes other elements, as well as being shaped by them”
(1999, Series preface).
Chouliraki & Fairclough build on the works of academics such as Giddens and Bourdieu and in
their understanding of social practices, critical social sciences as well as the implications of
modernity in social life (1999, p. 2).
Specifically, in relation to critical discourse analysis, Chouliraki & Fairclough build on the work of
Laclau & Mouffe and Foucault. This academic heritage underpins the social criticism and
politicisation of academic work, present within Chouliraki & Fairclough.
While building on sociological and Marxist academics, Chouliraki & Fairclough equally underline
the complementary nature of critical discourse analysis and systemic functional linguistics (Ibid).
The use of systemic functional linguistics as a tool to perform critical discourse analysis is further
described below in the section on Barker & Galasinski.
Describing critical social science in general terms, Chouliraki & Fairclough state that ”the basic
motivation for critical social science is to contribute to an awareness of what is, how it has come to
be, and what might become” (1999, p. 4).
In the present case, this would entail contributing to an awareness of what the discourses around
#Balancetonporc and #Metoo are, how these discourses have come to be and what might become in
a so-called 'post #Metoo era.'
Chouliraki & Fairclough focus on social practices and define practices as having the following three
main characteristics (1999, p. 22):
- Practices are ‘forms of production of social life, not only economic production but also
production in for instance the cultural and political domains."
- “Each practice is located within a network of relationships to other practices, and these
‘external’ relationships determine its ‘internal’ constitution.
- "Practices always have a reflexive dimension: people always generate representations of
what they do as part of what they do."

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When analysing practices, Chouliraki & Fairclough favour a focus on the ‘conjunctures,' rather
than a focus on immediate events or long-term structures.
To Chouliraki & Fairclough, conjunctures are “relatively durable assemblies of people, materials,
technologies and therefore practices (in their aspect as relative permanences) around specific social
projects in the widest sense of the term” (1999, p. 22).
Concerning the investigation in this project, #Balancetonporc and #Metoo can be considered
discursive conjunctures with a chronological development over the course of six or more months.
Considering #Balancetonporc and #Metoo as conjunctures offers the possibility “to trace through
time the effect not just of individual events but of conjuncturally linked series of events in both
sustaining and transforming (re-articulating) practices” (1999, p. 22).
Alternatively, investigating the subject of this project as an immediate event would entail focusing
on person-centered scandals such as the Harvey Weinstein scandals (Hope 2018). Meanwhile,
focusing on long-term structures would entail analysing the history of sexual abuse and harassment,
and its relation to both gender discrimination and the feminist movement.
As explained by Chouliraki & Fairclough, “Social systems are both the precondition of social action
and the products of social action. Every moment in the structure/action dialectic is a moment in the
power struggle over whether the social world is to be maintained as it is or changed” (1999, p. 32).
In this regard, every discursive moment of #Balancetonporc and #Metoo is a struggle over whether
the ways to portrait, represent and perceive sexual harassment and abuse will change or stay the
same.
In order to investigate this struggle in-depth, the analytical structure proposed by Chouliraki &
Fairclough will be employed (1999, p. 61):
1. A problem (activity, reflexivity)
2. Obstacles to its being tackled
a. Analysis of the conjuncture
b. Analysis of the practice re its discourse moment
i. Relevant practices?
ii. Relation of discourse to other moments?
Discourse as part of the activity
Discourse and reflexivity

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c. Analysis of the discourse
i. Structural analysis: the order of discourse
ii. Interactional analysis
Interdiscursive analysis
Linguistic and semiotic analysis
3. Function of the problem in the practice
4. Possible ways past the obstacles
5. Reflection on the analysis
It is important to note, to Chouliraki & Fairclough, discourse can either be part of a social practice
or part of a reflexive construction of a social practice or in fact, both (Ibid).
This conceptualisation relates to the way Chouliraki & Fairclough analyse discursive problems:
The analysis can either focus on a discursive activity (or practice) within the problem, or discursive
reflexivity (or reflexive construction).
Regarding the activity-reflexivity dichotomy, the focus changes throughout the different discursive
moments, which were established as described in the methodology.
Thus, the general framework of Chouliraki & Fairclough will be employed to guide the critical
discourse analysis and ensure a socially critical investigation of a socially relevant subject, namely
how sexual harassment and abuse is spoken about in the mainstream media in France.
As an addition to the framework presented above, the following section will briefly present a
feminist perspective on critical discourse analysis.
2.2. Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis - Michelle Lazar
In her text ‘Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis,' Michelle Lazar (2007) makes a case for an
explicitly feminist branch of critical discourse analysis.
She builds on the framework of Chouliraki & Fairclough, presented above, which makes it relevant
to include her perspectives. Additionally, as this project analyses a discursive conjuncture that
sprung from a feminist protest against sexual harassment and abuse, it is only right to include a
feminist theoretical perspective.
According to Lazar, social practices are gendered in two ways (2007, p. 145):

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- "Gender functions as an interpretive category that enables participants in a community to
make sense of and structure their particular social practices."
- "Gender is a social relation that enters into and partially constitutes all other social relations
and activities."
The awareness of how social practices are gendered implies a critical view of how this gendering is
articulated through discourse, both as a social practice and as a reflexive construction of social
practice.
With a feminist critical discourse analysis, Lazar seeks to mobilise theory " To create a critical
awareness and develop feminist strategies for resistance and change" (Ibid). Lazar deems that
gender is an ideological structure, in which much of the dominance is maintained and sustained
through language and discourse. To Lazar, a feminist critical discourse analysis must aim to
"examine how power and dominance are discursively produced or (counter-)resisted in a variety of
ways through textual representations of gendered social practices" (2007, 149).
As stated above, by Lazar's definition, this project is a feminist investigation through the choice of
subject, methodology, and theory.
2.3. Tools for discourse analysis - Barker & Galasinski
The frameworks presented above provide the outline and the structures of the analysis. Below, the
tools for the textual analysis will be presented.
These tools will help guide the text analysis while complementing the overarching analytical
structure proposed by Chouliraki & Fairclough, as well as the feminist approach proposed by Lazar.
Barker & Galasinski underline how not all parts of the toolbox are equally pertinent for all analyses:
“Subsequently, it is the data that will drive the analysis. It is the data that are the most crucial aspect
of the analysis and they must, as far as is possible, be allowed to ‘speak for themselves’ (Wodak
1999).
Therefore, the only tools that are pertinent to the illumination of the ‘data' to the problem statement
will be employed. The three textual functions are introduced below.
Barker & Galasinski establish the following assumptions about discourse:

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- Discourse is socially constitutive
- Discourse is a system of options
- Discourse is ideological
Emphasis on the socially constitutive and ideological aspects of discourse echo ideas on discourse
proposed by both Lazar and Chouliraki & Fairclough above.
Furthermore, Barker & Galasinski underline that texts are multifunctional. Three functions are
identified: the ideational function, the interpersonal function, and the textual function.
The textual function refers to how elements of language are responsible for making discourse look
like ‘text.' Barker & Galasinski explain; "through the textual function language forges links with the
presumed extra-linguistic conditions of its occurrence as well as with other texts which have
occurred or will occur in the context" (2001, p. 68).
The interpersonal function refers to the relations between the speaker and the receiver through texts.
Language can reveal the assumption embedded in the relationship between speaker and receiver
(2001 p. 68).
The ideational function is how a text can represent the world outside the text.
An analytical focus on the ideational function helps to uncover how #Balancetonporc and #Metoo
are created and represented through discourse within a text.
Therefore, the analyses will focus on the ideational function. The following will provide a more
detailed introduction into the tools for analysis of the ideational function.
It is the ideational function through which "texts are able to refer to realities "outside" of the
speaker, enabling her/him to render intelligible their experience of the world. The ideational
function also refers to the internal world of speakers, their cognitions, emotions, perceptions and
acts of speaking and understanding. In sum, the ideational function is responsible for the texts'
"representational faculties"” (2001, p. 68).
A focus on the ideational functions in a text will uncover how underlying discourses in texts create
and represent the world, and is therefore of particular interest when seeking to uncover the
development and construction of a phenomenon in media discourses.
The ideational function is analysed through an examination of transitivity.
As Barker & Galasinski explains, "it is transitivity that enables the representation in multiple ways
of an implied extra-linguistic reality. The two main elements of transitivity by which ‘reality' can be

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rendered intelligible are ‘process' and ‘participant.' The emphasis on transivitiy echoes the
examination of power structures and gender domination, championed by Lazar, as explained above.
Barker & Galasinski draw on the systemic functional linguistic framework developed by Halliday
(2001, p. 70) when presenting six types of ideational processes:
- Material processes refer to doing, happening, creating, changing. The participants in the
structures that contain material processes are actors (those who do) or goals (those unto
whom things are done).
- Mental processes refer to feeling thinking or seeing. Participants who perform these are said
to be ‘sensers' while that which is perceived or felt is called the ‘phenomenon.'
- Relational processes refer to being and having an attribute or identity, with participants as
the ‘carriers' or ‘identified' and attributes as the ‘identifiers.'
- Behavioural processes refer to behaving (laughing, smiling, singing). Those who perform
such processes are called ‘behavers.'
- Verbal processes are those referring to all those actions that are about saying something
(promising, talking, warning). Those who say things are ‘sayers,' those who are addressed
are ‘targets.'
- Existential processes concern existing and being there, such as in the sentence ‘There are
lions in Africa.
In material and verbal processes, the patterns of transitivity are especially interesting, as a
participant performs actions onto a goal. In the analysis below, the participant/goal dichotomy will
also be described regarding who is active and passive, as this highlights gendered power structures.
As described above material processes and transitivity patterns are of particular interest within a
feminist perspective, as gendered patterns of agency profoundly influence language and discourse.
The concepts of material processes and transitivity patterns will be applied to uncover the
underlying discourses, ideological and gendered, within articles about #Balancetonporc and
#Metoo.
The framework by Chouliraki & Fairclough, Lazar, and Barker & Galasinksi will inform and
structure the analysis of the different discursive moments of #Balancetonporc and #Metoo within
mainstream French media. To provide a full contextualisation of this analysis and investigation, the

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following section will present a brief introduction into French feminist theories and activism in
contemporary France.
3. Feminism in France
To gain an in-depth understanding of the societal, historical and ideological context in which the
feminist protest, #Balancetonporc and #Metoo, and ensuing debates, came into being, the following
section will briefly examine the history of feminist activism and thought in France.
The examination will focus on feminism in France from the post-war period through the 68’ riots
and up to the years immediately before #Balancetonporc and #Metoo.
This examination will equally highlight what historical and ideological aspects influence
#Balancetonporc and #Metoo locally in France, and what sets it apart from other varieties of
#Metoo globally.
3.1. An introduction into French Feminism
One of the most important French feminist thinkers in post-war France is Simone de Beauvoir
(Thurman, 2010). Her work and writings profoundly influenced the way gender and feminism were
thought and examined in France and beyond (Leffingwell 2018, Thurman 2010, Jenson 1989).
Although parts of her works have been criticised, the concepts and approaches remain highly
relevant in understanding feminism across the globe (Leffingwell 2018).
Beauvoir was a part of the existentialist movement that influenced the intellectual milieu of post-
war France, alongside her life-partner Sartre (Thurman 2010).
Beauvoir's conceptualisation of gender was groundbreaking, precisely because it highlighted the
social construction of gender roles (Mossuz-Lavau 2009, 178). Most notably, her work highlighted
how women are socially constructed to be an inferior ‘other' in opposition to men, hence the name
of her two tome book ‘The Second Sex.'
‘The Second Sex’ presents a detailed analysis of the gender discrimination and constructions of
gender from historical, sociological, psychological, economic and physiological perspectives.
Meanwhile, it is the phrase ‘On ne naît pas femme, on le devient,' that has become emblematic of
Beauvoir's early social constructivist conceptualisation of gender.
Beauvoir positions herself in the discussion about feminism in the introduction to her book:

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Beauvoir states that these discussions must be over now and that she hopes her book will be read in
its worth (Leffingwell 2018).
The positioning can be understood in the light of French women gaining the right to vote in 1994,
relatively late compared to other similar European countries (Leffingwell 2018).
Advocating and gaining the right to vote is what has generally been understood to mark the motives
and the end of the first wave of feminism.
One criticism of Beauvoir's feminism has been focused on how the influence of existentialist
thought places a disproportionate emphasis on the power of existentialist transcendence
(Leffingwell 2018). In this sense, Beauvoir's answer to the oppression of and discrimination against
women would be existential transcendence; a solution which values the individual power with
disregard to the systemic nature of oppression and domination.
Mossuz-Lavau (2009, p. 178) underlines that there is indeed a duality of discourses within ‘The
Second Sex,' as the first volume examines the female conditions through an essentialist view,
commenting on ‘The Woman,' ‘The Girl' or yet ‘The Lesbian.'
In Mossuz-Lavau’s view, this essentialist view promotes the idea that there is such a thing as an
essence of femininity. However, the second tome of ‘The Second Sex' presents a different and more
dynamic analysis of the construction of differences between the two sexes within specific historical
and social contexts, which in turn inspires the notion of ‘gender.'The duality of views on gender and
gender differences, present in Beauvoir's work, is, according to Mossuz-Lavau (2009), what
continues to inspire, influence and divide French feminists throughout the 20th century and into the
new millennium.
Moving on from Beauvoir and her seminal works on feminism, the next pivotal moment in the
feminist history of France is intricately linked to the student riots of may '68 (Jenson 1989, p. 55).
The student riots started in Paris and soon spread to other major French cities (Ibid).
After the riots, the French left wing sees a revitalisation, which sparks the creation of Mouvement
du Libération des Femmes (MLF) (Jenson 1989, p. 56). Jenson argues that the evolution of
feminism in France is thus closely linked to the evolution of the French political left wing (1989, p.
56).
The women’s liberation movement in France, MLF, was marked by internal fractions.
These internal fractions reflected the movement’s links to parties on the political left wing, as these
in turn also were divided internally.

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Jenson (1989, p. 56) identifies three different currents of feminism in France after '68: revolutionary
feminism, egalitarian feminism, and syndicalist feminism. These currents are identified based on
their ideological understanding of feminism, as well as on their understanding of how to perform
political activism.
The women’s liberation movement belonged to the revolutionary branch, as they employed activist
tactics from the extreme left, such as attacking symbols of power: L’Arch de Triomphe, La Petite
Roquette and the headquarter of the women’s magazine Elle.
However, there would soon be substantial discussions within the women’s liberation movement as
to whether feminism should be revolutionary and uncompromising or reformist and ready to
collaborate with official institutions. Mossuz-Lavau (2009, p. 179) identify two main streams, both
within the women's liberation movement – a differentialist stream and an egalitarian stream. These
streams mainly differ in their ideological understanding of feminism, rather than in their
understanding of how political activism should be performed. The differentialist branch included
distinguished academics such as Luce Irigaray, Julia Kristeva and Helene Cixous (Ibid) .
The common point of differentialist feminists in 70’s and 80’s France was the idea that there are
feminine specificities, which are represented in the current societal structures.
Differentialist feminism is therefore also essentialist, in the assumption that there is a feminine
essence, inherently present within women. The egalitarian feminists were firmly opposed to the idea
of feminine specificities and feminine essence and therefore opposed to the differentialist feminists
(Ibid).
Egalitarian feminists oppose differentialist essentialism out of a fear that it might legitimise the
existing societal systems of gender domination over women.
Mossuz-Lavau cites Collette Guillaumien, Christine Delphy, and Nicole-Claude Mathieu as some
of the egalitarian feminist thinkers present within the women's liberation movement (2009, p. 180).
According to Jenson (1989, p. 57), the egalitarian branch of the women's liberation movement
views the difference between men and women as socially constructed, and the intellectual legacy of
Beauvoir helps the examination of this social construction.
Furthermore, Jenson (1989, p. 64) credits the egalitarian branch of the women’s liberation
movement with the advocacy work leading to the law, la loi Veil, granting French women the right
to abortion.
The campaign included a manifesto, published by Le Nouvel Observateur, in which 343 female
public figures came forward to share their stories about abortion.

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To Jenson, it was concerning the question of abortion that the women's liberation movement had its
biggest successes.
As noted previously, Jenson (1989, p. 60) identified a syndicalist branch of feminism in post ’68
France, apart from the revolutionary and egalitarian branches.
Syndicalist feminism was explicitly occupied with the conditions of working women and how their
situations as women differed from those of their male colleagues.
Syndicalist feminism fought against sexual harassment in the workplace and generally sought to
examine the specificities of women’s place within capitalism.
Jenson (1989, p. 66) deems that the women's liberation movement is weakened after 1980, as there
is a tendency for activists from '68 to become technocrats within the institutions they once fought.
Jenson, who writes in 1989 (p. 66), comments upon the weakens of the feminist movement in
France, while Mossuz-Lavau, who writes in 2009 (p. 185), identifies three streams of feminism
within the recent time in France: differentialist intellectuals, egalitarians, and the younger
intellectuals.
The differentialist and egalitarian streams build on the same ideological foundations, and
oppositions, as described above concerning the divisions within the women's liberation movement.
Mossuz-Lavau identifies Geneviève Fraisse as one egalitarian feminist thinker of recent times
(2009, p. 182-183).
Interestingly, Fraisse guested Lauren Bastide’s feminist podcast La Poudre in a special
documentary edition on #Balancetonporc and #Metoo in France (Bastide 2018a). Fraisse, who is a
historian, has worked on highlighting the history of feminist thought in France and therefore
contributed to the podcast documentary by contextualising #Metoo within feminist history. In the
podcast, Fraisse argues that what sets #Metoo apart from other moments of feminist engagement, is
the scope of the question: everyone, men, and women alike, were forced to question what had
happened in their past, as well as what they had done to others in their past. (La Poudre, La Marche
2, Minutter). What Fraisse expresses resonates with the concept of transformative empathy,
highlighted by Rodino-Colocino (2018) concerning #Metoo. Rodine-Colocino argues that
transformative empathy "promotes listening rather than distancing or looking at speakers as 'others.'
It requires self-reflexivity and potential transformation of one's own assumptions" (2018, p. 97).
Furthermore, Fraisse published an essay on the concept of consent in 2007, to highlight the
pollicisation of the term in media discussions on everything from sex work to the Islamic headscarf
(Fraisse, 2007).

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Mossuz-Lavau highlights Virginie Despentes (2009, p. 185) as an example of the younger
generation of feminist intellectuals in France. Despentes has written on rape, consent and sex work.
Rather than providing a historical context a Fraisse does, Despentes shares her own experiences and
views on the subjects. When describing her experience with rape, Despentes equally highlights the
problematic nature of having to report a rape to a male-dominated police world (Despentes, 2006).
Furthermore, Despentes claims that there is a notion that rape is extraordinary, periphery to
sexuality and something that can be avoided (2006, p. 53). Meanwhile, she equally claims that rape
is ‘une programme politique precise. Squelette du capitalisme, il est la representation crue et directe
de l’exercice du pouvoir.” (2006, p. 53). This brief survey of French feminism in post-war France
underlines two things. Firstly, it underlines that there has been a, more or less, a constant flow of
feminist thought and engagement in France since the second world war. Secondly, it underlines that
the subjects of rape, sexual harassment, and consent were present within feminist thought and
activism in France well before #Metoo arrived.
To explore the second point further, the following section will provide a brief introduction into how
sexual abuse and harassment cases were dealt with in mainstream French media before
#Balancetonporc and #Metoo.
3.2. Sexual harassment and abuse in France before #Metoo
The so-called ‘l’affaire DSK’ is one of the most notable stories around sexual harassment and abuse
in French media in recent times (Montvalon 2018).
Dominique Strauss-Kahn, then the head of the International Monetary Fund, raped a maid in his
luxury hotel room in New York in May 2011.
As highlighted by Jean-Baptiste de Montvalon (2018) for Le Monde, there is a tangible difference
in how sexual abuse and harassment stories were treated at the time of l’affaire DSK compared to at
the time #Balancetonporc and #Metoo first spread.
A significant difference is found when looking at who gets to talk on the subject.
At the time of l’affaire DSK, Dominique Strauss-Kahn was at the height of his career and set to be
the next presidential candidate of the French Socialist Party.
The hotel maid in question was a young Guinean woman, and as such the power balance between
offender and survivor was extremely asymmetrical. L'affaire DSK was marked by stark disbelief
against the numerous women who soon came forward to share their experiences of sexual

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harassment and abuse endured from Strauss-Kahn.
Montvalon (2018) underlines that at the time of l’affaire DSK, it was images of the accused who
filled screens and newspapers, while at the time of #Metoo it was the faces of survivors, that
dominated the picture.
During l’affaire DSK sexism dominated the media landscape; the lawyers of Strauss-Kahn
suggested that the maid in question was not very seductive, implying this would make a rape case
implausible. Former French prime minister Jack Lang stated ‘Il n’y a pas de mort d’homme’ to
show the lacking severity of a possible rape case (Montvalon 2018).
Meanwhile, 3000 people took part in a feminist demonstration against Strauss-Kahn in Paris in May
2011.
Fast forward five years, 8 French women file a lawsuit against the politician Denis Baupin for
sexual harassment and abuse (Montvalon 2018, Bredoux 2016). The lawsuit does not result in any
legal actions against Baupin, but Montvalon (2018) deems the situation has already changed as the
women are not met with the disbelief, which was omnipresent in l'affaire DSK.
The above highlights a possible change in how sexual harassment and abuse cases are treated in
mainstream French media; notably, it highlights how this change may have started years before
#Balancetonporc and #Metoo.
Additionally, numerous organisations have worked to fight against sexual harassment and abuse in
France for many years: such as Les Chiennes de Garde (2018)
, Le Collectif Féministe Contre le Viol (2018), Clasches (2018), ECVF – Élu.e.s contre les
violences faites aux femmes (2018).
These organisations were created between 1985 and 2003, and work specifically with rape and
sexual harassment. Meanwhile, other feminist organisations such as Osez le Feminisme, created in
2009, equally work to advocate for better conditions for victims of sexual violence and abuse.
As such, feminist organisations have been campaigning for awareness around sexual harassment
and violence for many years before the #Metoo movement brought it into the mainstream media.
Platforms such as the Tumblr account Paye Ta Shnek employed the same dynamics as the #Metoo
and #Balancetonporc campaigns years before #Metoo became a global phenomenon.
Paye Ta Shnek is a platform for people to share their experiences of sexual harassments in the
public space. Similarly, to both #Balancetonporc and #Payetaplainte, Paye Ta Shnek tends to
include the exact quotations of the harassers, as to show the importance of discourse in sexual
harassment. On a global scale, #Metoo also had predecessors in hashtags such as #YesAllWomen.

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#YesAllWomen was a response to the hashtag #NotAllMen, which claimed to prove that not all
men were rapists or misogynists. #YesAllWomen gave women an opportunity to share their
experiences with sexual assault and harassment in a similar way to #Metoo.
As described above, #Metoo was created more than ten years ago by Tarana Burke, as a way for
survivors of sexual assault and harassment to share their experiences.
The outline above shows that there has been long-standing feminist activism against sexual
harassment and abuse in France, both in organisations and online.
The contextualisation above situates #Balancetonporc and #Metoo within a history of feminist
thought and engagement, as well as within a possible shift in discourses on sexual harassment and
abuse in mainstream French media.
This contextualisation provides the grounds to delve into the analysis of media discourses around
#Balancetonporc and #Metoo in mainstream French media.
4. Critical Discourse Analysis
The critical discourse analysis will be divided into different discursive moments, as described
previously concerning the methodology of the project.
Each discursive moment includes articles from a range of online news outlets, and the discursive
moments follow each other chronologically.
An overarching theme define each discursive moment of #balanctonporc and #Metoo.
The first discursive moment is defined by the sharing of personal stories from people, usually
women, who have suffered sexual harassment and abuse in the past.
Generally, the stories are tweeted, but may be shared through other platforms as well.
This moment marks the beginning of what becomes known, globally and generally, as #Metoo.
In this first discursive moment, the discourses present in the shared stories are both social practice
and discursive reflexive construction of a social practice.
Social practice, in the sense that the discourses are integral in the protest against sexual harassment
and abuse, and reflexive construction, in the sense that the discourses reflexively produce and
negotiate received notions of sexual harassment or abuse and what it means to have suffered under
these.
The second discursive moment is defined by the transition of #Metoo, from being an online based
protest against sexual harassment and abuse into becoming a ‘real life’ street protest.
This transition also solidifies #Metoo as a phenomenon and as a reference point.

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In this second discursive moment, the discourses present in the articles describing the street protests
are mainly a reflexive construction of a social practice. The discourses reflexively produce and
establish #Metoo as a phenomenon and an entity. A backlash against the now-omnipresent
phenomenon defines the third discursive moment #Metoo. The possibility of a backlash shows just
how established #Metoo has become. The backlash sparks debate and is in turn also countered. In
this third discursive moment, the discourses mainly function as social practices. The discourses
become part of the social practice, which started the phenomenon: protest, albeit in this case the
protest is protested. Naturally, the discourses are also in part reflexive constructions of the
phenomenon in their positioning for or against the conventional understandings of what #Metoo is.
The fourth discursive moment is defined by a renewed interest in contextualising #Metoo, at the
occasion of the International Day of Women’s Rights.
In this fourth discursive moment, the discourses are predominantly reflexive constructions of the
phenomenon, which once again indicates how established and received #Metoo comes to be.
4.1. Personal stories shared on Twitter.
As mentioned above, the first discursive moment in #Balancetonporc and #Metoo phenomenon is
constituted by the overwhelming amount of personal accounts of sexual harassment and abuse that
‘flooded’ the internet in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal.
Although the hashtag #Metoo was initially created by Tarana Burke (Rodino-Colocino 2018, p. 1),
it was the relaunch by Alyssa Milano that made the hashtag viral (Keller, Mendes &Ringrose 2018,
p. 236).
Milano encouraged all women who had experienced sexual harassment and abuse to come forward
by merely stating #Metoo after she had come forward to share her experiences of sexual abuse
endured from Weinstein. Soon after, French journalist Sandra Muller created a similar hashtag,
encouraging French women to ‘expose their pig' #Balancetonporc (Mallaval & Coulaud, 2018).
Where #Metoo demands little of the participants, other than the use of the hashtag, #Balancetonporc
encourages women to share details, the name of the offender and situation in which the harassment
or abuse took place. #Balancetonporc also went viral quickly, and more than 50.000 tweets were
published the following weekend. Mid-October 2017, a website, equally entitled #Balancetonporc,
was put in place to allow victims of sexual harassment and abuse to share their experiences
anonymously while providing resources for victims to seek legal and psychological help to cope
with the traumas. Soon, French media picked up on the viral phenomenon. Articles in this

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discursive moment vary from relaying the most shared tweets to drawing parallels with previous
sexual harassment scandals to criticizing the movement all together as shown in the following
headlines:
Accusé via #Balancetonporc, Jean Lassalle se défend d’avoir mis ”une main au cul”(Herreros 2017)
Balance ton porc? Non merci ! (Khadra 2017)
Scandales sexuels : enfin une libération de la parole dans le monde politique ? (Coulaud 2017),
Harcèlement sexuel: #Balancetonporc passage de témoins en France (Mallaval & Coulaud 2017)
Sandra Muller a lancé #Balancetonporc: ”Je l’ai fait pour toutes les victimes” (Bajos 2017)
#Balancetonporc: On a soumis 8 témoignages concrets à une avocate spécialisée (Toussay 2017
#Metoo (”Moi Aussi”): Alyssa Milano déclenche une nouvelle vague de témoignages d’abus
sexuels (Malonga 2017)
#Metoo or #Balancetonporc, le flot ne s’arrêtera pas (Le Monde 2017a)
#Balancetonporc: les témoignages de harcèlement sexuel se propagent sur Twitter (RFI 2017).
Sous le hashtag #Balancetonporc, 16.000 témoignages d’agression et de harcèlement. (Souben
2017).
”Balance ton porc”, ”Me Too”: ”Il m’est arrivé de re ne rien faire. Ça ne se reproduira plus”
(Pilorget-Rezzouk 2017).
Des témoignages de harcèlement sexuel affluent avec #Balancetonporc. (Bariéty 2017).

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The personal accounts and experiences present in these articles occur within a historic tradition of
disbelieving women, who come forward about rape and sexual abuse, as underlined by e.g.
Montvalon 2018. The tendency to disbelief women is equally touched upon by Giulia Foïs, who
was accused of being a compulsive liar by specific twitter users ( Bariéty 2017).
In the following section, two articles from the category will be analysed in depth, notably ”Balance
ton porc”: quand les femmes racontent harcèlement et agressions” by Aurore Coulaud(2017) in La
Libération and “Des témoignages de harcèlement sexual affluent avec #Balancetonporc” by Aude
Bariéty (2017) in Le Figaro.
The two articles relay a number of tweets, specifically from #Balancetonporc. These tweets are
embedded into the articles so that when viewing the articles online, the tweets appear as they would
on Twitter.
As the tweets are embedded into the articles, it is interesting to examine the metalanguage
employed to construct a coherent article around these alien textual elements.
The article by Coulaud includes metalingustic vocabulary such as: posté, décrit, entendu, explique
and indique.
These words relate to the description of how Sandra Muller launched the campaign and how it
gained momentum.
Regarding semantic value, these words are somewhat neutral, which is particularly interesting
concerning how Sandra Muller relays her own experiences. As mentioned above, women coming
forward with experiences of sexual harassment and abuse have and do still often face disbelief.
The article by Bariéty employs the similarly neutral ‘raconter’ when relaying how masses of
women share their experiences of sexual harassment and abuse.
However, the hashtag #Balancetonporc is qualified with the adjective ‘percutant,' through which the
author may distance herself from the phenomenon.
Furthermore, when describing how Sandra Muller created the twitter campaign, Bariéty focuses on
the mental processes behind: ‘Si Sandra Muller n'hésite pas à donner un nom…' and ‘Sandra Muller
ne semble pas vouloir s'arrêter là.'
The focus on mental processes suggests less objectivity and facticity than a focus on material
processes (Barker & Galasinski 2001, p. 71). As mentioned previously, the two articles are
composed of tweets embedded into the text. As a part of #Balancetonporc, a majority of the tweets
include quotations from the ‘pig' in question. The quotations from the ‘pig’, or offender, are marked
by quotation marks.

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Usually, the quotation appears last in the tweet, after an introduction of the situation in which the
sexual harassment occurred.
Therefore, there is a duality of discursive voices in the tweets: The voice of the victim reflecting
and relaying their experiences of sexual harassment and abuse, and the voice of the offender at the
time of the harassment or abuse, as rendered by the victim.
The inclusion of the offender’s voice underlines the dialect relationship between discourse and
social practice in the case of sexual harassment and abuse. The offenders’ voices prove that
discourse can be integral to the problematic social practice, that is sexual harassment and abuse.
As described earlier, emphasis will be on analysis of the ideational function. In this discursive
moment, transitivity patterns can reveal the relation between linguistic structures and social power
structures in situations of harassment and abuse. To gain an in-depth understanding of the
discursive structures within the offenders' quotations, these quotations will be analysed not only in
relation to the tweets in which they are contained but equally as their entities with various ideational
processes.
In the following, four tweets displaying this duality of discursive voices are analysed in terms of
ideational processes and transitivity patterns.
Un red chef, grand radio, petit couloir, m’attrapant par la gorge: ”un jour, je vais te baiser, que tu
le veuilles ou non”
Tweeted by Giulia Foïs.
In this tweet, the first ideational process is a material process. The material process lies in the action
‘attrapant', which is carried out by the actor ‘red chef' onto the goal Giulia Foïs, implied in the
‘m'attrapant.'
The transitivity pattern in this material process shows the offender ‘red chef’ as the actor, with
agency and power, and the author of the tweet Giulia Foïs as the goal of the action.
The second ideational process is a verbal process in which the sayer, ‘red chef' is threatening the
target, Giulia Foïs, with rape.
The transitivity pattern of this verbal process reflects that of the first material process: ‘red chef’ is
carrying out actions, while Giulia Foïs is the target of these actions.
The verbal process contains two ideational processes, a material process, and a mental process.
The verbal process consists of the main clause and a subordinate clause, and this grammatical

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structure underpins the relation between the material process and the mental process. The material
process is centered on the action ‘baiser,' which is carried out by the actor, ‘red chef,' implied in ‘je,'
onto the target Giulia Foïs, implied in ‘te.'
This material process is contained within the main clause of the sentence. The mental process is
centered around the senser Giulia Foïs, implied in ‘tu,' perceiving the phenomenon ‘le veuilles ou
non’.
The mental process is contained within the subordinate clause, and therefore, it only serves to point
out that the material process of the main clause will be carried out on to the goal Giulia Foïs
regardless of what she may feel, as expressed in the mental process.
The patterns of transitivity in this tweet are integral to the description of the sexual harassment
situation; The transitivity patterns, in which Giulia Foïs is passive, and the ‘red chef’ is active, are
repeated in Foïs' introduction as well as in the offender's quotation.
Animateur-prod tele dont je refusais les avances ”tu ne bosseras plus jamais petite pute! Plus
jamais tu m’entends??!!!!”
Tweeted by Julia Molkhou.
In this tweet, the first ideational process is the relational process that identifies the offender
‘animateur-prod tele’ with the carrier ‘dont je refusais les avances’.Within this carrier, there is an
ideational process in which Julia Molkhou is the actor, ‘je’, carrying out the action ‘refusais’ onto
the goal animateur-prod tele, implied through ‘dont’.
The transitivity patterns of this material process are different from those seen above, in the sense
that it is the author of the tweet which is active and the offender who is passive. However, this is
followed by a verbal process, in which the sayer, ‘animateur-prod’, threatens Julia Molkhou that she
will never work again. The sentence is constructed as though there is a correlation between the
material process and the verbal process: the material process is employed to introduce the situation
in which the verbal process was uttered. The verbal process repeats the transitivity pattern in which
the offender is active (sayer), and the author of the tweet is passive (target), perhaps as a result of
the reversal of the transitivity pattern in the initial material process.

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Un chef de service, grand service public, me coince dans un ascenseur: ”tu y passeras commes les
autres que tu le veuilles ou non. “ Le même?
Tweeted by Françoise Zimmer.
In this tweet, the first ideational process is a material process, centered around the action ‘coince’.
This material process is carried out by the actor ‘un chef de service’ onto the goal ‘me’, which
implies Françoise Zimmer.
Through this material process, the transitivity patterns examined above is repeated: the offender is
active, while the author of the tweet is passive.
The second ideational process is a verbal process in which the sayer ‘un chef de service’ threatens
Françoise Zimmer ‘tu y passeras comme les autres que tu le veuilles ou non’.
Once again, this verbal process reiterates the transitivity patterns highlighted above.
The verbal process contains a material process and a mental process, contained within the main
clause and a subordinate clause, respectively. The material process is centered around the action
‘passeras’ carried out onto the goal ‘tu’, which implies Françoise Zimmer, by the indirect actor ‘Un
chef de service’.
In the mental process, Françoise Zimmer is the senser, perceiving the phenomenon ‘le veuilles ou
non’.
Similar to the case above, the relation between the material process and the mental process is
underpinned through the grammatical clause structure. The mental process is contained within a
subordinate clause to express how the action of the material process will be carried out onto the
goal, Françoise Zimmer, regardless of what she may feel or perceived.
Un confrère dans un rédaction: ”Ah non, je vais pas te conduire là-bas. Si tu montes dans ma
voiture, j’aurai envie de te violer.”
Tweeted by Elisabeth Phillippe.
The initial ideational process in this tweet is an existential process that functions as the introduction
to the situation: "un confrère dans un redaction."
The second ideational process is a verbal process, in which the sayer, ‘un confrère’ jokes about
raping the target, Elisabeth Philippe; ”Ah non, je vais pas te conduire là-bas. Si tu montes dans ma
voiture, j’aurai envie de te violer. “

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This verbal process contains two material processes, centered around the actions ‘conduire’ and
‘montes,' as well as one mental process centered around the feeling ‘envie’.
In the first material process, the actor, ‘un confrère’ implied by ‘je’, carries out the action of
refusing to drive Elisabeth Philippe somewhere. The second material process function as a
conditional clause, marked by the initial ‘si’.
This ‘si’ reveals the relation between the second material process and the mental process; If
Elisabeth Philippe carries out the action described in the material process, the feelings described in
the mental process would be felt by the ‘confrère’.
As such, the relation between the material process and the mental process suggests that Elisabeth
Phillippe, in the ‘confrère’s view, would be responsible for his lust to rape her, simply by getting in
his car.
Conclusions to the analysis of tweets
The analysis of the tweets shows the specific use of two different discursive voices within a single
tweet. The women, who are authors of the tweets, use their discursive voice to identify their
offender and described the physical harassment, that precluded or accompanied verbal abuse.
The verbal abuse is rendered by quoting the offenders with quotations marks.
Analysis of the offenders' quotations shows that the offenders generally are the active participants,
while the women are passive targets or goals.
The sentence ‘que tu le veuilles ou non’ appears twice and signifies a calculated disregard of
women’s potential feelings towards the suggest sexual interactions.
The gravity of the verbal abuse is underlined by the vocabulary, which includes ‘baiser’, ‘pute’, and
‘violer’. Analysis of the tweets underlines how discourse is integral to the practice of sexual
harassment and abuse, as abuse may well be verbal. The following will provide further exploration
of the discourses and their relation to social practices.
4.2. From tweets to the streets
!
The second discursive moment of #Balancetonporc and #Metoo is defined by the solidification of
#Metoo as a phenomenon, precisely through the transition from online protests to street protests. In
this discursive moment, articles go beyond merely introducing or explaining #Balancetonporc and
#Metoo. The phenomenon is qualified and questioned for its possibility to achieve social change, as

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well as the pertinence of the methods employed.#Balancetonporc and #Metoo are solidified through
two significant protests on the October 29th and November 25th. The latter coincided with the
International Day Against Violence Against Women. At this occasion, the French president
Emmanuel Macron invited an array of French feminists to L’Élysée, where he held a speech about
how the fight against genered violence and gender inequalities were to be at the forefront of his
political programme.
Articles indicate the solidification of #Metoo and #Balancetonporc as a phenomenon in France as
seen in the following headlines:
#Moiaussi, #Balancetonporc et après la catharsis en ligne, la mobilisation? (Morin 2017).
Le hashtag #Metoo a pris vie (France Culture 2017).
#Metoo, au point de depart de la colère mondiale des femmes (Lesnes 2017).
Harcèlement: la parole se libère, l’écoute suffoque (Mallaval 2017).
Et la parole des femmes se libéra (Dryef 2017).
Violences infligées aux femmes: “Nous exhortons le gouvernement à revoir sa copie” (Le Monde
2017c).
Violences sexuelles: hausse de 30% des plaintes en octobre en zone de gendarmerie (Le Monde
2017b).
Violences faites aux femmes: des mots sans moyens nouveaux (Dupont 2017)
#Metoo: Des centaines de personnes rassemblées en France contre le harcèlement sexuel (Leroux et
al. 2017)
#Metoo: Manifestation parisienne de ce dimanche débute timidement (20 Minutes 2017).

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Au rassemblement contre le harcèlement: “#Metoo a été une délivrance”. (Dumont 2017).
EN IMAGES. Manifestation #Metoo: “Un océan de parole se libère”. (Parant 2017).
#Metoo: de Twitter à la “vie réelle” (Ravel 2017).
Violences faites aux femmes: les images de la manifestation à Paris (Huffington Post 2017).
“#Metoo dans la vraie vie”: un rassemblement en soutien aux victimes de harcèlement sexuel
dimanche à Paris. (France Info 2017).
Harcèlement sexuel: Des rassemblements #Metoo partout en France ce dimanche pour libérer la
parole (Malonga 2017).
De Londres à Moscou, les effets du scandale Weinstein en Europe (Bernard et al. 2017).
The street protests against sexual harassment are display links to the online protests through
discursive means, such as reiterating #Metoo and #Balancetonporc on analog platforms where the #
does not serve any technological function. This discursive moment marks the transition of
#Balancetonporc and #Metoo from an online protest movement to a ‘real life' street protest.
Analysis of articles exemplifying this discursive moment will, therefore, focus on the representation
of the transition and how this relates to the overarching reflexive construction of the movement in
discourse.
In the following section, two articles representing the second discursive moment of
#Balancetonporc and #Metoo will be analysed with a specific focus on vocabulary and ideational
processes.
The articles were written by Clotilde Ravel for rfi.fr and by Julia Dumont for France24. The article
by Ravel occurs before the street protests have taken place, while the article by Dumont is
published after the protests.
#Metoo:!de!Twitter!à!la!vie!‘réelle’!

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Vocabulary
Underlying discursive trends can be uncovered by examining the choice of vocabulary for a
description of how #Balancetonporc and #Metoo came into being.
Ravel employs metaphors from the natural world, such as ‘une avalanche’, ‘enflammer Twitter’ and
‘la vague de témoignages et de mobilisation qui a déferlé sur les reseaux sociaux’.
The emphasis on natural metaphors reflexively constructs #Balancetonporc and #Metoo as a very
sudden, but forceful and uncontrollable phenomenon.
This construction is underlined by the adjectives ‘soudaine et nécessaire’, employed to qualify the
liberation of speech that characterizes the first discursive moment of #Balancetonporc and #Metoo.
Several times #Balancetonporc and #Metoo are constructed as the active participants, intervening to
liberate women’s voices: ”Mais cette libération de parole soudaine et nécessaire peut-elle exister en
dehors des réseaux sociaux?”, ”avant de saluer la libération de la parole sur les réseaux sociaux”
and ”ont largement contribué à libérer la parole des femmes”.
Along with the natural metaphors, the idea of liberation of women's voices constructs
#Balancetonporc and #Metoo as social movement erupting naturally out of nowhere.
As underlined in the introduction to feminism in France, grassroots organisations, online and
offline, have fought sexual harassment and abuse for many years.
The work of feminist and scholar Rebecca Solnit helps illuminate how come the fight against sexual
harassment and abuse is constructed as something sudden and newly erupted in the media, when in
fact it has been on-going for many years.
Solnit (2016 p. 34) explains that social change movements often operate in the margins of
mainstream media and at the grassroots level for many years with no recognition of their efforts.
Once the cause of a movement moves to the center of attention in mainstream media, the media will
seamlessly construct the movement as though it came out of nowhere, with no relation to the prior
grassroots work. This move ensures that the media will not be questioned on their lack of coverage
of the years of grassroots work and political activism that build the social movement.
Through Solnit’s conceptualisation of the place social change movements occupies in mainstream
media, the problematic aspects of qualifying #Balancetonporc and #Metoo as a natural eruption of
feminist engagement are uncovered.
Following on from the reflexively construction of how #Balancetonporc and #Metoo came into
being, comes the representation of the transition from online movement to ‘real-life’ street protests.

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To analyse the construction of this transition, the following sentences will be analysed in terms of
their construction of reality through ideational processes.
Ideational processes
”Ils [les témoignages] commencent peu à peu à se répandre dans la vraie vie et dans la rue”.
This sentence contains a material process, in which the actor ‘ils’ carries out the action of
‘commencent à se répandre’ onto the goal ‘dans la vraie vie’.
The actor ‘ils' refers to ‘les témoginages’. As such, the testimonials or stories, described in the first
discursive moment, are placed as the active participant, rather than women directly.
The action within the material process appears more gradual, than what the vocabulary described
above suggested: ‘peu à peu’ underlines that the transition from online movement to ‘real-life’
movement is not sudden or forceful, as the ‘eruption’ of the online movement was.
”A Singapour ou encore Stockholm, des victimes ainsi que leurs soutiens sont déjà descendus dans
la rue au mois d’octobre”
Here, ‘des victims ainsi que leurs soutiens’ are the actors carrying out the action of ‘sont déjà
descendus’ onto the goal ‘dans la rue au mois d’octobre’.
The pattern of transitivity in this material process is different from the one above, as the active
participation is placed directly with the victims and their supporters.
Furthermore, the adverb ‘déjà’ underlines how #Metoo in other countries has already undergone the
transition into street protests.
”J’ai vu un nombre impressiont de #Metoo se déployer sur les réseaux sociaux et j’ai pensé qu’il
fallait faire de ce mouvement plus qu’un hashtag, explique l’organisatrice de l’évènement parisien,
Carol Galand, contactée par RFI.”
Several different ideational processes are contained within this sentence.
Firstly, there is a mental process in which the senser ‘je’ senses ‘un nombre impressionant de
#Metoo se déployer sur les ´reseaux sociaux’.

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Secondly, there is another mental process in which ‘je’ sense ‘qu'il fallait faire de ce mouvement
plus qu'un hashtag’. In both mental processes, the senser is Carol Galand, who is the organiser of
the Parisian street protests. The second mental process contains a material process, in which the
anonymous actor ‘il’ carries out the action of ‘fallait faire' onto the goal ‘de ce mouvement plus
qu'un hashtag’.
The material process underlines that Carol Galand’s mental process presents a wish for material
change in the nature of the #Metoo movement.
Lastly, the sentence contains the relational process identifying Carol Galand with the identifiers
‘l'organisatrice de l'évènement parisien’ and ‘contactée par RFI’.
The transitivity patterns in this sentence place emphasis on Carol Galand as the active participant.
”La mobilisation ”dans la vraie” vie se justifie car ”tout le monde n’est pas sur les reseaux
sociaux, notamment les anciennes générations, qui ont comme nous des histoires à raconter”
explique Carol Galand avant d’ajouter que “c’est une bonne chose de se rencontrer pour de vrai,
d’être ensemble et de dénoncer ensemble les violences faites aux femmes sur la place publique”.
This sentence represents a verbal process in which Carol Galand is the sayer. There is a number of
ideational processes within what she says.
Firstly, there are three mental processes.
The first identifies ‘la mobilisation’ with the identifier ‘dans la vraie vie’, which underlines that
there is a distinctive type of ‘real-life’ engagement.
The second identifies ‘tout le monde’ with the identifier ‘n'est pas sur les reseaux sociaux’ to
underline that being on social media is not necessarily an identifier, which can be attributed to
everyone.
The third identifies ‘les anciennes générations’ with the identifier ‘qui on comme nous des histoires
à raconter’.
The second and third relational process are linked through ‘notamment.’
These three relational processes show that there is a specific type of ‘real-life’ engagement,
different from online engagement. ‘Real-life’ engagement is justified because there are groups of
the population who may not be on social media, all while having stories to tell about sexual
harassment and abuse.
Lastly, there are two existential processes and a material process.

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The two existential processes are ‘c'est une bonne chose de se rencontrer pour de vrai’ and ‘d'être
ensemble’. As existential processes, these things are presented as facts, rather than emotions or
thoughts.
In the material process, the actor ‘ensemble’ carries out the action of ‘dénoncer’ the goal ‘les
violences faites aux femmes’.
In terms of transitivity patterns, the overarching verbal process places emphasis on Carol Galand as
the active participant. Meanwhile, Carol Galand places a plurality of people or ‘ensemble’ as the
actor in the material process.
”La jeune femme n’appartient à aucune association, elle souhaite que ce rassemblement soit
apartisan et se réjouit que l’initiative ait fait des petits partout en France”.
This sentence contains a relational process in which ‘la jeune femme’ is identified through the
identifier ‘n’appartient à aucune association’. Furthermore, the sentence contains two mental
processes where ‘elle’, referring to Carol Galand, sense ‘souhaite’ in relation to the phenomenon
‘que ce ressemblement soit appartisan’ and sense ‘se réjouit’ in relation to the phenomenon ‘que
l’intiative ait fait des petits partout en France’.
This phenomenon equally contains a material process in which the actor ‘l'intiative’ carries out the
action of ‘ait fait' onto the goal ‘des petits partout en France.'
In terms of transitivity patterns, the overall focus remains on Carol Galand as the active participant.
”Objectif: sortir des réseaux sociaux et prendre la rue pour montrer que les femmes sont ”des
milliers et des milliers à devoir vivre, encaisser, digérer et gérer ces expériences souvent
traumatisantes” ecrit sur Facebook Carol Galand.
This sentence contains a verbal process in which Carol Galand is the sayer, who writes things on
Facebook.
Within this verbal process there is a material process in which the protest is the implied actor,
carrying out the action of ‘sortir des réseaux sociaux et prendre la rue’ with the goal ‘montrer que
les femmes sont "des milliers et des milliers à devoir vivre, encaisser, digérer et gérer ces
experiences souvent traumatisantes".

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Carol Galand is once again the overall active participant of the sentence, although her utterances
place emphasis on the protests and the women participating, rather than on herself.
The analysis of the article by Ravel showed an emphasis on the individual organising the protests,
rather than the movement or the protest themselves. This focus may be because the article was
written in anticipation of the protests. However, the emphasis on individual equally underlines the
validity of Solnit's criticism of media treatment of social change movements; the value of the work
done by organisations and grassroots movements is not recognised, but the intentions and thoughts
of one individual is explained to a large extent.
Having analysed the article by Ravel published on rfi.fr, the following will delve into the article by
Dumont for France24.
Au rassemblement contre le harcèlement: #Metoo a été une délivrance
Vocabulary
The vocabulary chosen to describe the occurrence of the #Metoo and #Balancetonporc is similar to
what was found concerning the Ravel article above.
The idea that women’s voices or speech has been liberated is reiterated several times: “La parole
des victims de harcèlement et de violences sexuelles, qui se libère sur les réseaux sociaux”, “Deux
petits mots qui on permis à Malika Hammadi, 51 ans, de se libérer du douloureux secret”, “Cette
libération de la parole” and “Aujourd’hui, Laura se dit satisfaite de voir la parole des femmes se
libérer”.
The liberation of women's voices is framed as caused either by an external force or by the hashtag
#Metoo. Regarding transitivity patterns, the women are therefore not active participants in the
liberation of their voices.
Furthermore, words such as ‘emergence’ and ‘délivrance’ underline the same sense of sudden
occurrence as expressed by Ravel.
To investigate the significance of #Metoo transitioning into a ‘real-life’ street protest, the following
will analyse sentences touching upon the importance or outcome of #Metoo as a whole, as well as
of the street protests specifically.
Ideational processes

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“#Metoo a été une délivrance”
This sentence occurs as a within a verbal process and is an utterance by Malika Hammadi.
Meanwhile, the sentence contains a material process, in which the actor ‘#Metoo' carries out the
action ‘a été' onto the goal ‘une délivrance’.
As this occurs within a verbal process, the material process describes the effect #Metoo has had on
the sayer, Malika Hammadi. It is interesting to note, that at this point, #Metoo is a common point of
reference and can equally function as the actor of a material process. This testifies to the
solidification and the widespread knowledge of the phenomenon.
”Des centaines de personnes se sont rassemblées, dimanche, place de la République, à Paris, pour
que la parole des victimes de harcèlement et de violences sexuels, qui se libère sur les réseaux
sociaux, soit aussi entendue dans la rue.“
Within this sentence, there is a material process in which the actor ‘Des centaines de personnes’
carries out the action ‘se sont rassemblés’ onto the goal ‘pour que la parole des victimes de
harcèlement et de violences sexuels, qui se libère sur les réseaux sociaux, soit aussi entendue dans
la rue’.
This material process contains yet another material process in which ‘qui’, referring to ‘la parole’ is
carrying out the action ‘se libère’ onto the goal ‘sur les réseaux sociaux’.
The transitivity patterns place the protesters, ‘Des centaines de personnes’, as the primary active
participant.
”À lire les pancartes brandies par les centaines de femmes, qui participaient dimanche 29 octobre
au rassemblement contre le harcèlement et les violences sexuels, place de la République, à Paris, la
honte semblait avoir enfin changé de camp.”
This sentence contains a mental process and a material process.
The mental process is experienced by an implicit anonymous senser, who could be the journalist or
anyone present at the protest. The senser is perceiving the signs; “les pancartes brandies pars les
centaines de femmes, qui participaient dimanche 29 octobre au rassemblement contre le
harcèlement et les violences sexuelles, place de la République, à Paris”.

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In the material process, the actor ‘la honte' carries out the action ‘semblait avoir enfin changé' onto
the goal ‘de camp’. Coupled with the mental process, the sentence expresses that the anonymous
senser understands that the shame has changed sides, by looking at the signs of the protesting
women.
#Metoo. Deux petits mots qui ont permis à Malika Hammadi, 51 ans, de se libérer du douloureux
secret qu’elle portait dépuis des années”.
This sentence contains several material processes.
Firstly, the actor ‘Deux petits mots,' referring to #Metoo, carries out the action ‘ont permis' onto the
goal ‘Malika Hammadi’. Lastly, ‘Malika Hammadi' becomes the actor carrying out the action ‘se
libérer' onto the goal ‘du douloureux secret qu'elle portait dépuis des années’.
This shows a duality of transitivity patterns, as the sentences contain two active participants:
#Metoo as a whole and Malika Hammadi as an individual.
”C’est l’émergence sur les réseaux sociaux des hashtags #Metoo et #Balancetonporc, utilisé par
les femmes pour témoigner de leur harcèlement ou agression, qui lui a donné la force de parler”.
This sentence contains a material process in which the actor ‘qui’, refers to ‘l’emergence sur les
réseaux sociaux des hashtags #Metoo et #Balancetonporc, utilise par les femmes pour témoigner de
leur harcèlement ou agression’. The actor is carrying out the action ‘a donné la force de parler’ onto
the goal ‘lui’, which refers to Malika Hammadi.
This material process repeats the transitivity pattern, in which the hashtags become the active
participants.
”Ça a été une délivrance pour moi et j’espère que cela pourra en libérer beaucoup d’autres.”
Firstly, this sentence contains a material process in which the actor ‘Ça’, referring to #Metoo,
carries out the action ‘a été’ onto the goal ‘une délivrance pour moi’.
Secondly, there is a mental process in which the senser ‘j’ hopes for ‘que cela pourra en libérer
beaucoup d'autres’.

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Lastly, the mental process contains a material process, in which the actor ‘cela’ carries out the
action ‘pourra en libérer’ onto the goal ‘beaucoup d'autres’.
As such, the two material process both place #Metoo as the active participant triggering change or
liberation.
”Si les deux jeunes femmes adhèrent au hashtag #Metoo, elles s’interrogent sur ce qui peut être fait
de cette libération de la parole”
This sentence contains two mental processes.
In the first mental process, the senser ‘les deux jeunes femmes’ are adhering the phenomenon
‘hashtag #Metoo’. In the second mental process, the senser ‘elles’, referring to ‘les deux jeunes
femmes’, are questioning themselves on the phenomenon ‘ce qui peut être fait de cette liberation de
la parole’.
As such, the active participants of both processes are ‘les deux jeunes femmes’.
Conclusions on the analysis of the two articles
The above presents an analysis of the ideational functions constructing #Balancetonporc and
#Metoo in two articles by Ravel and Dumont.Both articles employ a vocabulary that constructs
#Balancetonporc and #Metoo as a sudden occurrence or eruption. Particular emphasis is placed on
the liberation of women's voices.
This construction removes women as the active participants in the protests.
The article by Dumont places greater emphasis on the multitude and diversity of women
participating in the protest, while the article by Ravel mainly focuses on the organiser of the
protests.
Dumont includes reflections on how the participants in the protests view the possible outcomes of
the movement, as well as the effects it has had on them personally.
4.3. The right to bother
The third discursive moment of #Balancetonporc and #Metoo may be considered a backlash against
the protests dominating the first and second moment. The backlash against #Metoo was present in
the U.S as well as in France. However, the French backlash, and ensuing debates and discussions

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gained international media attention (Courier International 2018a). Perhaps so, because it in part
was led by internally famous actress Catherine Deneuve.
Along almost 100 other famous French women, Deneuve signed a chronicle arguing that
#Balancetonporc and #Metoo had gone too far. Furthermore, they argued that the protests had
turned into puritanism, which would make seduction and sexual freedom impossible. Interestingly,
the chronicle shows the evolution of the protests into a coherent and omnipresent phenomenon of
which nature, utility, and future can be negotiated and debated. In fact, the #Metoo phenomenon is
discussed regarding its qualities as a cultural phenomenon.
This points to the discourses of this moment being a part of the reflexive construction of #Metoo.
The importance of the discussion around whether #Metoo has gone too far or not far enough is
reflected in the number of articles on the subject:
“Nous défendons une liberté d’importuner, indispensable à la liberté sexuelle”. (Le Monde 2018).
Des feminists accusent la tribune du Monde de “perpétuer la culture du viol”. (Kucinskas 2018).
“Les porcs et leurs allié.e.s ont raison de s’inquiéter”: Caroline De Haas et des militantes feminists
répondent à la tribune publiée dans “Le Monde” (France Info 2018).
Un porc, tu nais? (Slimani 2018).
Le mouvement #Metoo va-t-il trop loin? Le cas Aziz Ansari au coeur du debat (Courier
International 2018)
Vu de l’étranger: Liberté d’importuner, seule la France pouvait s’attaquer au #Metoo (Courier
International 2018)
#Metoo au pays du “libertinage”: Comment la tribune pour la liberté d’importuner est vue à
l’étranger (France Info 2018).
La semaine où #Metoo et “liberté d’importuner” se sont écharpés (Mazuet 2018)

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“Liberté d’importuner” contre “apologie du viol”: duel de tribunes sur l’ère post-Weinstein (Le
Nouvel Observateur 2018a).
“On peut jouir lors d’un viol”: les pires outrances des signataires de la “tribune de Deneuve” (Le
Nouvel Observateur 2018b).
Defense de la “liberté d’importuner”: la tribune publiée dans “Le Monde” indigne dans les milieu
feminists (et au-delà) (LCI 2018).
“Liberté d’importuner”: “des choses intéressantes” mais aussi “profondement choquantes”, pour
Schiappa (Rondel 2018).
Après la tribune co-signée par Catherine Deneuve sur le “puritanisme”, des femmes racontent la
réalité du “droit d’importuner” des hommes (Lorenzo 2018).
Catherine Millet et Catherine Deneuve dénonce le “puritanisme” apparu après l’affaire Weinstein
(Lorenzo 2018)
Pourquoi je trouve qu’une tribune qui defend la “liberté d’importuner” est abjecte (Lunet 2018).
Liberté sexuelle: une tribune qui importune (Ballet 2018)
As mentioned above, this discursive moment is marked by an increased reflectivity on the nature of
#Metoo, both from supporters and opposers. The limits and possible future of #Metoo are debated,
as well as the results of the first few months of ‘liberated speech’.
As seen above, an article relates on the international view of the opinions expressed in the
chronicle, signed by Deneuve and others. This shows the intricacy of the reflectivity around
#Metoo.
As examples of the discourses present within this moment two texts, the chronicle from Le Monde
and a response from author Leïla Slimani, are analysed in-depth.
The chronicle, signed by Deneuve and other, constitute a pivotal moment in the discursive
construction of #Metoo in France.

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Then, the chronicle is analysed further regarding the ideational function.
The Chronicle
The chronicle is built around the overarching argument that #Balancetonporc and #Metoo are bad
for sexual freedom. This argument is underpinned by the notion that #Balancetonporc and #Metoo
have begun to confuse awkward and insistent flirting with sexual harassment and abuse.
Thus, the logic of the argument stipulates that flirting and gallantry are necessary and integral parts
of sexual freedom, without which society risks becoming puritan and totalitarian. The argument is
based on the idea that sexual freedom is gained through free access and opportunity to flirt and to
impose oneself on other individuals. The chronicle specifies that the women signing do not identify
with the type of feminism promoted by #Balancetonporc and #Metoo. It is understood, that this type
of feminism is based on hate of all men and of sexuality in general, as well as on the idea that
women are eternal victims, "éternelles victimes, pauvres petites."
As such, the argumentation in the chronicle refers directly to the discourses, which are part of the
reflexive construction of #Balancetonporc and #Metoo as a phenomenon. In Chouliraki &
Fairclough's terms, the discourses present in the chronicle can be understood to relate to two
different social practices: On the one hand, the discourses relate to the social practice of sexual
harassment and abuse, in the same way, the discourses of the previous moments do. On the other
hand, the discourses equally relate them to the social practice of protesting sexual harassment and
abuse.
The chronicle shows direct references to the tweets analysed in the first discursive moment, in
sentences as the follow: “alors qu’ils n’ont eu pour seul tort que d’avoir touché un genou, tenté de
voler un baiser, parlé de choses “intimes” lors d’un diner professionnel ou d’avoir envoyé des
messages à connotation sexuelle à une femme chez qui l’attirance n’était pas réciproque”.
The references to the tweets suggest an interdiscursivity within the discourses produced on the
subject of #Balancetonporc and #Metoo.
Interdiscursivité suggests a solidification of the phenomenon; it is something that can be referred to
and something that can bear references within.
The vocabulary of the chronicle employs the same usages of ‘liberation de parole’ as seen above
concerning the second discursive moment.
The chronicle opens by stating how the authors believe there is a distinction between sexual
violence and awkward flirting. Continuing, the authors believe the reaction against the former was

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legitimate and necessary, while the reaction against the latter becomes a ‘vague purificatoire’.
As a refutation against the possibility of a feminist response to the chronicle, its authors claim that
anyone going against the #Metoo current is considered a "traîtresse, des complices."
To understand how the reality outside the text is represented, the following presents an analysis of
sentences showing how #Balancetonporc and #Metoo are understood and represented in the
chronicle.
Ideational processes
”Le viol est un crime. Mais la drague insistante ou maladroite n’est pas un délit, ni la galanterie
une agression machiste”.
This text extract is constituted by two different sentences, which are contrasted to each other
through the word ‘mais’.
The first sentence contains a relational process in which the carrier ‘le viol' holds the identifier ‘un
crime’. The second sentence contains two relational processes ‘la drague insistante ou maladroite’
is confirmed not to have the identifier ‘un délit’ and ‘la galanterie’ equally confirmed not to have
the identifier ‘une aggression machiste’. Thus, the ‘mais’ contrasting the two sentences affirm what
is and what is not a crime when it comes to sexual harassment and abuse.
This sentence goes against the idea that every woman can take part in #Balancetonporc or #Metoo
without having to justify their participation through explaining the gravity of their experiences
(Rodino-Colocino 2018, p. 98).
These sentences seek to establish a spectrum, ranging from flirting to sexual assault, to then draw a
universal line as to what is too much. Interestingly, this spectrum and universal line is established
without the inclusion of an active participant. Regarding transitivity patterns, the first sentences do
not include any active participant, and as such, the statements appear to be facts, rather than
opinions.
”Elle était nécessaire. Mais cette libération de la parole se retourne aujourd’hui en son contraire:
on nous intime de parler comme il faut, de taire ce qui fâche, et celles qui refusent de se plier à de
telles injonctions sont regardées commes des traîtresses, des complices”.

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This text extract contains two sentences, contrasted through the word ‘mais’. The first sentence
represents a relational process in which the carriers ‘elle’ refers to ‘une légitime prise de conscience
des violences sexuelles exercées sur les femmes’. ‘Elle’ is attributed the identifier ‘nécessaire’.
The second sentence represents a material process, in which the actor is ‘cette liberation de la
parole’, which carries out the process ‘se retourne aujourd’hui en son contraire’.
The contrast between these two sentences is directly related to the contrast described above: the
chronicle seeks out to establish limits to which it is okay to speak out against, similarly as to how it
sought to establish limits for what constitutes sexual harassment and abuse.
The following text extract describes the outcome of what #Metoo has become, as to underline the
gravity of the situation, in the moment of writing the chronicle.
”De fait, #Metoo a entraîné dans la presse et sur les réseaux sociaux une campagne de délations et
de mises en accusation publiques d’individus qui, sans qu’on leur laisse la possibilité ni de
répondre ni de se défendre, ont été mis exactement sur le même plan que des agresseurs sexuels.”
This sentence contains two material processes. The first, in which #Metoo is the actor, carrying out
the process of ‘a entrainé’ onto the goal ‘une campagne de délations et de mises en accusation
publiques’.
This transitivity pattern suggests #Metoo as an active participant, with the power to carry out
actions with great significance for other people’s lives.
In the second material process, the actor is grammatically omitted but may be assumed to be
#Metoo. The actor carries out the process ‘ont été mis exactement sur le même plan que des
agresseurs sexuels' onto the goal ‘d'individus’.
The transitivity patterns underline that #Metoo is an actor with the power to stir a ‘campagne de
délations’, as well as to label individuals as sexual offenders.
”Cette justice expéditive a déjà ses victimes, des hommes sanctionnés dans l’exercice de leur
métier, contrains à la démission, etc. alors qu’ils n’ont eu pour seul tort que d’avoir touché un
genou, tenté de voler un baiser, parlés de choses ”intimes” lors d’un dîner professionnels ou
d’avoir envoyé des messages à connotation sexuelle à une femmes chez qui l’attirance n’était pas
réciproque”.

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This text extract includes two relational processes, the first in which the carrier is ‘cette justice
expéditive’ which holdes the identifier ‘ses victimes, des hommes sanctionnés dans l’exercice de
leur metier, contraints à la démission, etc. ‘.
The transitivity pattern reflects what was seen above, in which #Metoo was placed as the active
participants.
The second relation process is a negation in which the identified ‘ils’ hold the identifier ‘n’ont eu
pour seul tort que d’avoir touché un genou, tenté de voler un baiser, parlés des choses “intimes” lors
d’un diner professionnels ou d’avoir envoyé des messages à connotation sexuelle à une femmes
chez qui l’attirance n’était pas réciproque”.
The men who have become victims to the alleged ‘justice expéditive’ are thus identified to have
done nothing more than these things.
”Elle peut veiller à ce que son salaire soit égal à celui d’un homme, mais ne pas se sentir
traumatisée à jamais par un frotteur dans le métro, même si cela est considéré comme un délit.”
This sentence contains two mental processes. In the first, the senser ‘elle’ senses the phenomenon
“à ce que son salaire soit égal à celui d'un homme”. This first mental process is contrasted with the
second mental process through the word ‘mais’.
In the second mental process, the omitted senser is ‘elle’ again, who perceives the phenomenon “ne
pas se sentir traumatisée à jamais par un frotteur dans le metro, même si cela est considéré comme
un délit”.
The contrast between the two mental processes establishes a structure in which the senser may feel
affected one thing but not the other, despite the latter being a criminal offense. The patterns of
transitivity focus on women in general through the senser ‘elle’.
However, the focus on women, in general, is used to establish standards for what individual women
may or may not feel.
”Nous pensons que la liberté de dire non à une proposition sexuelle ne va pas sans la liberté
importuner. Et nous considérons qu’il faut savoir répondre à cette liberté d’importuner autrement
qu’en s’enfermant dans le rôle de la proie”.

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This text extract contains two mental processes linked by the connecter ‘et’.
In the first mental process, the senser ‘nous’ perceives the phenomenon “que la liberté de dire non à
une proposition sexuelle ne va pas sans la liberté d’importuner”.
In a similar manner to the sentences above, the text seeks to establish general definitions of what
comes with the freedom to say no to sexual advances.
In the second mental process, the senser ‘nous’ perceives the phenomenon “qu’il faut savoir
répondre à cette liberté d’importuner autrement qu’en s’enfermant dans le role de la proie”.
The patterns of transitivity place ‘nous’, the authors of the text, as the active participant.
The active participant ‘nous’ feels and perceives phenomena that pertain to how women outside of
the text feel and perceive experiences of sexual harassment and abuse.
Therefore, the transitivity patterns in these mental processes suggest that what is perceived and felt
by the sensers ‘nous’ should be a general reality for everyone outside the text.
”Les accidents qui peuvent toucher le corp d’une femme n’atteignent pas nécessairement sa dignité
et ne doivent pas, si durs soient-ils parfois, nécessairement faire d’elle une victime perpétuelle. Car
nous ne sommes pas réductibles à notre corps. Notre liberté intérieure est inviolable. Et cette
liberté que nous chérissons ne va pas sans risques ni sans responsabilités”.
This final text extract from the chronicle contains several ideational processes.
The first is a material process, in which the actor ‘Les accidents qui peuvent toucher le corp d’une
femme’ carries out the process ‘n’atteignent pas nécassairement’ onto the goal ‘sa dignité’.
This material process signifies an attempt to establish the link between sexual abuse and
psychological trauma as non-consequential. In the second material process, the actor is
grammatically omitted but still refers to ‘les accidents qui peuvent toucher le corp d'une femme’.
This actor carries out the action “et ne doivent pas nécessairement faire” onto the goal “d'elle une
victime perpétuelle”.
Again, this material process seeks to erase the significant link between sexual abuse and
psychological trauma; it seeks to establish that physical harm done to a woman's body does not
necessarily translate into a psychological transformation within the mind of that woman. The
material process is followed by an existential process, stating that women cannot be reduced to their
bodies: “nous ne sommes pas réductibles à notre corps”.

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Two relational processes follow the existential process. The first, in which the identified ‘notre
liberté intérieure' holds the identifier ‘inviolable’. This relational process appears to recognise that it
is possible to violate a woman's ‘external freedom’, as the adjective ‘intérieure’ would not be
relevant otherwise.
In the second relational process, the identified “cette liberté que nous cherissons” holds the
identifier “ne va pas sans risques ni sans résponsabilités”.
This last relational process is directly linked to the sentence above, in which the authors underline
how they define the risks and responsibilities of ‘cette liberté’.
Conclusion to the analysis of the chronicle
The chronicle builds it argumentation on generalised, normative definitions of how sexual
harassment and sexual freedom should be understood and lived. In doing so, the chronicle goes
against some of the core values of #Metoo. #Metoo is based on the belief in survivors and was
created to provide a space in which no justification or explanation was needed.
The chronicle goes directly against these values, as it attempts to define which feelings of
harassment and abuse are legitimate and which are not.
Un porc, tu nais?
The chronicle analysed above caused much debate and several responses.
French-Moroccan author Leïla Slimani published a response to the chronicle in the French left wing
newspaper Libération (Slimani 2018).
The following will present an analysis of how Slimani employs interdiscursivity to position herself
in relation to the views presented in the chronicle, Slimani opens her text by listing many material
processes, in which the actor is omitted.
The material processes include:
Marcher dans la rue
Prende le métro le soir.
Mettre une minijupe, un décolleté et de hauts talons.
Danser seule au milieu de la piste.
Me maquiller comme un camion volé.
Prendre un taxi étant un peu ivre.

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M’allonger dans l’herbe à moitié dénudée
Faire du stop
Monter dans un Noctambus
Voyager seule
Boire seule un verre en terrasse.
Courir sur un chemin désert.
Attendre sur un banc.
Draguer un homme, changer d’avis et passer mon chemin.
Me fondre dans la foule du RER.
Travailler la nuit.
Allaiter mon enfant en public.
Réclamer une augmentation.
These material processes pertain to everyday life in the public space. Slimani lists these material
processes, as a lead up to her stating that she reclaims the right to do all these things without being
bothered: “je réclame le droit de ne pas être importunée”.
The omission of an actor in the material processes allows for all women to imagine themselves as
the possible actors.
The sentence “je réclame le droit de ne pas être importunée” is the first direct, interdiscursive
reference to the chronicle analysed above.
The chronicle analysed above claims explicitly to defend the right to bother (le droit d'importuner),
while Slimani claims the right not to be bothered, regardless of what she may be doing in the public
space. In fact, she claims the right to not even think about being bothered: “Le droit de ne même pas
y penser”.
Slimani refers directly to the chronicle again, as she states “je ne veux pas seulement d’une liberté
intérieure”. This sentence is a response to the claim that “notre liberté intérieure est inviolable”.
Thereby, Slimani refuses to accept the claim made in the chronicle.
Furthermore, she states “je ne réclame pas d’être protégée mais de faire valoir mes droits à la
sécurité et au respect” which relates directly to the following extract from the chronicle: “….des
pires réactionnaires et de ceux qui estiment, au nom d’un conception substantielle du bien et de la
moral victiorienne qui va avec, que les femmes sont des êtres ”à part”, des enfants à visages adultes,
réclamant d’être protégées”.

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Slimani counters the chronicles attempts at generalisations with the following sentences: “Je ne suis
pas une victim. Mais des millions de femmes le sont. C’est un fait et non un jugement moral ou une
essentialisation des femmes”.
Slimani puts emphasis on facts over moral judgments, in opposition to the chronicle analysed
above. The analysis showed that mental processes were employed to present subjective truths,
which underlines the presence of “moral judgments” in the chronicle.
In her questioning the right to bother, Slimani pertinently points to whether women of the world
hold this same right: “Dans les rues du Caire, de New Delhi, de Lima, de Mossoul, de Casablance,
les femmes qui marchent s’inquiètent-elles de la disparition de la seduction et la galanterie? Ont-
elles le droit, elles, de séduire, de choisir, d’importuner?”.
These rhetorical questions point to the one-sided nature of the rights defended in the chronicle: only
men hold the right to bother, in reality.
4.4. #Metoo and the International Day of Women’s Rights
The first three discursive moments were actively involved in the definition and negociation of what
#Metoo was or should become. The last two discursive moments are less so and are more prisms
through which to understand the development of #Metoo in the first three discursive moments.
At the occasion of the International Day of Women's Rights, newspapers and news website tried to
understand what feminist activism might mean in so-called “post #Metoo era.”
Égalité femmes-hommes: les mesures prévus par le gouvernement (Le Monde 2018b)
#Metoo est toujours là, tout à la fois libérateur, dérangeant, encombrant. Critiqué, aussi.
(Kauffmann & Bekmezian 2018).
De DSK à #Balancetonporc, une revolution française (Montvallon 2018)
TRIBUNE. “Les violeurs ne sont pas les autres” (Arrighi 2018).
Mathilde Larrère: “Il y a des éléments révolutionnaires dans #Metoo” (Campistron 2018).
La domination masculine, plus longue injustice de l’histoire humaine (Lemonnier 2018).

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“J’ai fini par céder”: on a tous une histoire de violence sexuelle (Brouze & Maruani 2018).
Droit des femmes: cinq mois après l’affaire Weinstein un 8 mars à la resonance inédite
(Bouanchaud 2018)
Journée des droits des femmes, un 8 mars pas comme les autres (Mazuet 2018).
Journée des droits des femmes: entre dynamique #Metoo et “bulle de regression (France Soir 2018).
Journée des droits des femmes : ”On parlait déjà des violences l’an dernier, mais la société se
bouchait les oreilles” (Tanguy, Y. 2018).
Journée des droits des femmes: ce qui a changé (ou pas). (Mateus, C. 2018).
Journée Internationale de la femme. (Mosna-Savoye, G. 2018).
As proved above, there is a wide variety of newspaper articles attempting to make sense of the
implications of #Metoo within a broader societal context, as well as within the history of feminism.
Meanwhile, Lauren Bastide, founder of the feminist podcast “La Poudre,” created a special podcast
documentary to reflect on #Metoo and #Balancetonporc in France.
Bastide tried to make sense of this moment of feminist engagement from a historical perspective,
with help from Geneviève Fraisse, as mentioned earlier.
The International Women's Rights Day was an occasion for media in France to re-evaluate the
impact and outcome of #Metoo.
In the following, two articles will be analysed in-depth to explore how #Metoo is contextualised at
the occasion of the International Women’s Rights Day. The articles exploring #Metoo on
International Women's Rights Day are more an afterthought or a reflection upon the feminist
engagement of the past few months. As such, #Metoo is perhaps not actively developed or
negotiated in the discourses analysed below. Therefore, the analysis will be briefer than the
analysis of the previous discursive moment. The focus will mainly be on the choice of vocabulary
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constructed through ideational processes.
Firstly, an article by Sylvie Kauffmann and Hélène Bekmezian for Le Monde entitled “#Metoo est
toujours là, tout à la fois libérateur, dérangeant, encombrant. Critiqué aussi.
Secondly, an interview with Mathilde Larrere for Le Nouvel Observateur entitled “Mathilde
Larrère: Il y a des élements revolutionaries dans #Metoo.”
Vocabulary
“#Metoo est toujours là..”
The vocabulary of the article reiterates the emphasis on natural metaphors, seen previously in the
second discursive moment. This emphasis is shown through words such as: "planétaire, inondé,
l’onde de choc."
Furthermore, the notion of the liberation of women's voices or speech is repeated as well. #Metoo is
continually described as the liberation of “la parole feminine”. This description implies a material
process, in which “la parole féminine” is the goal onto which the action of liberation is carried out
by an omitted actor.
Interestingly, the article comments upon the chronicle, signed by a 100 women and analysed in the
previous discursive moment.
The chronicle is deemed to have given a renew to the relevance of #Metoo, as the movement was
discussed and debated intensively after the publication of the chronicle.
The article directly comments upon the chronological development of #Metoo with sentences such
as: “Alors, cinq mois après?”, “première critique, dès octobre”, “la deuxième étape de la résistance
s’est cristallisée”, (…) a en réalité donné un nouvel élan au mouvement” and finally “Le chemin
sera long: mais désormais, il est ouvert”.
The article defines the chronological development of #Metoo regarding the resistance against the
protests, and two moments of resistance are identified; the first moment in October, and the second
moment in January. Furthermore, the article actively questions the use of discourse in the resistance
against #Metoo: ""Délation," au lieu de "dénonciation": les mots ont un sens."
Mathilde Larrère: il y a des élements..()

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The vocabulary in the interview published in Le Nouvel Observateur equally reiterates the emphasis
on natural metaphors with words such as "spontané" and "puissant."
The article employs “prise de parole” rather than “libération de parole”, which interestingly place
the women sharing their stories as the actors of the material process.
The historian Mathilde Larrère highlights the attention International Women’s Rights Day is
receiving in 2018, due to #Metoo.
Furthermore, Larrère highlights the “prise de parole” as a revolutionary aspect of #Metoo. Again, it
is interesting that “prise de parole” is chosen over “libération de parole.”
As “libération de parole” represents a material process in which the protesters are passive, the
expression can hardly be used to describe revolutionary aspects of the movement.
Furthermore, Larrère highlights the idea that the fear must switch sides as a revolutionary aspect.
Conclusion:
The discourses around #Metoo concerning the International Women's Rights Day are a part of the
reflexive construction of #Metoo as a phenomenon.
The discourses reflect and contextualise the development of #Metoo from the beginning of the
phenomenon until the 8th March 2018.
The analysis of previous discursive moments has focused on ideational processes, while this brief
analysis focuses on the choice of vocabulary.
5. Discussion and perspectives
In the following, the findings of the analysis will be discussed. The focus will be on the discourses
and their relation to a social practice, as well as how the problematic aspects of the discourses
function within this social practice. These are elements suggested by Chouliraki & Fairclough.
After the discussion of the findings, the discussion will touch upon the relation between transitivity
patterns and the discourse of content, as well as the connection between #Metoo and other moments
of online feminist engagement.
5.1. Discourses and practices

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Chouliraki and Fairclough suggest to examine and discuss the relationship between discourses and a
social practice, as well as the function of problematic aspects of a discourse within a social practice.
Although four discursive moments have been established in the analysis of discourses around
#Balancetonporc and #Metoo, the phenomenon is considered a discursive conjuncture, in
Chouliraki & Fairclough's terms.
Therefore, the findings from the four discursive moments will be discussed collectively, to gain
perspectives on #Balancetonporc and #Metoo as a conjuncture.
The discourses and their relation to a social practice
The analysis uncovered discourses around #Metoo occurring within four discursive moments.
The social practice to which the discourses relate changes from one discursive moment to another.
These changes show the development of #Balancetonporc and #Metoo as a conjuncture.
In the first discursive moment, two different types of discourses were uncovered. One type of
discourse was present within the text written by journalists to relay tweets from #Balancetonporc.
These discourses were predominantly part of the reflexive construction of #Balancetonporc and
helped transition #Balancetonporc from an online Twitter protest into a mainstream news item.
The second type of discourse was present within the tweets relayed in the articles. As established in
the analysis, the tweet included a duality of discourses, and this duality implies that the tweets relate
to two different social practices at once. On the one hand, the tweets, as entities, are part of the
social practice of protesting against sexual harassment and abuse. On the other hand, the offender's
quotations included in the tweets relate to the social practice of sexual harassment and abuse. The
inclusion of these offenders' quotes highlights the integral role discourse plays in sexual harassment
and abuse.
Meanwhile, the use of Twitter as a platform to protest sexual harassment and abuse equally shows
the importance of discourse in the social practice of protesting. As such, discourse plays an essential
role in both of the social practices related to the tweets.
Although the discourses relate to different social practices, the problematic aspect of the discourse
remains the same. It is always the abusive nature of the offenders' quotations, whether relayed
directly in a tweet or constructed reflexively in an article about protests against sexual harassment
and abuse.
Although the problematic aspect remains the same, its functions differ according to the social
practice in question.

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When the social practice in question is protesting sexual harassment and abuse, by sharing personal
experiences, the problematic aspects of the discourse functions as part of the protest against the
effects of those exact problematic aspects.
However, if the social practice in question is sexual harassment and abuse per se, the function of the
problematic aspects of the discourse is specifically to harass and abuse verbally.
Furthermore, analysis of the ideational processes uncovered gendered patterns of transitivity within
the tweets: Male offenders were active participants in ideational processes, while female victims are
passive goals onto whom the action is projected.
Analysis of the first discursive moment uncovered three types of discourses: Firstly, the discourses
present in the articles written by journalists are part of the reflexive construction of
#Balancetonporc as a protest movement. Secondly, the discourses present in the tweets are an
integral part of the social practice of protesting, in this case specifically against sexual harassment
and abuse. Lastly, the discourses present in the offenders’ quotations included in the tweet are an
integral part of the social practice of sexual harassment and abuse.
Moving on from the first discursive moment, the findings of the second discursive moment will
now be analysed.
In the second discursive moment, there are two different discursive trends, relating to two different
social practices.
On the one hand, there are the statements and quotations from organisers and participants in the
protests. The discourses found within these parts of the text are a part of the social practice of
protesting. On the other hand, there are the descriptions and reflections offered by the authors of the
articles. The discourses found within these parts of the texts are part of the reflexive construction of
the social practice of protesting. As described previously, discourses are integral to the creation of
#Balancetonporc and #Metoo; discourse is vital in the social practice that is protested, i.e., sexual
harassment, as well as within the protests. Discourses are equally crucial for the transition of
#Balancetonporc and #Metoo from online protests to “real-life” street protests.
Discourse is integral in sustaining and maintain a relationship between the online protests and “real-
life” protests. Hashtags are drawn on to cardboard signs or hands, where they do not offer any
technological function. The use of hashtags offline establishes a link between the online and “real-
life” protests, while equally establishing a link to the street protests taking place around the world.
The discourses found in the second discursive moment differ from the first discursive moment, in
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Instead, discourses relate to the reflexive construction of protests against sexual harassment, online
and offline.
The second discursive moment solidifies the position of #Balancetonporc and #Metoo as social
change movements in France.
The articles examined above deal with the development of the movement after the first discursive
moment, in which focus is on sharing personal experiences of sexual harassment and abuse, online.
The second discursive moment sees an emphasis on the reflexive construction of protests against
sexual harassment and abuse as a sudden occurrence.
The use of natural metaphors, as explained above, underline this discursive trend. The emphasis on
#Balancetonporc and #Metoo as “liberation of speech” equally implies a sudden event.
This may be a problematic aspect of the discourses present in the second discursive moment.
As noted earlier, Solnit’s work on social change movements in the mainstream media (2016) helps
illuminate this problem.
According to Solnit, “the assumption that whatever we now believe is just common sense, or what
we always knew, is a way to save face, It’s also a way to forget the power of a story and of a
storyteller, the power of the margins, and the potential for change” (2016, p. 31).
Specifically, concerning mainstream media coverage of social change movements, Solnit adds
"their amnesia is necessary to their sense of legitimacy in a society they would rather not
acknowledge is in constant change" (2016, p. 32).
Therefore, from Solnit's perspective, the construction of protests against sexual harassment and
abuse in France as a sudden occurrence, may be part of mainstream media, possibly subconscious,
attempt to simultaneously affirm that what is reclaimed by the protests is common sense, while also
retaining legitimacy by not recognising that organisations and activists have worked for the same
cause for years before.
The discourses present in the third discursive moment are mainly part of the reflexive construction
of the #Balancetonporc and #Metoo. As argued above, the ability to negotiate the limits, evaluate
the outcome and attempt to predict the future of #Balancetonporc and #Metoo testifies to the
establishment of the movement. The discourses present in the third discourse moment drew on
what has previously been written and said about #Balancetonporc and #Metoo.
The discourses are not directly related to either of the social practices highlighted previously; that
is, sexual harassment and abuse and protests against these. The discourses are predominantly part of
the reflexive construction of #Balancetonporc and #Metoo. The discourses present in the third

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discursive moment constitute a crucial part of the reflexive construction of #Balancetonporc and
#Metoo, as this is the first discursive moment where the discourses are predominantly reflexive.
The problematic aspect of the discourses lies in the defence of the so-called “right to bother”.
The problematic aspects of the discourses within the defence of the “right to bother” will be
discussed further below, concerning definitions and uses of the concept of “consent”.
Meanwhile, the fourth discursive moment presents discourses around the chronological
development of #Balancetonporc and #Metoo, as well as a reiteration of the natural metaphors to
describe the “eruption” of the movement. Although the discourses within the fourth discursive
moment are not very problematic, it is interesting to note the difference in transitivity patterns in the
two expressions “libération de parole” and “prise de parole”. While “libération de parole” implies
that an external force has empowered women in #Balancetonporc and #Metoo, “prise de parole”
places the transformative power with the women. The overarching transitivity pattern in which
women are passive, and men or an omitted actor are active, is interesting to keep in mind for the
following discussion on consent and “the right to bother.”
To conclude on the findings of the analysis, the four discursive moments each relate differently to
different social practices.
The discourses present in the first discursive moment relate to sexual harassment and abuse, as well
as the protest against this. The analysis found that discourse plays an integral role in both practices,
that is sexual harassment and abuse as well as in protests against this.
The Tweets, in which women shared their personal stories of sexual harassment and abuse, all
contained similar transitivity patterns: the offenders were active participants while the women were
passive goals.
The discourses present in the second discursive moment relate to the transition of #Balancetonporc
and #Metoo from online movements to offline movements. The analysis found that the discourses
are both parts of the social practice of protesting as well as part of the reflexive construction of the
protests. The discourses showed an emphasis on natural metaphors to describe how
#Balancetonporc and #Metoo came into being, as well as a focus on the notion of “libération de
parole.” The discourses present in the third discursive moment relate to the debates about the “right
to bother.” The analysis found that the discourses are part of the reflexive construction of
#Balancetonporc and #Metoo, as the limits, possible outcomes and future are negotiated.
On the one hand, the discourses in the chronicle showed an emphasis on establishing general rules
for what individual women may or may not feel. On the other hand, the discourses in Slimani's text

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showed an emphasis on letting women be the active participants in a variety of everyday actions,
without having to think about “being bothered.”
The discourses present in the fourth discursive moment relate to the chronological development of
#Balancetonporc and #Metoo. The analysis found that the discourses are part of the reflexive
construction of #Balancetonporc and #Metoo, as they offer reflections upon the development of the
movement.
The development of #Balancetonporc and #Metoo, as seen through discourses present in
mainstream media, has now been established through critical discourse analysis. As suggested by
Chouliraki & Fairclough, a critical discourse analysis should focus on a social problem, in this case,
sexual harassment and abuse, and discuss possible ways past the problem.
5.2. Consent and “the right to bother”
#Balancetonporc and #Metoo aim to address sexual harassment and abuse and provide possible
ways past the problem.
In Sweden, a new legal definition of rape was proposed in December 2017 (TV2), and passed in
may 2018 (Times), as a possible way past the problem of sexual harassment and abuse.
The new definition stipulates that sex without active consent is rape. Interestingly, concerning
#Metoo in a French context, the chronicle that the freedom to refuse advances, or to express one's
lack of consent, does not go without the “right to bother.”
The most problematic aspect of the discourse defending “the right to bother” lies in its negligence
of individual consent in sexual interactions.
As proven by the work of Geneviève Fraisse, consent is a concept that has been employed in a
variety of different discussions about societal issues (Fraisse 2007).
Concerning sexual harassment and abuse, consent, or indeed the absence of consent, has become
integral to the legal and social understandings of what constitutes a violation (Mackinnon 2016 p.
436, Fraisse 2007).
A defence of “the right to bother” seems to go against the respect of consent in sexual interactions,
and therefore to promote sexual harassment and abuse. As underlined by feminist activist Caroline
de Haas concerning the chronicle; "D’un côté, on considère l’autre comme son égal.e, en respectant
ses désirs, quels qu’ils soient. De l’autre, comme un objet à disposition, sans faire aucun cas de ses
propres désirs ou de son consentement”.

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As such, a defence of “the right to bother” appears to defend a disregard for the possible absence of
consent in a sexual interacton.
Meanwhile, feminist academics such as Rhiannon Graybill and Catherine A. Mackinnon, have
critiqued the concept of consent concerning sexual harassment and abuse.
Graybill argues that one problematic aspect of the discourses around consent is the assumption of
an autonomous liberal subject: “Of course, this assumption is founded on the assumption of an
autonomous liberal subject – the very formulation of the subject that feminist theory has critiqued
has impossibly flawed” (p. 175). Furthermore, Mackinnon explains consent in sexual interactions as
"Consent as a concept describes a disparate interaction between two parties: active A initiates,
passive B acquiesces in or yield to A's initiatives" (2016, p. 440):
Mackinnon equally explains the discrepancy between the subjective experience of consent and the
legal attempt to make consent object: “Philosophically consent is subject (what did she want or
feel?) although legally it can be made objective (what did she say or do?)”.
Mackinnon critiques what she calls, “the so-called affirmative consent standard” as a solution to
sexual harassment and abuse, because of “consent’s inherently passive route” (Mackinnon 2016, p.
456). The inherently passive nature of sexual interactions from a consent perspective is also seen in
the discourses analysed above.
The transitivity patterns uncovered throughout the different moments of the analysis placed women
as the passive B (in Mackinnon’s terms) and men, or an omitted actor, as the active A.
This was apparent in the descriptions of instances of sexual harassment and abuse, shared on
Twitter.
The transitivity patterns in the Tweets repeatedly placed the offenders as the active A, while the
women relaying the Tweets were the passive B.
This way to conceptualise interactions between two individuals may be logical when describing
sexual harassment and abuse, as there is necessarily an offender, the active A.
However, to understand “successful” sexual interactions in these terms appears to “set the bar low,”
as Graybill stated (2017, p. 176). Furthermore, Mackinnon underlines "When power is unequal,
consent to sex is unlikely to be meaningful, or it becomes impossible to tell” (2016, p. 463). As an
interesting perspective to the defence of “the right to bother,” Mackinnon underlines "defining sex
as something men do to, rather than with, women is not a road to equality or sexual liberation."
Mackinnon's explains her point concerning the concept of consent in sexual abuse legislation: ”My
point is, when a sexual interaction is equal, consent is not needed and does not occur because there

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is no transgression to be redeemed. Call it sex. And when a sexual incursion is not equal, no amount
of consent makes it equal, hence redeems it from being violative. Call it sexual assault.”
As such, consent is a concept that justifies, or redeems, the actions A infer upon B, but to
Mackinnon, if there were no transgression in the sexual interaction, consent would not be needed.
Therefore, the Swedish law on rape may be a step on the way past the problem, as it opens up for
more rape and sexual abuse cases to be processed legally. However, regarding social definitions of
“successful” sexual interactions, consent remains a disputed term.
This discussion evaluated the possible ways past the problem of sexual harassment and abuse, by
focusing on the use of the concept of consent.
The following will proceed to discuss #Balancetonporc and #Metoo regarding how the movements
came in to being: Is #Metoo a result of the Harvey Weinstein scandal, or is it one example of many
cases of online feminist campaigns?
5.3. #Metoo
– Aftermath of the Harvey Weinstein scandal or an example of online feminism?
Many articles have framed and understood #Metoo regarding its relation to the scandals
surrounding Harvey Weinstein (Hope 2017). As explained previously, the hashtag became popular
after it was used by actress Alyssa Milano, who came forward to share her experiences of sexual
abuse by Harvey Weinstein. Meanwhile, academics such as Mendes, Ringrose & Keller argue that
#Metoo merely is “the most high-profile examples of digital feminist activism” following “a
growing trend of the public’s willingness to engage with resistance and challenges to sexism,
patriarchy and other forms of oppression via feminist uptake of digital communication” (2018, p.
237).
In a French context, previous examples of digital feminist activism include #PayeTaShnek, a
platform that gives victims of catcalling and street abuse an opportunity to share their experiences
(Paye Ta Shnek, 2018). Paye Ta Shnek employs a similar structure to that established in the first
discursive moment: quotations from the offenders are included to highlight the integral part
discourse plays in the social practice of sexist harassment in the public space.
According to Paveau, digital feminist activism is dialectically linked to the technologies employed:
“Il faut donc comprendre que les pratiques discursives féministes et les univers numériques
s’élaborent dans un rapport réciproque : si le web semble transformer les modalités d’accès au
discours féministe et ses dispositifs formels, en retour et simultanément, les pratiques discursives

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féministes transforment le web. Il s’agit bien de transformation sociale de la technologie.”
With regards to the relation between feminist activism and media platforms, feminist historian
Bibia Pavard equally states that “A chaque mobilisation féministe importante, une rédecouverte
médiatique, une appropriation spécifique des médias” (Bastide 2018b, min. 42).
In relation to #Balancetonporc and #Metoo, Pavard believes ”on est en train de vivre quelque
choses de aussi fort que les années 70s” (Bastide 2018b, min. 54).
Thus, #Balancetonporc and #Metoo appear to be the culmination of a period of increased feminist
engagement. The Harvey Weinstein scandal may trigger these specific protests, but the scope of the
feminist engagement is not limited to the lifespan of the news stories around Weinstein: i.e., the
stories about Harvey Weinstein disappear from the mainstream media, but stories of feminist
engagement remain.
#PayeTaPolice is one example of this tendency. In April 2018, the feminist collective Group F and
the existing campaign against police brutality #PayeTaPolice created the campaign #PayeTaPlainte.
#PayeTaPlainte is a platform, where victims of sexual harassment and abuse can share their
experiences of discriminatory treatment by police: ” Témoignages de sexisme, culture du viol
et culpabilisation des victimes de la part ou au sein de la police.”( PayeTaPlainte, 2018).
#PayeTaPlainte position themselves in relation to #Metoo and the response many politicians had to
the movement (France Info 2018c).
#PayeTaPlainte equally employ similar discursive structures, as seen in the first discursive moment
of #Balancetonporc and #Metoo: offenders’ quotations are highlighted to put emphasis on the role
discourse plays in police handling of sexual harassment and abuse victims.
The examples of digital feminist activism, before and after #Metoo, underline how #Metoo may
indeed be as stated previously by Mendes, Ringrose & Keller; ”The most high-profile examples of
digital feminist activism” (p. 236).
Previously, the efforts made by French feminist organisations to fight against sexual harassment
and abuse were highlighted. These organisations underline how the fight against sexual harassment
and abuse has been long-standing.
Furthermore, the dialect relation between feminist activism and media is highlighted by both
Paveau and Pavard.
Therefore, the answer to the question posed previously may well be, that #Metoo is merely “the
most high-profile examples of digital feminist activism.”

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Although the scandals around Harvey Weinstein may have triggered #Metoo, the feminist
engagement continues beyond the scope of the Harvey Weinstein scandal.
Solnit
6. Conclusion
In conclusion to the critical discourse analysis of the development of #Balancetonporc and #Metoo
in mainstream media in France, several things were found.
The four discursive moments established and analysed above each related to specific types of
discourses.
The discourses present in the first discursive moment related to directly to the practices sexual
harassment and abuse, as well as to protests against these. Discourse played an integral part in both
practices. The tweets showed a duality of discursive voices, including both the voice of the victim
and the offender. The transitivity patterns in which the offender was the active participant and the
victim the passive goal, were repeated throughout the tweets
The discourses present in the second discursive moment related to the transition of #Balancetonporc
and #Metoo from online movements to “real-life” offline movements. Discourse played an integral
part in the social practice of protesting as well as of the reflexive construction of the protests.
Discourses showed an emphasis on natural metaphors to describe how #Balancetonporc and
#Metoo came into being, as well as a focus on the notion of “libération de parole.”
The discourses present in the third discursive moment related to the debates around “the right to
bother.” The discourses were part of the reflexive construction of #Balancetonporc and #Metoo.
The discourses in the two analysed texts were opposed to each other. On the one hand, the
discourses in the chronicle attempted to establish general rules for what may or may not constitute
sexual harassment. One the other hand, the discourses in Slimani's text emphasised the plurality of
women's experiences.
The discourses present in the fourth discursive moment related to the chronological development of
#Balancetonporc and #Metoo. Discourses were part of the reflexive construction of
#Balancetonporc and #Metoo. To sum up, the discourses in the two first discursive moments were
predominantly part of the social practices which they related to, while the discourses in the two last
moments mainly were part of the reflexive construction of the social practices they related to. As
new legislation on the definitions of rape has been passed in Sweden, the notion of consent in

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relation to sexual harassment and abuse was discussed. The notion of consent is particularly
interesting concerning the arguments proposed by the chronicle published in Le Monde, as these
appear to argue against the received understandings of consent. Furthermore, academics such as
Mackinnon and Graybill critique the notion of affirmative consent as a solution to sexual
harassment and abuse. Therefore, consent may help develop legal definitions of rape further but
remains disputed concerning social definitions. The discussion finished off by considered whether
#Balancetonporc and #Metoo were indeed results of the Harvey Weinstein scandal, or instead
examples of digital feminist activism. Examples from before and after #Balancetonporc and
#Metoo, such as PayeTaShnek and PayeTaPlainte, employ the same strategies as #Balancetonporc
and #Metoo. Furthermore, Ringrose, Keller & Mendes, as well as Paveau, have pointed to the
dialectic relation between digital media and online feminist activism. #Balancetonporc and #Metoo
may, therefore, be considered a conjuncture of moments of digital feminist activism, constituting
one example of campaigns of digital feminist activism out of many others, in recent years.!
!
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