Dear You, 

An excerpt of the article Virginie Despentes wrote for Libération which was published on March 1st, 2020 and translated in English by Lauren Elkin:  

“It is not at all surprising that the César Academy would award Roman Polański the prize for best director in 2020. It’s grotesque, it’s insulting, it’s vile, but it’s not surprising. When you award 25 million euros to a guy to make a TV film, the message is in the budget….
….It would be pointless and inappropriate to separate the bodies of cis-men from those of cis-women who celebrated him. I don’t see any difference in behaviour. It is understood that these major prizes continue to be the exclusive domain of men, because the underlying message is: nothing must change. Things are very good as they are.

When the comedian and mistress of the ceremonies Florence Foresti left the awards and declared herself ‘disgusted’, she was the only one who dared make a joke about the elephant in the room; everyone else avoided mentioning it. Not a word about Polański, not a word about Adèle Haenel. We all dine together, in this milieu; we all know how it goes……..that Spectacle of the Césars.

We as a generation, learnt an important lesson that night; when Adèle Haenel, got up and left. We learnt how to wear an evening gown and walk in high heels: as if we were going to tear the whole building down. How to walk with our heads held high, our necks rigid with anger, and our shoulders bare. Adèle - Your body, your eyes, your back, your voice, all your gestures say it: yes, we are dumb bitches, we are the ones who’ve been humiliated, yes, we only have to shut our mouths and take your blows, you’re the boss, you have the power and the arrogance that goes with it, but we will not remain seated without saying anything. You do not have our respect. We’re getting the hell out. 

Enjoy your bullshit on your own. Celebrate yourselves, humiliate each other, kill, rape, exploit, smash everything that falls between your hands. We’re getting up and we’re getting out………You make us want to vomit. We have no respect for the mockery you make of respectability. Your world is disgusting. Your love of the strongest is sick. Your power is sinister. You are a gruesome bunch of imbeciles. The world you created to reign over the wretched lacks oxygen. We’ve been getting up and we’re getting the hell out. It’s over. We’re getting up. We’re getting out. We’re shouting: Go fuck yourselves.”

Yours faithfully, Me