Lucile Peytavin
Lucile Peytavin is an essayist and doctor in economic and social history.
She is a member of the Women's Foundation's Observatory on the Economic Emancipation of Women and an expert in violence prevention for the Psytel firm.
She founded Lucile Peytavin consulting firm and co-founded Gender and Statistics association.
She is the author of the essay "The Cost of Virility: What France Would Save If Men Behaved Like Women?"
©Céline Nieszawer
THE COST OF VIRILITY
PIN
The enriched and illustrated edition of the feminist bestseller The Cost of Manhood!
What France would save if men behaved like women.
Male violence is omnipresent and costly for society.
In France, men represent 96% of incarcerated individuals, 84% of those responsible for fatal road accidents, 86% of those accused of murder, 97% of perpetrators of sexual violence... The list is long, and above all, it comes at a cost: 95 billion euros, the annual expenditure of the French State to mobilize all public services in response to these offenses.
What is the cause of this overrepresentation? What are the consequences of masculinity being erected as a dominant ideology? What solutions exist to transform this system, which is harmful at all levels? By exploring all spheres of society and drawing on history, Lucile Peytavin offers us a journey into masculinity, to understand where these risky behaviors come from and how to remedy them.
This graphic and illustrated version, luminous and deceptively simple, presents the author's striking statistics and offers a fresh, more frank, and more obvious perspective on everything hidden within her study. It's another way to raise awareness of the cost of masculinity, capture the attention of a wider audience, and encourage them to discover this essential book on every level.
YOU'RE NOT GOING TO CRY LIKE A GIRL
Imagine a world in which we amputated boys' arms at birth. We would undoubtedly see this as a scandalous act of abuse, and rightly so. So why is it that when we do the same to one of their emotions, it doesn't concern us more?
Worse still, most of us participate in perpetuating this mistreatment. Little boys today still often hear this seemingly innocuous phrase: "You're not going to cry like a little girl," in its improved version.
We even utter it with the best of intentions. With it, we intend to teach them the expected codes of masculinity so they can best adapt to life in society. We convey that they must be strong, morally and physically. Yet, everything this refrain conveys is destructive: the development of stunted emotional and psychological capital, the rejection of a part of their humanity, contempt for the feminine, the creation of toxic behaviors towards themselves and others, the production of psychological suffering, and the generation of colossal human and financial costs…
It's high time we stopped ruining lives by passing on these macho injunctions that call for the rejection of anything considered weakness. By cutting young boys off from their sense of vulnerability, thinking we're creating strong men, we're actually making them weak. In doing so, we're harming society as a whole. Let's ask ourselves what we truly want for our boys and the men they will become. Is it a world in which they are prevented from experiencing their emotions, unable to manage their feelings, to develop psychologically, and to fully flourish?
A world gripped by the rise of authoritarian regimes, in which studies report that young men are increasingly adhering to masculinist rhetoric that valorizes violence and the domination of women?
SISTERHOOD: THE PACT
"While inequalities between women and men persist, it is time to remember that women exist, that they represent half of humanity. Everywhere, at every moment, they possess a simple, free power that is not so difficult to implement: SISTERHOOD.
The authors offer a powerful reflection on sisterhood—this forgotten word, which they redefine to anchor it firmly in the 21st century. They insist on the absolute necessity of permanently embedding it in our minds. They take a bold step and invite all women to sign THE SISTERHOOD PACT —never harm other sisters, always support and value them.
With this manifesto-essay, Lucile Peytavin, Aline Jalliet, and Maryne Bruneau lay the common foundations of a sisterly humanism, in the form of a tool for widespread and joyful emancipation. They invited sixteen women to express "their" sisterhood within its pages.
WITH CONTRIBUTIONS FROM:
Gisèle Szczyglak, Vanessa Springora, Michelle Dayan, Mélissa Plaza, Éliane Viennot, Cynthia Illouz, Hélène Devynck, Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, Élise Garcia, Anaïs Leleux, Irma, Claudine Monteil, Christelle Taraud, Hamida Aman, Chloé Thibaud, Anne-Cécile Mailfert
"How much does masculinity cost the state and society?"
Lucile Peytavin explores the links between the societal pressures on masculinity to which men are subjected and their overrepresentation in statistics on violent and risky behavior. In doing so, she opens the door to a more humanistic education for boys, aimed at building a more egalitarian , peaceful, and prosperous society .
In France, men are responsible for the overwhelming majority of antisocial behavior: they represent 83% of those prosecuted, 90% of those convicted, and the prison population is 96% male. They are overrepresented in all types of offenses, particularly the most serious. The Ministries of Justice and the Interior are overwhelmingly staffed by men.
Therefore, while not all men are delinquents and criminals, the vast majority of delinquents and criminals are men.
This has a financial and human cost estimated at TENS OF BILLIONS OF EUROS PER YEAR . Paid by the State in police, judicial, medical and educational services to deal with it and by society which bears the physical and psychological suffering of the victims, and suffers losses of productivity and destruction of property.
Lucile Peytavin questions the reasons for this overrepresentation of men as the main perpetrators of violence and risky behavior: she deconstructs preconceived ideas about the alleged biological causes and dissects the educational mechanisms at work.
So what is the cost, in France, in 2021, of the consequences of masculinity, erected as a dominant cultural ideology? Lucile Peytavin asks the question: wouldn't we all benefit from educating boys like girls?!