Sexual assault at the 50/50 feminist collective: behind the scenes of a crisis

(This article was published in September 2022, when the hearing was to be held at the Paris court, hearing finally postponed to March 14, 2023.)

This evening of March 11, about thirty guests are for a dinner in a studio on 11^e district of Paris. A caterer has been reserved for the occasion, alcohol circulates generously. This is an informal reunion for the members of the board of directors of the 50/50 collective, the day before a seminar intended to strengthen ties within this association. feminist fighting for parity in the cinema, damaged by the remoteness due to the pandemic, and by internal dissension. There are the members of the board of directors, as well as some outside guests, such as the actress Nadège Beausson-Diagne, seen in particular in the soap opera “Plus Belle la vie”, a long-time activist against sexual violence and instigator of the #MeTooAfrica movement.

From this banal evening emerges a major crisis, which will atomize the collective and cause lasting wounds. The day after dinner, Nadège Beausson-Diagne filed a complaint against producer Juliette Favreul Renaud, a close friend of Virginie Despentes, whose “Vernon Subutex” trilogy of novels she adapted in series and administrator of the 50/50 collective. The actress accuses the producer in his testimony, relayed by “le Point” : “I was in a skirt, so she put her hand on my left thigh and pulled it up to my sex, with the will of