100 French Women Slam #MeToo 'Witch Hunt'

In France, the #MeToo campaign is known as #BalanceTonPorc, meaning "Squeal on Your Pig"—and some women, including actress Catherine Deneuve, say it has gone too far. Deneuve was one of around 100 French women, including performers, writers, and academics, who signed a letter published in Le Monde Tuesday that slammed the post-Harvey Weinstein "witch hunt," the Local reports. "Rape is a crime but insistent or clumsy flirting is not, nor is gallantry a macho aggression," wrote the women, who said the campaign had been necessary to expose male abuses of power, but the "public denunciations and impeachment of individuals in the press and on social networks" is now out of control.

"Men have been punished summarily, forced out of their jobs when all they did was touch someone's knee or try to steal a kiss," the women wrote. They denounced what they saw as "Puritanism" and complained that women are being treated as powerless "perpetual victims," reports the BBC. They argued that forcing men to "rack their brains" and apologize for alleged misconduct from decades ago "recalled totalitarian societies." The Hollywood Reporter notes that other women to sign the letter include author Catherine Millet, who wrote the memoir The Sexual Life of Catherine M., and porn star-turned-radio host Brigitte Lahaie. (More France stories.)