Elias and# MeToo. A look back at Ancient Rome

In October 2017 a number of actresses accused the producer and Hollywood fixture Harvey Weinstein of sexual harassment. In the wake of these accusations thousands of women claimed to have been victims of abuses by men. Through social media and the #MeToo and French #balancetonporc (rat out your pig) hashtags, this movement to free speech gained traction. On 9 January 2018 an Op-Ed article published in the French newspaper Le Monde and signed by 100 women, including the actress Catherine Deneuve, made waves. The signatories defended ‘the freedom to inconvenience’ as a condition of sexual freedom and denounced the return of a moral order founded on explicit consent, like the institution of marriage. Other voices spoke out against the return of a novel form of censorship of artistic productions. The critical stands vis-à-vis the #MeToo and #balancetonporc movements were then to various degrees accused of seeking to muzzle speech that had finally freed itself and of playing into the hands of male domination. Surprisingly, few referred to the sociology of Norbert Elias to shed light on these recent controversies, particularly in France. Yet Elias considered the evolution in 20th century gender relationships as one of the most significant revolutions that the Western world has experienced. While he was not able to devote all the attention he would have liked to elucidate this issue, one of the last texts he published focused on the transformations of marriage under the Roman Republic. Using this as a starting point, we will show that the sociology of Elias can help reset the contemporary debate about abuses of women by relating, without confusing, the evolution of gender inequalities and what Elias calls the ‘civilizing process’. The decision to externalize or repress one’s abuse depends on what one allows oneself depending on one’s position in a social configuration (figuration) that is always characterized by more or less unequal relationships of reciprocal dependence between individuals and groups. Elias thus emphasized the centrality of balances of power and the need to historically place them, given that relationships between groups obviously evolve. Finally, he argued that the ‘controlled decontrolling of emotional controls’ – involved in the sexual revolution and ways of expressing it – assumes a high level of self-restraint and control. While it represents progress (towards more equality) as opposed to regression (towards a repressive moral order), the #MeToo movement and its effects attest to the fragility of normative codes, which always need to be reaffirmed.