In 2024, Giséle Pelicot waived her right to anonymity in the trial of her husband, who was jailed for drugging and raping her for over a decade and inviting other men to do so. In the wake of the trial, Pelicot demanded that ‘shame change sides’. This quote went viral, and Pelicot was celebrated as a global feminist icon. In this paper, I reflect on this notion of shame changing sides, drawing on different theoretical perspectives on shame from feminist literature, activism and practice which have explored ideas of shifting the power dynamics associated with shame, especially in relation to sexual abuse. In doing this, I construct an understanding of how we might engage in shifting shame whilst avoiding further cycles of shame, or making victim-survivors feel ashamed of their own shame, which some existing perspectives raise the prospect of. The paper therefore seeks to critique the ways in which some forms of shaming and shamelessness may be tied up with neoliberal and carceral feminist logics which are themselves individualising and do not break cycles of shame but perhaps only reinforce them. Before engaging with intersectional feminist theory which importantly asks who can be shameless and who will remain bound by the social control of shame (Weiss, 2018). In doing this, I engage with theoretical work on shame, which conceptualises it as an emotion felt relationally, and as inherently bound up with oppressive social norms regarding gender and sexuality (Bartky, 1990; Ahmed, 2014; Munt, 2007; Banet-Weiser, 2018; Fisher, 2018). I seek to understand how feminists can seek to move or transfer or manipulate shame in ways which are collective, creative and radical (La Caze, 2013; Kokoli, 2019; Shefer and Munt, 2019, Weiss, 2018; Probyn, 2004).
