In 1977, dozens of prominent French writers and intellectuals — including Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Roland Barthes, and Gabriel Matzneff — signed an open letter protesting the prolonged pre-trial detention of three men accused of sexually assaulting a group of underage girls. The letter noted that the girls in question “were not victims of the slightest violence, but, on the contrary, clarified to the investigating judges that they consented (despite the fact that French law denies them the right to consent).” It went on to question why the justice system “recognized the capacity of discernment in a minor of 13 or 14 years when being judged and condemned, only to be denied this capacity when it comes to sex and their intimate life.”