View taken on October 13, 2009 in Paris of copies of the newspaper l'Humanité -

Joel Saget AFP

L'Humanité will

no longer collaborate with the cartoonist Espé and with the former cycling trainer who became columnist Antoine Vayer, after the outcry over a caricature deemed degrading by the cycling consultant of France Televisions, Marion Rousse.

On this cartoon posted online this weekend to accompany a column by Antoine Vayer, we see the ex-professional cyclist interviewing in lingerie and on a bed the runner Julian Alaphilippe, who is his companion.

Disillusioned, @humanite_fr bears its name more and more badly.

You have to have no respect for women, for women, to lower six years of sports consulting on television to this level.

https://t.co/SVyyCA19ah

- Marion Rousse (@Roussemarion) September 6, 2020

An avalanche of criticism

“Disillusioned,

L'Humanité

 bears its name more and more badly.

You have to have no respect for women, for women, to lower six years of sports consulting on television to this level, ”Marion Rousse reacted on Twitter.

The drawing sparked an avalanche of reactions on social media.

"That we are still being inflicted in 2020 this type of sexist, degrading and vulgar humor plunges me into deep disarray ..." lamented Elisa Madiot, press attaché in the sports community and niece of the team's sports director Groupama-FDJ Marc Madiot.

“Odious.

Bofitude.

Low end.

Pitiful.

Words fail me ”, condemned Patrick Chêne, former sports journalist at France Televisions.

Apologies from the newspaper and the cartoonist

The newspaper unpublished the drawing and apologized on the social network: “We totally share the indignation at this drawing.

We quickly unpublished it.

It is contrary to the values ​​of

Humanity

, which promotes the dignity of human beings and the feminist struggle.

We ask Marion Rousse to apologize for this lack of vigilance ”.

“I'm so sorry, sorry, sorry.

The newspaper has apologized, the cartoon has been unpublished and I am quitting working for Humanity.

My goal was absolutely not to hurt, I didn't think of hurting, it's just caricature.

I wanted to evoke the porosity between media and sport and I wanted to be inspired by the drawings of Tex Avery, indicated for his part the designer, for whom it was the first collaboration for the newspaper.

I messed up.

When a drawing is not understood it is a mistake, but I would not have thought it would take such proportions.

"

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