Is the Head of the IMF a Sex Criminal?

The whole idea that they had not met that there was no friendly interactions and that he would just attack her at first sighting does not made sense

What was "dragging her down the haul" which seems to be turning into leading her down the hall

Earlier there was a post that DSK called the front desk and asked the random woman who answered to join him for drinks. While not at all illegal, how is asking a woman you have never seen show judgement and control of his behavior?

The arrest of Dominique Strauss-Kahn has left the French shell-shocked. The violent and voyeuristic nature of the accusation, the political prominence of the accused, and the globalization of the scandal make it a perfect storm for yet another bout of anti-Americanism in France. But so far the atavistic reflexes have been limited and restrained. Where did French anti-Americanism go?

Whatever their party affiliation (with the exception of the far-right National Front), the French have been experiencing a collective exercise through the five stages of grief since the DSK news broke out on Sunday morning.

First was denial. How could a man on top of the world, reputed for his professionalism and competence, assured to be competing in and likely to win the French presidential election, so completely self-destruct at the height of his glory? To be sure, his lust for women and philandering were a hardly disguised secret in French politics, but there is a wide gap between seducer and rapist. So the French concluded that something was fishy about this story. Maybe the New York police made a mistake. Maybe the accuser had an ulterior motive. The friends of DSK made the media rounds to proclaim his innocence, and the internet soon was abuzz with elaborate conspiracy theories. Indeed, two days after the revelations, 57 percent of the French believed that this was a set up.

Second came anger. When Strauss-Kahn was initially denied bail and the reality that evidence may exist against him started to sink in, France turned to laying blame. And the culprit was, to be expected, the United States.

The American justice system was first to be indicted. The images of DSK's perp walk were shocking in a country where it is forbidden to broadcast pictures affecting the presumption of innocence of the accused. The following 24 hour news cycle was dominated by denunciations and analyses of the brutality and savagery of American justice procedures. Though used to watching American crime shows on television, the French were given a crash-course on the American justice system where the prosecution seems to have the upper hand, where the accused is degraded and treated with what many see as cruelty, where money apparently can buy you better conditions, and where in many jurisdictions, including NYC, the elected DA must take into account political considerations. As French public intellectual Alain Finkielkraut put it, the United States has a "barbarian judicial system."

The American media was next on the hit list. The muckrakers were already digging into DSK's past -motivated by Puritanism and greed, both of them equally appalling to the French. Unlike predatory Anglo-Saxon journalism, private lives have traditionally been off limits in France. Journalists and politicians congratulated each other on having managed to preserve a French exception when it comes to "the bedroom."

The denunciation of the US justice system and media practices both fit the traditional anti-American tropes honed in France over centuries -a land of savagery and lack of civilization, a place where Puritanism meets hypocrisy. And also, as suggested by outraged former minister Jack Lang, a country where French-bashing still pays off.

With a few days hindsight, however, what is most surprising about the fallout of the DSK scandal in France is not how much, but rather how little displays of anti-Americanism it has provoked. To the contrary, the scandal is now turning into a teachable moment and a frank analysis of the comparative merits of French and American society. Perhaps this is the bargaining stage: if we understand the American system, perhaps we can expect it to treat one of our own fairly?

The flamboyant declarations by Bernard-Henri Lévy who was trying to help his friend by complaining that the American judge had treated DSK "like any other" subject of justice backfired. The next news cycle in France was about introspection. What if the American justice system actually had some features that could be replicated, such as the equality of treatment? A flurry of accusatory articles popped up in the French press denouncing how a defendant of DSK's stature would never have gone through the same legal troubles in France -unlike a random "Benoit" or "Karim." As socialist and DSK friend Manuel Valls publicly confessed, criticizing the American justice system also puts the spotlight on the weaknesses of French justice. This realization that perhaps the Americans might have components in their justice system that should be replicated in France might have left many with the depressing thought - "maybe we are not as wonderful and superior as we thought: so what is now our place in the world?"

Many analysts, mostly women but not only, seized on the scandal to praise an American society where it is easy (read, easier than in France) to denounce sex crimes and violence against women.

As for the French media, they, too, quickly went into soul-searching mode. By refusing to report beyond the "bedroom door", had they been complicit? Why doesn't France have a tradition of investigative journalism? Should French reporters be importing best practices from their American counterparts? Ahhhh, acceptance.

Surprisingly, the DSK scandal so far has not driven a wedge between France and the US and not resuscitated the age-old reflexes of anti-Americanism. For those who tried to exploit it, it did not pay off. French anti-Americanism ain't what it used to be!

I you are a woman or feminist, he is guilty

Actually, Ionus, most here (both men & women) are satisfied to see what eventuates in the court case.
Most of the speculating about guilt or innocence has been courtesy of hawkeye & Bill.

Actually, Ionus, most here (both men & women) are satisfied to see what eventuates in the court case.

Quote:

I you are a woman or feminist, he is guilty

Actually, Ionus, most here (both men & women) are satisfied to see what eventuates in the court case.
Most of the speculating about guilt or innocence has been courtesy of hawkeye & Bill.

There is a societal convention for such things, albeit most imperfect, and that will be the decider, not misogynist random nutters in silly threads.

I'd put that down as more optimistic than creepy. Heck, when I discovered BBB lived in Albuquerque, I invited her out to lunch. Turned me down cold, but no offense taken so far as I know.

I am no fan of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, still less of the Socialist Party of France that he is a member of or the nation-wrecking IMF that he currently runs. Yet I can’t help feeling that his arrest on charges of sexual assault is being turned into a modern-day medieval drama, a kind of reality-show version of the witch trials of old, in which DSK has been assigned the role of all-purpose hate figure rather than suspect in a crime. I never in a million years thought I would find myself in agreement with the professional poseur and state-sponsored philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy, but he has a point when he says that there is something distinctly off in the way the “entire world” is “revelling in the spectacle of this handcuffed figure”.
Here in NYC (where I currently am) it is pretty clear that DSK has become a twenty-first century evil entity for the weirdly medieval media to gawp at and mock. He has been turned into a kind of voodoo doll, into which various political factions with a mish-mash of agendas can stick their pins. Indeed, the arrest of DSK has united some normally violently opposed forces – from Fox News to feminists – in an orgy of moralistic handwringing about the warped morality of French Socialists or the evil nature of men in general or how DSK’s alleged actions demonstrate the corruptibility of political power.
The Right hates Dominique Strauss-Kahn because of his socialist leanings. Fox News has been laying into him on an almost hourly basis, its lick-lipping presenters laughing at the fact that a so-called socialist stays in $3,000 hotel rooms and openly hinting that sexual assault is a natural progression from being a generally arrogant politician, especially one of the French and Left-wing variety. Left-wing commentators hate DSK because of his antics with the IMF and they too wonder out loud if assaulting a maid isn’t just an extension of DSK’s nine-to-five job of assaulting cash-strapped nations.
And feminists hate DSK because… well, because he is a man, and even worse than that he’s a man who has reportedly flirted and engaged in saucy dialogue with his female staff in the past. The speed and thoroughness with which feminist writers have drawn a link between DSK’s everyday workplace demeanour and the alleged rape of a maid has been extraordinary, as if there is a natural and logical link between sexist banter at work and the violent and criminal degradation of a woman. One writer says that what will really be on trial in NYC is the “sexual behaviour” of men in general and the “wider question of the behaviour of men in power”. DSK’s alleged actions apparently spring from “the sexism and snobbery of French politics”. Such commentary is a reminder of feminist commentators’ willingness to indulge and spread national stereotypes when it suits them and of their keen abandonment of the concept of innocent until proven guilty in any case involving allegations of rape. I mean, DSK must be guilty, right? He’s French, he’s powerful and he talks down to women. Lock him up.
The attachment of all sorts of pet political causes to a criminal case has made this feel like an increasingly olde world affair, with DSK transformed into a symbol of arrogant power or Left-wing decadence or male spite or whatever other horrible thing you might want to rail against and throw rotten tomatoes at. This isn’t only potentially bad for DSK – who, lest we forget, is still considered innocent – but also for the broader concept of fair and dispassionate and universal justice. That idea arose in opposition to medievalism, yet now the two have been dangerously smashed together in the great DSK hate-off

because they are stupid.

But has any damage been done to the man before that ? As an innocent man, until proven guilty, has he already suffered some of the punishment of a guilty man ?