Is the Head of the IMF a Sex Criminal?

BY JOHN HUDSONMAY 23, 2011
With much of France bristling at America's treatment of former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the country's feminists are pushing back. Three women's pressure groups rallied in Paris Sunday publishing a 6,000-signature petition lambasting Strauss-Kahn's reflexive apologists in the aftermath of his rape allegations.

"We do not know what happened in New York Saturday May 14, but we know what has been happening in France in the past week. We are witnessing a sudden rise of sexist and reactionary reflexes, so quick to surface among part of the French elite," the groups said on Le Monde's website.

As The Independent notes, the groups have been reacting to a string of public statements by left-wing politicians appearing dismissive of the concerns of Strauss-Kahn's alleged victim. Jack Lang, a Socialist and former culture and education minister, said Strauss-Kahn deserved immediate bail because "no one was dead." Jean-Francois Kahn, a leftist-nationalist activist, said the accusations were a mere instance of "troussage de domestique" ("stripping or having casual, forced sex with a servant"). And Socialist Euro MP Gilles Savary chalked up Strauss-Kahn's problems to a "cultural" gap between the U.S. and France, referring to America's "rigorous Protestantism."

In a statement obtained by Reuters and other news agencies, the groups "Osez le feminisme" and "La Barbe" wrote that "This kind of language generates an intolerable confusion between sexual freedom and violence toward women. Violent acts, rape, attempted rape and harassment are all the mark of men's desire to dominate women's bodies." They also noted that 75,000 women are raped in France every year and that the way rape is discussed can minimize the severity of the crime. "There is a certain impunity in France when it comes to this kind of uninhibited sexism," the groups said.

Vanessa: Telling feminist today is it hard to bear? What does this mean to you?

Being a feminist, for me it means two things. 1) Realize that there are still inequalities and mechanisms of domination that structure our society in depth. 2) Wanting to change things radically to build a world where sex is no longer relevant in how we live our lives.

J: How do you overcome this kind of hatred that hangs over the feminist movement, is regarded as archaic (although the daily continuously proves otherwise) or as aggressive?

First, I feel that things are changing. Yesterday we managed to raise nearly 3000 people in just 24 hours against sexism. This shows that feminism find an echo in society. Then, as any movement for social change, feminism challenges even bother. Say you're for equal pay or terminate the 75 000 rapes per year in France is bound to react.

The aggressive side and you are talking about archaic fantasies that bear no resemblance to reality. They are carried by individuals or institutions who have an interest in what things stay in place. To us, by our action and our commitment to change attitudes.

One way for that is to join the "Dare to feminism!

2) Avoir envie de changer radicalement les choses pour construire un monde où le sexe n'aurait plus aucune importance dans notre façon de vivre nos vies.

Hate to think it is all you defending a bad idea

Why are you getting worked up over votes?

I think it shows emotions rather than thought.....I am not "worked up"....I can only see one purpose, and that is RG wants to use it to distance himself from anything but popular ideas . He doesnt want to be thought of now or later as someone who supported "THOSE" people and their ideas .

Away from the cameras, much of the French public seemed to have sought solace in the belief – held by almost two-thirds of the population, according to a poll – that the entire affair was a set-up. And also in humour: social networks were awash with jokes, while a sketch on France Inter, the equivalent of BBC Radio 4, consisted of a male comedian imagining Strauss-Kahn's internal dialogue moments before the alleged attack. "Put away the merguez [sausage], mate," said one voice. "Whip out the tools, mate," countered another.

After several days of this, Osez le Féminisme decided enough was enough. In a powerful statement, it declared that the way in which the chambermaid's account had been dismissed showed how difficult it was for victims of sexual assault to come forward. The levity with which her allegations were treated by some, it added, showed "to what extent violence against women is still underestimated". Of the estimated 75,000 women who are raped in France each year, it is said only 10% file an official complaint with the police.

In the pristine quarters of Paris, where a privileged elite work, dine and often sleep together, this machismo wears a sophisticated face. From the double life of François Mitterrand to the years of Jacques Chirac ("three minutes, shower included", the rumour goes), France has long shrugged its shoulders at its leaders' private indiscretions. Moreover, say some, it has tacitly encouraged them. When asked in 2006 about her husband's "passion for women", Strauss-Kahn's third wife, Anne Sinclair, told L'Express magazine: "I'm proud of it! It's important for a politician to be able to seduce."

The question of Strauss-Kahn's mode de séduction has now been pored over by the French media in minute detail, including the claim by Tristane Banon, a writer, that Strauss-Kahn had attempted to force her into sex, too, and a rather apologetic shrug from the all-knowing Paris elite. Strauss-Kahn vehemently denies Banon's account.

Even last week, as the extent of DSK's wandering eye became clear, the vast majority of French people remained convinced that the private sphere should remain off-limits to public scrutiny. Regurgitated reports of DSK's alleged visits to an exclusive swingers' club in central Paris, Les Chandelles, may have raised eyebrows in Britain, but in France they were merely a sign of an individual's right to sexual freedom.

"It's something going on in his private life. It's not a practice forbidden by the law," said Charles Morin, a writer who frequented the club from the age of 18 and describes it as a place "where you can have a drink, watch people make love… Lots of people do it. It's not the first time that a politician has done something like that."

Straightforward libertinism, it was agreed, was nothing to worry about. But weren't there other, more disturbing, reports? Why, asked some critics, when she made her allegations on a television show several years ago, was Banon not questioned further about her memorable tale of "a rutting chimpanzee"? Why, when journalists knew that the Socialist MP Aurélie Filipetti made arrangements never to be "left alone in a room with him", was nothing more ever said?

"It feels like France is just beginning to wake up to the concept of sexual harassment," wrote the France-based British author Lucy Wadham on her blog last week, referring to the debate over the difference between seduction and the kind of "very heavy, very persistent" onslaught that Filipetti attributes to Strauss-Kahn. Criticising the rush to treat DSK as a victim, Wadham added: "Wilfully unreconstructed, France is a society in which women collude in a continued phallocracy."

Simon Jackson, an English historian at Sciences Po, the elite political studies institute in Paris, shares the view that, in France, male attitudes to sex lag behind Britain in terms of equality. "I think that's in large part the product of serious and continuing deficits in the opportunities women enjoy professionally, educationally and socially in France, which is one of the least gender-equal countries in the EU." Figures for 2011 lay bare those deficits: women make up 18.5% of MPs and 85% of casual workers. In the gender pay gap survey released at Davos, France came 46th. Britain was 15th.

This view of France as a stalled feminist project is not just one held by Anglo-Saxons; many French feel it, too. In the Nouvel Observateur magazine last week, editor Laurent Joffrin wrote that an "indulgence of overly insistent advances, which end up as affronts to the dignity of women, are a French archaism which is broadly spread across all [political] parties and all milieus".

Stepping into the fray came the formidable Gisèle Halimi, a women's rights activist and lawyer, who, at the age of 84, declared in an interview she was "convinced" that "if this [DSK] business had occurred in France, we would have known nothing about it". The US legal system, she said, reaffirms women's dignity and the protection of the weakest. "It has to be said, it's a victory for American feminists who, for years, have worked to show that sexual harassment and rape were serious crimes."

Some observers believe that the stereotypical grand séducteur image of the Gallic male is becoming outmoded among a younger generation. "There is a whole wave of these older guys, who cheat on their wives, who have a bit of power, who are over 50 and are proud of seducing these girls. But I don't see it at all with younger men – they have been more globalised, more influenced by feminism," said Paul Ackermann, the Swiss author of Masculins Singuliers, an exploration of contemporary male identity.

Others, including de Haas, are not so optimistic. The road ahead would be "long and tough", she warned – and if last week's debate had done anything, it was to highlight how big the problem of sexism remains. (It also, however, proved that effective lobbying could force women's rights onto the agenda; by the end of last week the tone of debate had mellowed, and Kahn, for one, had admitted his words had been "unacceptable".)

Today, beside the Pompidou Centre, a "rally against sexism" will be held and a petition handed round that already has more than 1,500 signatories. Female representation in the public sphere; workplace harassment; increased recognition of women's sexual freedom – all are on the feminist agenda, and none of them will be easy to attain. But at least, it seems, there will be company along the way.

"We are seeing a fresh enthusiasm," said de Haas. "We have lots and lots of girls coming to meetings, we get loads of emails and people wanting to know how to create similar organisations abroad. So I'm optimistic for a feminist reawakening, but I don't think it's the DSK affair that's going to do it for us. We need much more than that."

he said straight up that he wanted to get rid of trouble makers like me

kicked up to the top of the stack

Only the wisdom of the community in having the good sense to not use the tools

because we hate women and want to abuse them

?? What stack ?

. So long as most people only use "new posts" and "my posts" A2K is a churn and burn space, those who can incite the passions of other members enough to get them to make a post win...Negative attention is as good as positive attention, which is not at all what was supposed to happen.

One wonder how the male police officers would react if they found themselves label as likely rapists for flirting with women or even trying to pick one up every now and then.

Funny you should mention that, since two NYC police officers are currently on trial for rape. The NYPD is not rushing to their defense with the sort of anti-women attacks that you, Hawkeye, Ionus, and Spendius have been making. They, most of all, know that the crime of rape occurs--it is not a fantasy devised by feminists to toss innocent men in jail or put them through a publicly humiliating legal wringer.

And I am surprised that neither you nor your misogynistic cronies haven't considered the fact that the last thing the City of New York would do is risk a false arrest suit from this very prominent, influential, wealthy man. They had to be damn sure he did it before they arrested him--and they arrested him very quickly after the alleged crime, meaning they were assured of certainty. And, while you may think the charges against him are "silly" or lacking in "common sense", consider the fact that his lawyers put up no big fight to get the case immediately dropped--they simply said the charges were "defensible" at trial, and that force was not a factor

I don't personally care if he is innocent or guilty: I would just like to see a fair trial. IF he did, indeed, sexually assault someone, he should pay for it, and NOT get off simply because he's an important person. IF she is lying, SHE should pay for it. That's it.

There is no issue of a completely false accusation in this case--the two were alone together in that hotel suite. Strauss-Kahn's DNA has been found on the maid's clothing

As I said in my last post, the City of New York would not risk a false arrest suit from this very influential, wealthy man. They found his accuser very credible and so did a grand jury.

All men are guilty of rape until proven innocent even the head of the IMF on the word of any woman.

She will not be punish for a false charge as the crime of making a false police report is a minor misdemeanor in most states that is rarely if ever prosecuted.

See the Duke case...

The whole thing is a non-issue. He is attracting all this attention because of who he is, his stature on the world stage. If he was a lowly telephone repairman, we'd have heard nothing. It's the press, not the feminists, who are making this an event. And all our local misogynists, of course.

Stop exploiting those Duke athletes. The facts of that case bear no resemblance to this one. That case involved a corrupt D.A. who was disbarred.