Is the Head of the IMF a Sex Criminal?

The arrest of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, and the conspiracy theorizing and sympathy he garnered in response, has reportedly inspired some cultural soul-searching in France. We're told that French women will no longer put up with the sort of machismo that celebrated a man nicknamed the Great Seducer -- not to mention Georges Tron, the junior minister who was accused of sexual assault by two women promptly after DSK's arrest. At the same time, feminists have been quick to point out that there is a world of difference between womanizing and rape. Seduction is not sexual assault, not even in Puritan America.

All of this raises the question of whether there is an actual connection between an environment of machismo and rape. And that question taps into an even bigger query about how cultural mores influence sexual assault.

I went to Owen D. Jones, a professor of law and biological sciences at Vanderbilt University, for some insight. "Biology and culture are inextricably intertwined," he told me by email. "While sexual aggression therefore cannot be disentangled from biology, cultures that disinhibit sexual aggression against women will have more of it." To put it more simply: Cultures that accept sexual aggression against women will have more sexual aggression against women.

That seems incredibly straightforward, doesn't it? Things get much more complicated, though, when trying to clearly define something like sexual aggression, which encompasses a vast spectrum of behavior. French philosopher Genevieve Fraisse, author of "On Consent," told the New York Times, "Womanizing and rape are of course two different things," but, as the Times paraphrases, "on a sliding scale from aggressive courtship to harassment to sexual assault to rape, the borders between each of the categories are much harder to pin down."

I asked Jones, who has written extensively about how biology and culture influence sexual aggression, whether we might expect rape to be more common in a culture that embraces machismo. "Yes, if all else were equal," he said. "But ... all else is not always equal. For example, just to illustrate, you could have a culture of heavy machismo but also heavier than average penalties." As it happens, there are more reported rapes per capita in the United States than in France. Of course, cultural mores also influence the reporting rate -- which not only skews the data but also can affect the perceived risk to perpetrators, which in turn affects the likelihood of assault.

Jones explains that perps are influenced by the extent to which they think "they'll actually be reported" and, if so, "investigated and charged." There's also their perception of the likelihood "that jurors might convict, as well as an estimate of for how long, if at all, a perpetrator might be sentenced. " He says, "Although no one is suggesting that sexual transgressors think it through like a calculating machine, it is likely the case that the holistic assessment of how risky it is to assault someone is -- for better or worse -- affected by a wide variety of cultural factors."

On the one hand, it seems only natural to assume that culture would have a significant impact on sexual violence. On the other, it can seem a disturbing excuse for inexcusable behavior; just consider the recent report blaming child sexual abuse by Catholic priests in part on the sexual revolution of the '60s, or the claim by Roman Polanski's wife that his "unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor" was simply a product of the "sexual liberty and permissiveness" of the time. Then again, what purported explanation for sexual violence isn't in some way unsettling? Perhaps the most disturbing answer of all is that there isn't any one cause.

After the DSK scandal, the French press's so-called "code of silence" about the private lives of public figures has been thrown to the wayside.
And it's revealing some disturbing crimes.
Take Jack Lang, the former Socialist culture and education secretary and a DSK ally, for example.
The Daily Mail now says that Lang is being accused of having an orgy with little boys in Morocco.
No one directly came out and accused Lang of the orgy, but Luc Ferry, a former minister of the Socialist party in France hinted about it on TV, by saying that an attack took place in Marrakech and "All of us here probably all know who I'm talking about."
He wouldn't give the man's name, saying, "If I let his name out now, it's me who will be charged and doubtlessly convicted, even if I know that the story is true."
But Ferry said the crime was uncovered by police and that it was an open secret which had been discussed openly by a former Prime Minister. And then L'Express printed Lang's name in connection with the rumor.
Lang seems to be disputing the story. He told the Daily Mail, "I don't want to get involved in these stories for now. I will speak in due course....This case is sadly trivial. Vulgarity is part of our world. All those who question my honour - newspapers and individuals - will be all be prosecuted."


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/dominique-strauss-kahn-ally-accused-of-an-orgy-with-little-boys-in-morocco-2011-6#ixzz1O5E2zUfj

French reaction to the rape charges against International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn range from charges of an anti-French plot to letting the justice system run its course.


Former Socialist culture minister Jack Lang is strongly defending Strauss-Kahn against rape charges, claiming the whole matter is a "lynching."

"He is a brave man on whom a contemptuous fate has been inflicted," Lang says, according to Britain's Sky News. "It is not unthinkable that certain judicial officials, the prosecutor in particular or the judge, is driven by a desire to take down a Frenchman, a Frenchman who is moreover well known."

Likewise, former justice minister Robert Badinter claims Strauss-Kahn had been "put to death by the media," accusing police of a "provocative exhibition," Sky News reports.

But Martine Aubry, the first secretary of the Socialist Party, is counseling a wait-and-see attitude until the facts are clear and Strauss-Kahn has given his version of events.

"We have only heard the words of a prosecutor, whose job is to bring charges," she says.

The French newspaper Liberation, normally viewed as sympathetic to the left, says in an editorial Monday that Strauss-Kahn "knew that he was his own worst enemy."

But some political figures zeroed in on the U.S. justice system, particularly the infamous "perp walk" in which a suspect in handcuffs is photographed by the media.

The New York Times reports that former French justice minister Elisabeth Guigou, a Socialist party MP who strongly supported France's anti-perp-walk law, says she found the photos of a handcuffed Strauss-Kahn indicative of "a brutality, a violence, of an incredible cruelty, and I'm happy that we don't have the same judiciary system."

Guigou tells France Info radio, The Times reports, that the U.S. system "is an accusatory system," while in France, "we have a system that takes perhaps a little more time but which is, despite everything, more protective of individual rights."

The Daily Mail now says that Lang is being accused of having an orgy with little boys in Morocco.
No one directly came out and accused Lang of the orgy, but Luc Ferry, a former minister of the Socialist party in France hinted about it on TV, by saying that an attack took place in Marrakech and "All of us here probably all know who I'm talking about."

The people were never told the truth about the extent and purposes of the sexual assault reform laws, we have never really had our say,,,

jury nullification of bad laws has a long tradition in America and an honorable one... making sure that we do our part to stop injustice as we sit on juries is our duty. It kinds looks like two cops got cleared of sex charges in just this way recently.

Hawkeye? Forcible, violent assaults of unwilling victims are just the way some people express themselves, it's their individuality, and the rights of the individual are paramount, right, Hawkeye?

The mother who persuaded her daughter not to press rape charges against DSK nine years ago speaks out.

I can not picture the DSK that I have read about forcing a woman to do anything, nor being violent...

I strongly suspect that if Ophelia was not willing that she neglected to tell DSK that

I have seen the states abuse of the citizen under the excuse of the need for the nanny state to protect alleged victims

That's because, thanks to the French privacy laws, there may be a lot you haven't gotten to read about him

And, what has been written, is not exactly inconsistent with a man who could easily cross a legal line in terms of being "forceful", if he had the opportunity and the perception he could safely get away with it.

Mightn't he have realized she wasn't consenting when she ran from him, and kept trying to push him away, and he had to drag her from one room to another, and she escaped and ran from the suite at the first opportunity?

That "nanny state" has laws against forcible sexual assaults of unwilling people to protect everyone from the harmful actions of those who would violate such laws--the laws are meant to have deterrent effect--to prevent potential victims--and they are meant to punish transgressors--those who have actually victimized someone

And that you might feel "abused" by such laws, or that you might see DSK as "abused" by such laws, just shows how screwed up your egocentric priorities are, and how warped and distorted your perception of reality is.

That's because, thanks to the French privacy laws, there may be a lot you haven't gotten to read about him. And, what has been written, is not exactly inconsistent with a man who could easily cross a legal line in terms of being "forceful", if he had the opportunity and the perception he could safely get away with it.

Mightn't he have realized she wasn't consenting when she ran from him, and kept trying to push him away, and he had to drag her from one room to another, and she escaped and ran from the suite at the first opportunity?

The militant lesbian's ultimate objective.

no state laws pertaining to sexual assaults come into being in a clandestine fashion--these things are done in a very public, and democratic, and open way.

I don't think you are a libertine hawk if the word means what I understand it to mean. Even I don't qualify for that title.

Quote:

The Daily Mail now says that Lang is being accused of having an orgy with little boys in Morocco.

Don't believe a bloody thing you read in The Daily Mail. It's the UK's printed version of Fox News, but not as evenly balanced.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eBT6OSr1TI[/youtube]

Yes-- normal bloke not all hung up. L'Homme qui aimait les femmes.

Have we a better word for an erotic freedom fighter?