French Women 'Stunned' By Public Misogyny Following DSK's Arrest

PARIS, May 21 (Reuters) - Angry French feminists say local media have been awash with male chauvinist comments since the arrest of former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn on charges he attempted to rape a New York hotel maid.

Feminist organisations published a petition saying they were "stunned by the daily flood of misogynist comments by public figures" since the French former finance minister was detained. He denies the charges and is currently on bail.

In their statement, the feminists said friends and allies of Strauss-Kahn had downplayed the plight of the alleged victim in their rush to defend the Socialist, who until his fall was well placed to beat President Nicolas Sarkozy in 2012 elections.

The lawyer for the maid said his client was a 32-year-old widow from the West African nation of Guinea, who has a daughter aged 15.

"We do not know what happened in New York on 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 in a statement on the website of Le Monde.

Organised by groups including "Osez le feminisme" and "La Barbe", the petition was signed by more than a 1,000 women, including TV journalist Audrey Pulvar, whose partner Arnaud Montebourg is bidding to be the Socialist candidate next year.

"There is a certain impunity in France when it comes to this kind of uninhibited sexism," the groups said.

The groups said that 75,000 women were raped in France every year and that sexist language in public tended to minimise the gravity of crime, turning it into a vague and more or less acceptable act.

The groups referred to specific statements, including one by former culture minister and Strauss-Kahn ally Jack Lang, who said Strauss-Kahn should have been released on bail earlier, considering that "nobody has died".

Journalist Jean-François Kahn, no relation, denied rape had taken place and dismissed the affair as "troussage de domestique", a phrase that evokes a master having non-consensual sex with a servant.

A friend of Strauss-Kahn and his journalist wife Anne Sinclair, Kahn later apologized for the remark.

"This kind of language generates an intolerable confusion between sexual freedom and violence towards women. Violent acts, rape, attempted rape and harassment are all the mark of men's desire to dominate women's bodies," the feminist groups said.

Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click for Restrictions.

Comments

[ca va pas non]

01:29 AM on 05/30/2011

DSK looks a little like Brian Cox the actor in The Bourne Supremacy...

[Attila Gf Matuschka]

12:39 PM on 05/29/2011

Battle of the cultures? What a relief to see this barehanded, and not with knifes, guns and canons? Will the maid, being black, make it more or less serious? Is his being a Jew in favor or against him? Is the hotel perhaps at fault, to let a maid into his suite? Do Hotels not have an obligation, to protect their guest, even against their employees?. Not having this protection is like inviting burglars to steal from the guests, which is quite common. My experience with hotel maids is that they see those poor CLASSIST guests as valuable targets. -------Also, in Africa, I found black women, wanting sex with white men, because it raises their value, with black men. So , despite the obvious stupidity of Strauss Kahn, being punished for stupidity is his main problem, besides being French, and Jew as well. It will be interesting to see how his dilemma will come out. I hope this does not rattle the reviewers cage to much?? ==============This may mean, that if you are affluent, you should have a recorder in your hotel room/suite, to protect yourself against accusations by female hotel personnel? His DNA on her blouse, after she was in his room, wow, what a crime? Sometimes I wonder, why I am so often asked if I am a Jew, even in Israel? Ciao

[S Jones]

11:37 AM on 05/25/2011

Women's rights and freedoms bring misogynists crawling out of the gutters of our societies. Men fear losing control and are most often guilty. However, women who are trained at an early age "to know their place" or who want to advance in society, can be equally guilty. Powerful people believe they can't be touched.

[Paul Poco]

09:49 AM on 05/24/2011

I'm a really appalled by many comments. How did this event became a tribune for a "In which country are women the least well treated".
DSK have been accused of rape. Rape is illegal in both France and the USA, it is severely punished in both country. He is innocent until proven guilty so let's wait and see.
About France beeing a more macho country than America... I'm French, my wife is american. She was surprised at first that I wanted her to find a job and have a career of her own. Where she comes from, the mid-west, she would have been expected to stay home, clean and take care of kids. Many women in my family in law are housewifes because their family expect them to be housewifes! I've never seen that in France. Than there is the "seduction process" which is VERY different in France and America (DSK's lawsuit has nothing to do with seduction...). Some might not understand what's going on when in the situation of seducing or beeing seduced by someone from accross the ocean. This a cultural difference and neither me nor my wife thinks France is an overly macho country. If anyone met a dickhead in france, I can confirm... it is pretty easy to find, there is also a few in America.

[Dawn Bassett]

11:06 PM on 05/23/2011

NO MATTER WHAT LANGUAGE ONE SPEAKS, WHAT RACE THEY HAPPEN TO BE
A PART OF - INVASION - IS WHEN ONE STEPS OVER THE LINE.

THIS "BLOKE" CLEARLY HAS DONE SO, EVIDENCE TODATE HAS SOLIDLY
CONFIRMED THIS, AND, AS A CONSEQUENCE IN THIS COUNTRY IT WILL BE
SEEN TO IT, THAT HE PAYS THE PRICE.

YOU HAVE GOT TO CALL A "SPADE", A SPADE.

NOTHING MORE, NOTHING LESS.

[nenitaB]

06:35 AM on 05/24/2011

We're the same in some ways, until your actions make you different ! To err is human , To inhibit, divine !

[an8a]

07:06 PM on 05/23/2011

This what I spoke about before on these posts. Having lived there in France and experienced their extreme sexist behavior towards women and racist behavior. They pretend they are Napoleons and condescendingly insult America because they are jealous. They treat women as sexual objects and even have their women brainwashed that they are "free" if they take off their tops, etc. for sexual purposes. They are very backwards and women need to have a manafestation about their treatment. Stop being used French women and controled by these creepy, sexists pigs!

[Hajnal]

01:31 AM on 05/24/2011

Wow. Hate much?

[CurtisJasper]

07:06 PM on 05/23/2011

It's not exactly a secret that male chauvinism in America, while substantial, has NOTHING on male chauvinism in France. It's gotten beyond the "no means yes" mentality, but not by much. There is a substantial portion of French engineers that believe that women should not be engineers. They tend to attribute the success of Marie Curie and other important female scientists to the work of their husbands.

[Alex Da Ponte Melo]

10:59 PM on 05/23/2011

Really? Nothing? I'm guessing you're a man in America.

[remyd]

05:56 PM on 05/23/2011

regarding the comparisons between france and usa: rather than defending what's happening in france by comparing it to what's happening in america, why not see the problem for what it is and just address it accordingly in its own context?

just because a problem exists in more than one place, that does not mean it should not be addressed in any place. if this logic held true, we would only be able to address problems starting from the worst of the worst perpetrators, and working our way up the line. it doesn't work that way.

can't we say a problem exists in france, without the disclaimer that the problem also exists in usa, mexico, italy, turkey, china, etc etc etc etc?

[Alex Da Ponte Melo]

06:42 PM on 05/23/2011

It depends. Apparently people who are being 'reminded' of that fact is because they not expressing concern for what happens in France, but showing prejudices towards France and French people.

Althought I understand and agree with you.

[Amryxx]

05:19 PM on 05/23/2011

Behind the thin veneer of "civilization" we are all still animals.

[PublicCitizen21044]

04:43 PM on 05/23/2011

Journalist Jean-François Kahn, no relation, denied rape had taken place and dismissed the affair as "troussage de domestique", a phrase that evokes a master having non-consensual sex with a servant.

A friend of Strauss-Kahn and his journalist wife Anne Sinclair, Kahn later apologized for the remark.

This is a typical response and the reason why I posted the question when the story first arose "was it a French maid?".

"This kind of language generates an intolerable confusion between sexual freedom and violence towards women. Violent acts, rape, attempted rape and harassment are all the mark of men's desire to dominate women's bodies," the feminist groups said.

I concur and I am sure things will change for the better now that French women can see how unattractive their mens outward expression of their sexuality is.

[Boopsie2008]

10:50 PM on 05/23/2011

I am also sure things will change for the better once French women see how seriously rape is taken and prosecuted in the United States.

And prosecuted it will be. The latest news flash is that Stauss-Kahn's DNA was found on the maid's clothing.

[PublicCitizen21044]

09:21 AM on 05/24/2011

Thanks for the update. He had better start digging a tunnel if he wants to get out of this one.

[christinamoorshead]

04:26 PM on 05/23/2011

I don't understand the surprise, has there ever been a case like this where someone didn't blame the victim? Polanksi anyone?
Christina Moorshead

[cityprole]

03:37 PM on 05/23/2011

The journalist Kahn should be placed in a lacy apron and sent to a nice maximum security prison somewhere, and have his "skirt lifted" regularly..perhaps he will then appreciate the disgusting implications of his remarks..

[Seymoreclearly]

03:07 PM on 05/23/2011

Like I said over a year ago, dig deep enough & you'll see that what happened to Greece (and Spain) had its roots in Goldman Sachs & IMF shenanigans. It was reported in the financial news, but just as quickly quashed. Ask yourselves why? Because what they setup to happen in Greece they intend to do right here in America. And the GOP are part of the plot, errr, 'scuse me, "trend".

Bankers have been doing this since the beginning of banking time, why are we surprised at their increasing avarice? And just think, they did it (back in the early 1990s and again in 2008) with American taxpayers' money! Oh, the irony is rich.

America, you've been had. Road hard & put away wet, as they say. I read a book over 30 years ago, written by a young man whose father was an international banker. It was illuminating, but full of warnings: These people are not ordinary. They are not like you & me. Be afraid. Be very afraid. The only thing that is extraordinary about them is their insatiable thirst -for power & YOUR money!

[fly3769]

06:28 PM on 05/23/2011

Do you remember the name of the book?

[Seymoreclearly]

10:23 AM on 05/24/2011

I found online some blogger's dissertation on these letters. They were written back in the early 1930s, and some (if not all) are excerpted here:

http://www.stopnwo.com/lbs.pdf

Very interesting passage by the blogger here, just before he/she launches into the letters themselves:

"I find it satisfyingly ironic the very person that is instructing his son not to tell
anyone about these money secrets is the very person that ends up exposing the
information."

I hope you find all of this as illuminating as I did all those years ago. The revelations still resonate today.

[reasonshouldrule]

07:31 PM on 05/23/2011

Yes, very well-said and informative. Can you remember the name of the book or its author?

[Seymoreclearly]

10:25 AM on 05/24/2011

Here is the link I included in my response to fly3769 because he/she asked the same question:

http://www.stopnwo.com/lbs.pdf

[indywoman]

02:45 PM on 05/23/2011

I don't get why they are calling it attempted rape. I've read several places that anal penetration occcurred. How is that attempted anything???

[indywoman]

04:15 PM on 05/30/2011

No, that is not what is being reported. He apparently did put it in there, but not in the vag. They are calling that attempted rape. Its confusing. If ANY penetration occurred, it should be called rape, pure and simple.

[Brett Tonaille]

02:45 PM on 05/23/2011

I really don't know if those who don't speak French can sense how ugly and primitive a phrase "troussage de domestique" is. It has a leering male overtone of "Well, what's a maid for if you can't have it off with her when you're feeling randy?" The fact that this was a journalist on the Left making such a gutter-level remark gives some idea of how crude the defense of DSK has gotten in France and how little grandiose expressions of political correctness matter when people are defending one of their own.

[Seymoreclearly]

04:08 PM on 05/23/2011

Trust me, I think many of us "got it". That it came from someone on the left or right is not as telling as the facts that it came from a man, and a French man at that.

[Brett Tonaille]

08:02 PM on 05/23/2011

But theoretically to be on the Left is to be against oppression and more sensitive to the under-privileged - when in fact class and clan outweigh any idealistic cant.

"If you should, by chance, fall in love with [a peasant woman], be careful to puff them up with lots of praise and then, when you find a convenient place, do not hesitate to take what you seek and to embrace them by force."
Andreas Capellanus, The Art of Courtly Love (12th c.)

Few would dare to put it so frankly today, but the idea that the poor and the vulnerable are fair prey seems to endure - even within the ranks of those whose proclaimed goal is to change such things.

[fly3769]

06:31 PM on 05/23/2011

Thanks for pointing this out.I was on one those who didn't get the full implications of the remark. And your last sentence was spot on.