French soul-searching over DSK case grows

Reuters ^ | June 5, 2011 | Thierry Leveque and Daniel Flynn

[decimon]

PARIS (Reuters) – The arrest of ex-IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn on attempted rape charges has unleashed a soul-searching in French politics, media and law that seems to deepen rather than wane as his case progresses.

Strauss-Kahn, who will plead not guilty Monday to charges he tried to rape a maid in a New York hotel, had been a likely future French President before his dramatic arrest three weeks ago as he sat in an airplane waiting to take off for Paris.

"The Strauss-Kahn affair is going to change a lot of things," said Chantal Brunel, a member of the ruling UMP party and spokeswoman for France's observatory on sexual equality.

Sunday's Journal du Dimanche published an outpouring of allegations by female members of parliament about crude remarks by male legislators to their women colleagues and staff under the headline: "Routine sexism in parliament."

Just two weeks after Strauss-Kahn's arrest, a junior minister was forced to fight allegations of sexual harassment of two female staff members, one of whom said the case encouraged her to come forward.

Prosecutors also opened an inquiry last week into accusations aired on a TV talk show that another former minister engaged in acts of pedophilia in Morocco.

Brunel said the scandal was ending a law of silence surrounding sexism in French politics and society. "The Strauss-Kahn affair has awakened fear in men who try to sexually dominate women," she said in an Internet debate this week.

[decimon]

Ping

Looks like they can’t brush this aside.

[MrEdd]

I suspect France isn't covered by wall to wall cameras like NYC. Strauss-Kahn, like the rest of the ruling elite simply didn't even conceive of the possibility of being caught on camera and it not being a The Minister said/The maid said thing that could be brushed under the rug.

My heart bleeds.

[Revolting cat!]

Chantal-ly lace and a pretty face...

[WaterBoard]

Ahhh... I don’t believe it.

Never in the history of the world have ‘sexually dominant’ and ‘French men’ been used in a sentence before.

I think of effeminate backstabbers when I envision a modern French men.

[WaterBoard]

AP - (Paris) The French Interior Minister Jacque Le-wus stormed out of chambers today.

[Cincinna]

Stay informed  about the DSK case in detail. 
  FORMAL ARRAIGNMENT 
MONDAY JUNE 6
*** FRENCH POLITICS AND CULTURE PING LIST *** 

FREEPMAIL ME IF YOU WANT TO JOIN  ***

Thanks, Decimon for posting.
This story has consumed the French population & media since it happened. It will continue to be front page news.
  IMO it is a wonderful opportunity to show the French, and other America trashers around the world, just how our system of justice functions. Open and transparent, and fair, for all the world to see. 
  Hopefully, and end to the trash that parades as documentary on the evil American justice system, inhuman prison system, and the always present “couloir de la mort” DEATH ROW
    DSK,  if convicted, will not be going to a $3k/night suite at a luxury hotel. Attica?

[Clock King]

I happened to listen to Michael Savage one day, and a caller (woman) called in who had lived in France recently. She said that DSK's sexual behavior was very much a part of culture there. A nasty combination of machismo and "elite" privilege. The "elite" really think they "own" the little people, so they can demand sexual favors when they feel like it. They incident may be forcing the French to re-examine their cultural assumptions.

I worked in Japan just as something similar was happening. When I first went there, there wasn't even a work for sexual harassment. They had to invent one based on the English words. You can imagine what life was like for women in that society.

[martin_fierro]

[2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten]

All very true but I think the counter argument is that true rape (not sexual harassment, not an unequal power arrangement, but rape as it is universally understood) is not something the French need to reexamine - I think opinions are quite clear regarding that crime and there is universal repugnance.

Some say DSK was “set up” - I tend to doubt it - but even among those that believe that - I don’t think you would find rape per se condoned.

[Chode]

[decimon]

She said that DSK's sexual behavior was very much a part of culture there. A nasty combination of machismo and "elite" privilege. The "elite" really think they "own" the little people, so they can demand sexual favors when they feel like it. They incident may be forcing the French to re-examine their cultural assumptions.

Read the article through and it bears out all the above. Or it does to me. This may prove cathartic for the French. And liberating for French women.

Did I really write that last sentence?

[bajabaja]

I suspect you are on optimist about European elite, generally, acknowledging anything like this. There are some notable exceptions in Europe, but France is not one of them. I regret this, my godmother was French, and gave me good advice about, ironically, women and love. French countryside attitudes are far different from the urban ones, but the dominant tone in that country scoffs at anything USA.

[caww]

From the link....

"While America relies heavily on the jury system and an adversarial relationship between defense and prosecution, French law is based on the Napoleonic code, offering suspects more privacy,..... and putting an investigating magistrate in charge of COLLECTING EVIDENCE FOR BOTH THE DEFENSE AND THE PROSECUTION...................... Critics in France say America's system favors the wealthy who can afford top lawyers. But many also recognize that France's prosecutors -- who are named by the president and decide whether or not to bring a case -- can shelter suspects................... "Can you imagine the public prosecutor of Paris ordering the arrest of Strauss-Kahn in a plane after being accused by a maid?" asked 'the magistrate', saying a prosecutor would probably first have ordered an enquiry which would have lasted years.

Very interesting reading these....and just supports what Americans have known for sometime....note the magistrates comment in last paragraph. Telling to say the least.

[Cincinna]

DSK is a member of France’s elite. Rich and powerful and centered in Paris.
I do believe, and hope, that this incident will change things for women in France. As much as they ridicule us, they have a lot to learn about family values, the sanctity of marriage, and the importance of faith in life.
I think a lot of the difference stems from the Protestant/Catholic divide and the role of faith in the life of most Americans, and the lack of faith in post Judeo-Christian France.
Warning: the details about the lives led by French elites that are going to come out will be lurid & shocking.
One detail out already is that it was always known that DSK frequented swanky Swingers clubs in Central Paris!

[Cincinna]

So I guess by that standard, sexually assaulting a chambermaid is not, in the words of Whoopie, “rape-rape”?

These French elite aging Romeos believe all their sexual advances are welcomed, and the woman is lucky, priveledged, to be assaulted.

They don’t get it. Maybe they will if and when DSK gets convicted & goes off to Attica for 20 years. Nah, they’ll blame it all on us, the evil, corrupt Americans, and our justice system that favors the rich and white.

[caww]

A bit more to chew on...from across the ocean...Monday news..from UK

**The defence will for the first time have access to the “voluntary disclosure form”, detailing the evidence gathered so far by the prosecution.**

The defence is reportedly expected to argue that sex was consensual, that the plaintiff, a 32-year-old woman from Guinea, is not credible and that she acted out of financial gain.

The prosecution will say she is a devout Muslim single mother trapped by a powerful sex offender.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/dominique-strauss-kahn/8557922/Dominique-Strauss-Kahn-expected-to-claim-police-irregularities-over-arrest.html

[Cincinna]

Somehow, I don’t think the consensual thing will fly with a jury.
As hard as it is for the French to believe, this poor woman probably never even heard of DSK.
She was told by her supervisor the suite was empty (it was past check out time) and that she should go in and clean the suite.
The defense doesn’t have much to work with, and will cast out anything & everything to try to create reasonable doubt, hoping something will stick.

[tlb]

>>> So I guess by that standard, sexually assaulting a chambermaid is not, in the words of Whoopie, “rape-rape”?

Actually the Frenchman’s actions were precisely what Whoopie would have called rape-rape. She was given an unfair shuffle on her clumsy distinction.

When Whoopie made her comment she was ignorant of the details of the case. She understood it only as a casting couch episode with an underage girl having sex with a producer (rape) but doing so knowingly and consensually, rather then by force (rape-rape).

She was almost immediately corrected by the show’s producer who told her about the girl being drugged. Whoopie then backed off defending the rapist.

[Cincinna]

OK Whoopie stands exonerated!
I have a hard time wrapping my mind around DSK going to Attica, although the facts of the case so far tell me that’s where the trial will go. Any other case like this would have ended in a plea agreement.
Who knows? Definitely ....a suivre!