IMF head Strauss-Khan charged with sexual assault, attempted rape and imprisonment of hotel maid in New York

[darleneoconnor]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-13402845

Can these sroties ever be reported without a discussion of whether the woman is lying or provoked the man?

It's like Julian Assange all over again.

There was a french man being interviewed about it on News 24 and you could sense a different attitude between him and the British newsreader, Nicholas Owen. The french man was emphasising how bad a crime it was, whereas the newsreader seemed to be fishing for some 'rape myths'.

We'll see how this one pans out.

That is a disgusting thing to say Greythorne.

I suspect there is no getting through to people like that but I would probably say 'well that clearly makes it rape then. It is the woman who decides if she has been raped or not. NOT the man'.

French feminists have been speaking out about exactly this sort of warped thinking. Maybe you could pass something from one of them to the person you spoke to?

French Feminists on DSK: Stop Conflating Sexual Assault and Seduction

I'm not surprised by the french reaction as there does appear from what I've observed to be an element in french culture that leads them to be defensive of their own no matter what the circumstances IMO.

Particularly to Beachcomber, Greythorne and other France-based posters :

Do you think the French privacy laws have played a significant role in suppressing discussion in France of the current and previous episodes in DSK's "career"?

Possibly, the French do seem quite proud of the fact that they separate public and private life. They hold the view that a man can fuck around and cheat on his wife in a fairly open manner and that that is none of the public's business.

However, I quite honestly think it is more about a general tolerance of misogyny and a lack of taking sexual harassment seriously. There is also very much an element that the elite are not constrained by the same boring standards of behaviour as the rest of us.

A lot of people probably think that a woman would be flattered to be pressed for sex in a persistent manner by such a powerful man.

I have been mildly sexually harassed by a neighbour. I told DH about it he did one of those French shrugs and said 'that's what men are like in France, I can see why it bothers you but there is a cultural difference - neighbour probably thinks that you are flattered and that if you tell me, I will be flattered because it means I have a sexy wife'.

We have had some fun recently by embarrassing this guy in front of other people.

Beachcomber wrote - "A lot of people probably think that a woman would be flattered to be pressed for sex in a persistent manner by such a powerful man."

Just because supporters of such men would be flattered does not mean any female victim should be "honoured to be seduced".

It's too easy and social acceptable for people who have not been harassed to dismiss it as something the victim should be honoured to have experienced. If the victim doesn't see things that way, it is turned into the victim failing to see the "compliment" and another way to blame the victim. It reminds me of virgins being sacrificed to the gods after being brainwashed into thinking it was the highest honour.

Exactly it is victim blaming and hideously sexist to think that a woman should be flattered by the attentions of a sexual predator and that it is her fault if she is not.

I don't really understand why DSK has been allowed to get away with this for as long as he has because I am not French. It literally is a badly kept secret that many female journalists refuse to be in a room alone with him. France should be ashamed of itself for tolerating this very public man's very public sexual harassment of so many women.

France is also an extremely jingoistic country - part of the defence of DSK with regards to the USA will be about protecting a Frenchman and what he represents in terms of (fucked up) French culture rather than admitting that the US is quite right to treat him as the criminal he is. France is also very anti-American.

I hate this country sometimes.

I hope that not only does DSK get what he deserves, but that the US sends a strong message to France that the assault of one of its citizens could have been avoided, if France hadn't colluded in this man's behaviour by covering it up and not taking it seriously for so long. He should already have done time for his attempted rape of Tristane Banon - no doubt there are other women too.

Interesting article in the Observer this morning about French attitudes and an increasing level of feminist activism in the wake of all this.

www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/22/dominique-strauss-kahn-arrest-dormant-anger-france-women

Fucking fuckwit editorial in the Indy mixes up:

DSK
Ryan Giggs
Arnie
Chris Huyne

And somehow manages to conclude it 's because we all live for longer so how can a man be expected to stay with one woman for 40 years. Oh, and that we can all learn something from gay relationships.

What the jeffing fuck?

m.independent.co.uk/;article=2;hp=opinion;/

This is Janet Street-Porter, yes? Always a one-woman torrent of nonsense. Partly she does it to wind people up, a la Julie Burchill. Sample quote:

"All the same, I don't think that a rash of media stories about high-profile philandering proves that men are naturally more unfaithful than women. Quite the opposite. We are better liars who naturally multi-task. It's something we can do without thinking. So we're better equipped to have affairs without anyone finding out. We compartmentalise our sexual and emotional life."

Latest from the Telegraph. The sperm of DSK has been verified on the hotel maid's dress :

'' New York Police sent DNA test results to French authorities on Sunday, The Telegraph reports, which confirmed that the sperm found on the Sofitel maid's dress belonged to none other than alleged rapist Dominique Strauss-Kahn. The DNA tests are the latest updates on Strauss-Kahn's case, and were published first on the French website Atlantico.fr. Other recent reports say that the former IMF chief invited two other female Sofitel staff members to his room for a drink the day before his alleged sexual attack on the maid, a West African immigrant in her thirties. Both Sofitel receptionists declined his invitation. Strauss-Kahn was released from Rikers Island on Friday, and his lawyer has said he will argue consent in the rape case. ''

Article here:

www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/dominique-strauss-kahn/8531634/Dominique-Strauss-Kahn-DNA-samples-confirm-sperm-traces-on-maids-dress.html

I can't wait for his defence team to try to sell the 'it was consensual' line.

I am worried about it TBH.

I fully, 100% believe the woman concerned, I do not doubt for a minute or a second her version of events.

I think DSK is a sexual predator and I believe him to be a rapist.

I'm still worried though. I just hope that we are going to witness some real justice. I'm not holding my breath though.

I think the only real hope is that the USA is going to see this as a political/justice/you don't fuck with American values matter.

Let's hope the fact that she is a west African immigrant and not an American citizen doesn't influence the jury.

Poor women is going to be put through hell if that horrible man is going to argue consent. God, I hope he doesn't get away with it.

Actually she may well be an American citizen as she's been in the country for a while. Still not white and middle-class though. Perhaps racism isn't an issue in New York courts.

I think I read that the woman has been in the US for seven years so she may be a citizen. I have also read that she is muslim - surely this could make the 'she wanted it' argument harder to make for cultural reasons of modesty, etc?

I wonder if they are going to claim that he understood that she offered sex for money.

Yes, now you mention it I do remember reading that she is Muslim.

I suppose we just have to hope that there are reasonable human beings on the jury.

Of course scumbag has the wealth to pay lawyers an absolute fortune to pick over every detail.

I have a bad feeling about this. I really do.

My biggest worry is that his lawyers will almost certainly decide attack is the best form of defense and attack her immigration status, her sexual history, her work ethic, her relationship with her now dead husband, her competence as a mother etc etc. Whatever the outcome of the trial, all of that will happen to her anyway. A continuation of his previous assault.

Two women file harassment charges against a French Minister One of them spurred on by the Strauss-Khan case.

Of course, he says it's political. French feminists should organise one day where all victims of rape/assault/harassment etc report the crime to their local gendarme.

I was thinking the other day about how protected these men are. Are they really that important? Their role is, of course, but as an individual? I think the thought came after I read about a trader who has taken on 15 apprentices from all walks of life and given them a job, a year, $100k and a set of trading rules in an experiment (partly) to see if the star trader thing is real.

That article is a double-whammy, Dittany: bad in how it reports, and reporting something bad. Even the Mail refers to her as a victim

This bit confirms my worst fears: "Indeed, were we intent on improperly feeding the media frenzy we could now release substantial information that in our view would seriously undermine the quality of this prosecution and also gravely undermine the credibility of the complainant in this case," Taylor and Brafman wrote" - their little faux-morality act is a viciously clever little ploy that enables them to smear her without having to commit to any specifics. Horrible horrible people.

I'm writing to complain to the Guardian and am also minded to write to the victim care of her lawyer, saying "I believe you and stand with you". What do people think? Good idea?

It's frightening to realise, probably for the first time, the underhand subtleties employed by the press to influence the public to turn against a victim of crime. Whether they realise it or are justly dumbly regurgitating what they are being fed by DSK's lawyers.

Who exactly is on trial here??

I can think of no crime other than rape where it is the victim that gets torn to bits in court. So very wrong.

www.newyorker.com/talk/2011/05/30/110530ta_talk_gourevitch

Another perspective from Paris; this one published in the New Yorker magazine. Again, the fact that his aggressive, sexual pursuits were common knowledge is sick-making.