‘Dix minutes, douche comprise’. This famous catchphrase, used to describe Jacques Chirac’s daily encounters with his courtesans, has been illustrative of French political culture for decades. With very strict rules on privacy and a nationwide appreciation for ‘the game of seduction’, the sexual liaisons of French leaders have never before been a serious subject of negative public scrutiny. In fact, it seemed that every respectable politician was expected to have a powerful libido.

TEXT: Goos Hofstee
PHOTO: Cody Simms, painting by Banksy

But the culture of ‘seduction’ (i.e. shameless sexism) has left an unpleasant legacy. France remains an unequal, discriminatory macho society, where persistent advances, inappropriate remarks on women’s bodies, and indecent proposals are all common in the workplace, not in the least within the higher strata of (political) society. Historically, the French media have taken a ‘vow of silence’ on these issues when it concerned high ranking politicians, in sharp contrast to American and British political life where private behaviour is considered an indicator of public ethics. While the ins and outs of the ‘private sphere’ of politicians were widely discussed in the better arrondissements of Paris, it was off limits to the press.

The reaction of parts of the media and of the Parisian elite to the arrest of Dominique Strauss-Kahn - charged with sexual assault and attempted rape - is still very much indicative of traditional relations between politicians, press and privacy laws. The forgiving nature of the debate, the nonchalant chuckles and the trivializing attitude would have been rather harmless had it been just another indiscreet (yet consensual) affaire de corps. But the key word here is ‘consensual’. To shrug one’s shoulders at leaders' private indiscretions is one thing, but the way this particular incident has been treated by journalists and the French high society is anything but innocent. 

While the Parisian papers focussed on the fact that DSK was handcuffed on arrest, and appeared hollow eyed and - shock and horror - in slightly grubby clothes, public figures such as (the now disgraced) journalist Jean-François Kahn and the famously self-obsessed philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy have stepped in to defend DSK. These people were calling the charges ridiculous, saying it concerned not attempted rape, but ‘an imprudence… the skirt-lifting of a domestic’. Lévy declared that Strauss-Kahn should not be tried like any other citizen because ‘everybody is not everybody’, and several high ranking Socialists were publicly supporting the most unlikely conspiracy theories. 

The way in which the chambermaid's account has been dismissed, and the buoyance with which her allegations were treated, are an indicative of a culture in which it is very difficult for victims of sexual assault to come forward. 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’. While sexism obviously is not confined to France, it is fair to say that the French (since de Beauvoir) haven’t exactly been firm supporters of the feminist project. The fact that the victim was American might therefore very well have been the only reason that Strauss-Kahn is now in trouble. 

As the inspirational Gisèle Halimi -84 year old women's rights activist and lawyer- declared: ‘if this business had occurred in France, we would have known nothing about it’. In fact, in media circles a lot was already known about the predatory attitude of DSK toward women. As the accounts of Tristane Banon and Aurelie Filipetti clearly show, there was a plethora of evidence regarding serious misbehaviour on DSK’s part. In spite of this awareness, and the multiple allegations against his persona, these stories were brushed off as the whining of overly sensitive women who didn’t get that this was ‘part of the game’. The media never had the courage to investigate the allegations, even when it concerned someone who most likely would have become the next French president. By continuously depicting Strauss Kahn as nothing more than the stereotypical grand séducteur, the media have consciously disregarded the difference between harmless seduction and the kind of obsessive onslaught and harassment Strauss-Kahn was known for.

While there is something to be said for the distinction between private and public sphere, for respecting privacy and personal life of politicians, the line should simply be drawn at the law. Contrary to what France’s number one ‘moral philosopher’ seems to believe, the laws against sexual assault should apply to every citizen equally, and if that citizen lives a life in the public eye, crimes like these should not be ignored or ridiculed by the media. To describe allegations of attempted rape as a weakness for the ‘pleasures of the flesh’ and ‘lack of resistance to feminine charms’ is nothing but disgraceful. 

As the journalist Christophe Deloire already stated, the French press has for too long refused to live up to its duty to write about these serious issues. Privacy should be trumped, he said, by what George Orwell called ‘common decency’: the simple morality and honesty that rules the lives of most ordinary people.