[/caption]Michael Cosgrove - France was already in turmoil after the Dominique Strauss-Kahn affair, but now another senior French politician has been accused of rape and yet another of pedophilia. The press and macho culture are being heavily criticized and the whole of French society is being forced to consider that its values may be seriously flawed.
This was, of course, not unexpected. Following the arrest of Dominique Strauss-Kahn in New York on sex crime charges a shocked France instinctively knew that worse was to come. For the first time ever a top French personality was behind bars accused of a serious crime, and despite outrage at videos of DSK being treated like any other citizen discussion quickly turned to the future with the sudden realization that things would never be the same again and that the failings of French society could no longer be ignored and that they had to be addressed.
The next bombshell dropped on Sunday, when it was revealed that junior minister for public affairs Georges Tron had resigned following accusations of sexually molestation and rape leveled by two women who were employed at the town hall of the Paris suburb of which he was Mayor. Police have opened an investigation and, coming as is did on the heels of the DSK affair, France began its working week in a state of total bewilderment. But even worse was to come.
The very next day saw Luc Ferry, a p hilosopher and former Education Minister from 2002 to 2004, telling a popular TV chat show on Monday that an unnamed French minister had been "caught" by police taking part in "an orgy with little boys" in the Morrocan tourist town of Marrakesh. The French Embassy in Morroco was duly informed and it contacted Paris, with the alleged result that French authorities smoothed things over with the Morrocan government in such a way that the affair would remain hidden. The latest news on this story came today with the announcement that the Protection of Minors section of the Judiciary Police - the French equivalent of the FBI - had been ordered to order a preliminary inquiry into Ferry's allegations has been opened, and this means that when Ferry is interviewed by the police he will either have to give names or go to jail for calumny.
These affairs are serious enough as it is, but their effect on French society has been, and, more importantly, will be, incalculable. Here's why, and it involves the French press and its cozy relationship with politicians, the law, and tacit public collaboration with all three.
The French press now openly admits that it knew about Strauss-Kahn’s bullying sexual harrassment of his staff, female journalists, hotel maids, airline hostesses and others. They knew that female journalists were no longer prepared to interview him alone. They knew that female politicians were wary of him, and they knew that a young female journalist had alleged that she was aggressively fondled by him. They say that the whole of the French political establishment also knew. But they never reported any of it.
The French press also now openly admits that it knew about Tron's reputation as a "foot fetishist" and the "Chinese masseur", that his reflexology sessions were given almost entirely to women, and that rumors of a sexual element to his treatment were rife. But no-one did or said anything.
Finally, Ferry's statement on Monday shows that the major press outlets and politicians alike were aware of the pedophelia story, of which nothing was ever printed. Ferry's accusations were made in before several journalists and his words were "all of us here probably all know who I'm talking about." And nobody around the table denied that. The others remained silent. Asked if he had any proof, he said "of course not. But I have testimony from cabinet members at the highest level, state authorities at the highest level {...} particularly from the prime minister", and suggested that that the press never reported anything due to strict libel and privacy laws that carry heavy penalties for journalists who infringe them.
Given these circumstances, it is not surprising that the French are asking themselves serious questions about their society, what its values are, and whether or not it's time for change. This author thinks that change is long overdue.
France’s inherently sexist society is no longer viable in a modern world and it hurts the French to know that French attitudes towards women are unacceptable elsewhere. The extent of sexual harassment of French women at work is frightening, but nothing has ever been done about it. There are only 113 women among the 577 members of the French parliament and laws designed to establish parity are systematically flouted. These laws punish political parties which do not field about 50% of female candidates by fining them, but the parties prefer to pay the fines than respect the law. Since DSK’s arrest however, America’s serious approach to sexual crimes and harassment is no longer being scoffed at as being mere Puritanism and hushed voices are now murmuring that maybe France should realign its laws and practices along Anglo-Saxon lines.
The press is rightly being pilloried for the first time ever for refusing to report incidences of sexual misconduct and crime committed by the rich and powerful. France has the strictest press laws in the western world but that must not stop journalists doing their job, which is to report that kind of behavior even if it means going to jail. Pressure will pay in the end and until it is applied the French press is no more than an accomplice of the state against the interests of French citizens. One of the first remedies would be for French papers to finally begin doing much less opinion writing and much more investigative reporting - a form of journalism which barely exists in France.
Finally, the much-vaunted yet illusory notion of the ‘égalité’ – equality – of French citizens is now being shown to be the fraud it has always been. France has strict privacy laws which stop the public knowing what they need and have the right to know, yet the public have always supported those laws. This means that the public has de facto supported the right of elites to be exempt from justice. There is something deeply wrong with a system which prevents the private lives and transgressions of the rich being made public whilst simultaneously refusing to introduce a freedom of information act. The little progress made on making information available in the public interest has only been possible thanks to France being condemned on several occasions by the European Court.
But the cruelest aspect of France’s rude awakening is the awful irony that France, a country which is so proud of its Revolution and quotes it ad nauseum as representing 'proof’ of 'equality for all', is finally being forced to admit that the Revolution didn’t do anything at all for sexual equality.
On the contrary, France is the most sexist and unequal society in the western world, and it now knows it is.….
