June 4th, 2011

The IMF Guy, Violence Against Women and Rhianna’s Video

There's a fascinating juxtaposition between the reaction to the IMF guy, Dominique Strauss-Kahn's arrest for sexual assault and the outraged reaction in some (mostly conservative) circles to the new video by Rhianna in which she is shown shooting a man who had assaulted her.  The reactions to both situations show women's subordinate status and how it is enforced through violence, shaming and blaming of victims, double standards and a huge amount of male privilege. The French mainstream reaction of Strauss-Kahn's arrest was first to  be indignant about its public nature (how gauche of the US media), then to minimize it (that's just old Dominique being himself), then to hint that it [...]