Les mots pour (ne pas) le dire Viol, consentement, harcelement: les medias face aux affaires Strauss-Kahn

In: Raisons politiques: études de pensée politique, Heft 2, S. 13-45

Abstract

In France, The DSK affair is like an earthquake. It is the first arrestation of a first rank politician for a sexual crime. And the more to come (Dominique Strauss-Kahn was supposed to be the (future) socialist candidate at the April 22d and May 6th french presidential election). The affair itself frontally opposes a white, powerful and rich man, to a black and poor woman. It takes place in the american society whose values are supposed to be far away from french ones about sexuality and gender relationships. So studying french medias from the very beginning of the Sofitel affair to the last developments of the Carlton affair allows to study french representations of rape, harassement, consent and seduction. This paper is grounded more particurly on three mediatic schemes (newsmagazines and newspapers ; gossip and women's magazines ; satirical shows) and its analysis is also built upon interviews with journalists and editors-in-chief. Its principal assumption is the difficulty for a lot of medias to openly speak of rape or harassement to qualify past and present Strauss-Kahn's suspected actions. And it tries to explain these difficulties by the economic requirements, the journalists' socialisation and knowledge about gender and race studies. Adapted from the source document.