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Lessons Learned About Rape, Politics, and Power from Dominique Strauss-Kahn and Moshe Katsav Michigan Journal of Gender & Law Volume 20 Issue 2 2013 Beyond Seduction: Lessons Learned about Rape, Politics, and Power from Dominique Strauss-Kahn and Moshe Katsav Hannah Brenner Michigan State University College of Law Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mjgl Part of the Comparative and Foreign Law Commons, Criminal Law Commons, and the Law and Gender Commons Recommended Citation Hannah Brenner, Beyond Seduction: Lessons Learned about Rape, Politics, and Power from Dominique Strauss-Kahn and Moshe Katsav, 20 MICH. J. GENDER & L. 225 (2013). Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mjgl/vol20/iss2/2 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at University of Michigan Law School Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Michigan Journal of Gender & Law by an authorized editor of University of Michigan Law School Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. BEYOND SEDUCTION: LESSONS LEARNED ABOUT RAPE, POLITICS, AND POWER FROM DOMINIQUE STRAUSS-KAHN AND MOSHE KATSAV annah renner* In the last decade, two influential international political figures, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, former head of the International Monetary Fund, and Moshe Katsav, former President of Israel, were accused of engaging in extreme and ongoing patterns of sexual vio- lence. The collection of formal charges against the two men included rape, forcible indecent assault, sexual harassment, and obstruction of justice. The respective narratives surrounding the allegations against Katsav and Strauss-Kahn have their own individual characteristics, and each of the cases unfolded in diverging ways. Yet, the actions of these two men taken together, and the corresponding response of the legal systems in France, Israel, and the United States, offer an oppor- tunity to evaluate contemporary issues of rape and power from a comparative perspective. This Article begins by telling the stories of how Strauss-Kahn and Katsav engaged in systematic patterns of sexual violence. It pro- vides important background and context against which the two men are evaluated, offering a comparative analysis of the laws under which they faced accusations, formal charges, and in some instances, convictions. It is difficult to understand the ways in which the legal system and even the media responded to these allegations of sexual violence. This Article considers the victimization of women by the polit- ically powerful by utilizing a framework created originally by Nor- wegian sociologist Nils Christie that identifies a set of characteristics * Lecturer in Law, Co-Director, Kelley Institute of Ethics & the Legal Profession, Michigan State University College of Law. J.D., University of Iowa, 1998. I appreciate the thoughtful comments and insights on earlier drafts from Ann McGinley, Renee Knake, and Zipporah Wiseman, as well as participants at the 2nd Annual New Voices in Comparative Law conference sponsored by the Younger Comparativists Committee of the American Society of Comparative Law. Kassaundra Kennedy provided exceptional research assistance. Special thanks are due to Barbara Bean, Jane Meland, Noga Morag-Levine, and Heather Johnson for their help along the way with various aspects of this project. Words cannot begin to convey my gratitude to A. Magnusson for the diverse and endless conversation. Finally, Michigan State University College of Law provided valuable research support, including a generous summer research stipend. 225 226 MICHIGAN JOURNAL OF GENDER & LAW [Vol. 20:225 describing the “ideal victim.” It next examines some of the legal is- sues impacted by stereotypes of “ideal” victims that conflict with the reality of “real” victims, making recommendations for expanding Christie’s framework to include an equally comprehensive evaluation of perpetrators and more importantly, the power differential that exists between victim and perpetrator. Midway through this Article, I explore the connection between sexuality, seduction, and sexual vi- olence, and argue for a disentangling of these constructs. Finally, this article concludes by considering how the allegations against these powerful international political figures might advance the conversa- tion on the intersection of sexual violence and power. INTRODUCTION • 227 I. SYSTEMATIC PATTERNS OF SEXUAL VIOLENCE PERPETRATED BY THE POLITICALLY POWERFUL • 235 A. Dominique Strauss-Kahn • 236 B. Moshe Katsav • 247 C. Comparative Perspectives on the Strauss-Kahn and Katsav Crimes • 254 1. Prevalence of Sexual Violence in France, Israel, and the United States • 256 2. Laws Addressing Rape and Sexual Harassment • 257 II. BEYOND SEDUCTION: DISENTANGLING SEDUCTION FROM SEXUAL VIOLENCE • 263 III. “IDEAL” VS. “REAL” VICTIMS OF SEXUAL VIOLENCE • 267 A. “Ideal” Victims as Described by Nils Christie • 269 B. Evaluating the Claims of Sexual Violence Against Moshe Katsav and Strauss-Kahn Vis-`a- Vis the “Ideal Victim” Framework • 272 C. Reframing Christie’s “Ideal Victim” Standard • 277 IV. CONTINUING THE CONVERSATION ABOUT SEXUAL VIOLENCE AFTER STRAUSS-KAHN AND KATSAV: “ANITA HILL MOMENT” OR SOMETHING ELSE? • 282 CONCLUSION • 289 2013] BEYOND SEDUCTION 227 INTRODUCTION “All rape is an exercise in power, but some rapists have an edge that is more than physical. They operate within an institutionalized setting that works to their advantage and in which a victim has little chance to redress her grievance.”1 Susan Brownmiller’s groundbreaking feminist text, Against Our Will,2 first published in the early 1970s, identified many of the characteristics that have become part of the accepted rhetoric of sexual violence.3 Today, rape and other forms of violence against women4 are commonly understood to be about power and control that is wielded by a perpetrator against a vic- tim5 in a variety of contexts. Still, a dominant part of our collective con- sciousness associates these crimes with the idea of the stranger attacking a 1. SUSAN BROWNMILLER, AGAINST OUR WILL: MEN, WOMEN AND RAPE 256 (1975). Brownmiller’s work was a groundbreaking feminist expression of the depths and dynamics of sexual violence in the 1970s. It remains an important and relevant re- source today. 2. Id. 3. I use the term sexual violence in this Article as somewhat of an umbrella term to describe acts such as rape, sexual assault, and sexual harassment. Although “[t]here is no universally agreed definition of sexual violence,” my use of the term is consistent with that promulgated by the United Nations and The Council of Europe Conven- tion on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Vio- lence. EUROPEAN INST. FOR GEND. EQUAL., THE STUDY TO IDENTIFY AND MAP EXISTING DATA AND RESOURCES ON SEXUAL VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN IN THE EU 7 (2012). Although I do not use it in this Article, I am intrigued by the new framework proposed by Michal Buchhandler-Raphael, that argues for a new way to conceptualize rape as a “sexual abuse of power.” Michal Buchhandler-Raphael, The Failure of Consent: Reconceptualizing Rape as Sexual Abuse of Power, 18 MICH. J. GENDER & L. 147 (2011). 4. In this Article I primarily focus on sexual violence that is perpetrated against women by men. In doing so, I refer to victims using the pronoun “she” and to perpetrators using the pronoun “he.” In the context of this specific Article, the inquiry rests exclusively on women who were victims of repeated patterns of sexual abuse by men in positions of power. It is also important to note that statistically, it is much more common for women to be victims of sexual violence and men to be perpetrators of such violence; however, this should not serve to detract from the experience of male victims or to ignore that women can also perpetrate violence. BUREAU OF JUSTICE STATISTICS, U.S. DEP’TOF JUSTICE, NATIONAL CRIME VICTIMIZATION SURVEY, 2003 STATISTICAL TABLES tbl.44 (2005), available at http://dx.doi.org/10.3886/ ICPSR22901.v2. 5. I consciously use the term victim to refer to those individuals who are harmed as a result of sexual violence; while the term is imperfect, it effectively connotes the power imbalance inherent in such situations and also is inclusive, in a way that the term survivor is not, of those individuals who have been killed as a result of such crimes. 228 MICHIGAN JOURNAL OF GENDER & LAW [Vol. 20:225 woman walking home alone at night or jogging alone through the park, ignoring the well-documented reality that most rapes are committed by someone known to the victim, often by an acquaintance, such as a work colleague, dating partner, or even a spouse.6 Many of these offenses, though common, take place within a very private realm.7 Privacy is maintained be- cause many victims opt not to report or even talk about what happened to them for a myriad of reasons.8 Sometimes, highly visible or well-known individuals, such as Hollywood actors, elected officials, or professional ath- letes, perpetrate these offenses.9 As a result, what once existed as an almost 6. Research suggests that in the United States two-thirds of all rapes are committed by someone known to the victim. BUREAU OF JUSTICE STATISTICS, supra note 4, at tbl. 34. This statistic holds true across the countries analyzed in this Article. In France, Bulletin 2000 of the Collectif F´eministe Contre le Viol reports that in as many as 74% of cases, the victim knew the aggressor. Rape: The Statistics, SOS FEMMES (July 2000), http://www.sosfemmes.com/english_rape/rape_statistics.htm. In Israel, the Association of Rape Crisis Centers reports an even higher number of cases; in this context, “eighty-seven percent of calls come from women who know their attacker.” Ruth Eglash, Nice Girls Don’t Get Raped, JERUSALEM POST (Mar. 8, 2010), http:// www.jpost.com/Features/In-Thespotlight/Nice-girls-dont-get-raped. 7. Reva B. Siegel, Civil Rights Reform in Historical Perspective: Regulating Marital Vio- lence, in REDEFINING EQUALITY 29, 34–35 (Neal Devins & Davison M.
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