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.