Sex, Politics and.....Realism?

Sex, Politics and......Realism?
The Strauss-Kahn affair has been filling a lot of news articles here, as elsewhere, and seems also to have spawned some ill-conceived columns in the English press. Broadly, the English press seems to be saying: “Ah, now the French are having to review their relaxed attitude towards sex; it's time for the revenge of English propriety over the French libertines". In fact, it's nothing of the sort.

Judging from the reactions of the pizza crowd and other French friends, the underlying attitude of the French to sex remains very much the same. The first reaction I noted was that several friends were persuaded by the idea that the affair was engineered by Sarkozy. Strauss-Kahn was all set to be the leader of the Left and very likely to inflict a bloody nose on Sarkozy at the forthcoming elections. And the French love a conspiracy theory even more than we English do. The fact that there was not a shred of evidence to support this theory merely dimmed the suspicion slightly.

The other reaction was that Strauss-Kahn was in the wrong because he used coercion. The French may be relaxed about informal sexual encounters but not about coercion. Coercion in such matters is wrong, full stop. For Strauss-Kahn, anyway, the political dream is over, at least until memories fade.

Incidentally, any scandal there has been has been limited to coverage of the story on the Internet. The French printed press has reported the case widely but not any salacious details. In that, it has kept true to its respect for the privacy of the private lives of public figures. And none of my acquaintances has suggested that Strauss-Kahn was wrong to have had a dalliance. Thus the basic difference in French and British attitudes, which the French regard as inclined to be prurient, remains the same.

For me, the general French attitude to both sex and politics is exemplified by realism. There are things which people do which they may not like but they accept that they are part of life and don't get their knickers in a twist about them. I think that that is generally laudable but some aspects do grate against my Anglo-Saxon sensibilities.

A little while ago when Steve and Daniel were eating with me and conversation got around to the Common Market, Steve brought up the case of the order for new trains for Eurostar. Siemens was initially selected as the supplier but a French representative on the selection panel objected and the contract eventually went to Alsthom, a French company. Daniel's reaction was that this wasn't unusual and that Alsthom had obviously increased their bribe. This shocked me. It wasn't simply his suggestion of a bribe that did this but his firm belief that of course a bribe was involved. I have no idea whether this was true but the underlying attitude bothered me.

I do find this aspect of French realism troubling. It is the calm acceptance that people in important positions will, in Anglo-Saxon terms, abuse their power. In French terms, it is a realistic view that there are certain perks, be they women (or men) or money, that go with the job. I have to accept that, in the real grubby world, the French view is indeed realistic. What I find difficult to accept is that, while large financial contracts have no doubt often (always?) been this way, they have to remain that way and nothing can be done to stop them, which seems to be the prevailing French view.

I find I have a different attitude to dalliances in high places and there is, of course, a feminist aspect to this. If bribes in high places shock me, dalliances don't. If power is an aphrodisiac for men and women, then so be it; both parties know, if I may express it this way, what their relative positions are. In Anglo-Saxon feminist terms, women involved in such affairs would be victims of male dominance. That isn't the French feminist view. Several of my female friends regard themselves as feminist and their attitude to such affairs is, if no coercion is involved, that both parties presumably enjoyed themselves so let them get on with it. Here, too, there is a divergence in French and British attitudes. French feminists are very hot on equal pay, opportunities and rights but not on the extreme postures in which their English and American counterparts often indulge. Maybe in this too they are just being more realistic.