Dominique Strauss-Kahn and the politics of rape

By: Sreeparna Ghosh - June 5th, 2011  Filed under: Body & Sexuality, Govt & Politics, Law & Institutions, Work & Economy Add Comment

Sreeparna

A FEW MONTHS AGO, I was outraged by the French reaction to the Roman Polanski case. I am similarly outraged with the French reaction to Dominique Strauss-Kahn or DSK. Dominique Strauss-Kahn, head of the powerful International Monetary Fund, is accused of sexually assaulting a housekeeping staff in the posh Sofitel hotel in Manhattan. The charges against DSK are extremely serious and if convicted he could face up to 25 years in prison. He has maintained his innocence and a recent poll indicates that 57% of the French public believe he has been framed. What further complicates this story is the fact that a few months ago DSK  allegedly claimed that since he is running for French presidency, there will be attempts to discredit him. More specifically, he claimed that anyone could be paid 500,000 Euros to falsely accuse him of rape in a parking lot. He also said the fact that he is Jewish might work against him, against the backdrop of covert and sometimes overt anti-Semitism in Europe. [Read More]

On Roman Polanski

By: Sreeparna Ghosh - August 13th, 2010  Filed under: Body & Sexuality, Media 13 Comments

Sreeparna

ROMAN POLANSKI is a free man. The Swiss government refused to extradite him to the US. Does a crime committed by an Oscar winning director cease to be a crime? Should Roman Polanski be treated any differently because he is the director of The Pianist? Does the fact that he raped and sodomized a thirteen-year-old girl more than thirty-three years ago diminish the magnitude of the crime or its impact on the victim? The girl, little more than a child at the time met Polanski during a Vogue photo shoot in Los Angeles, California. He drugged as well as plied her with alcohol before he assaulted her in a hot tub in 1977. The charges against him were very serious including assault on a child under the age of 14 with under Californian law at that time, statutory rape. According to some newspaper sources his victim Samantha Gailey’s lawyer made a plea bargain with him so that she could preserve the anonymity of her client. He pleaded guilty to unlawful sex with a minor (a much lesser charge than his original offences) and spent a mere forty-two days in prison before he fled first to London (his home at that time) and then to France, his adoptive home.

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Marriage and Feminism

By: Sreeparna Ghosh - March 1st, 2010  Filed under: Relationships & Marriage, Work & Economy 15 Comments

Sreeparna

OVER THE LAST FEW decades, sociologists and economists have been exploring the consequences of marriage for men and for women. Many of the studies indicate that married people are happier, healthier and richer than single or divorced people. Sometimes this masks the fact that marriage has more advantages for men than for women especially when we examine the financial portfolios of married women in developed countries compared to never married or widowed women. Married women appear to have smaller pensions and investments as well as savings. In the UK where I live, many more women work part-time than men, particularly after childbirth; there are more men than women in senior professional and managerial positions; and finally, more women care for elderly relatives (including parents and in-laws) than men and do so either by working part-time or by quitting their jobs. Given these exits from the labour market at various points in their lives, it is not surprising that when they are close to retirement women have smaller pensions and greater economic insecurity compared to men. [Read More]

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