Life, Debt and Character: The Individualizing Rhetoric of Rape in the Media Does No One Justice

As the Strauss-Kahn case devolves into a messy game of character assessment, each day revealing a new “fact” about the accuser who up until this point has remained nameless, I am left with a familiar feeling of feminist déjà vu. It was only weeks ago that two NYC police officers were acquitted of a rape, a crime that one of them verbally admitted. This acquittal happened largely on the basis of the accuser’s – the victim’s- actions. The fact that she was “drunk”, “drunken”, “partying”, or any other number of adjectives were splashed across front cover stories, is as well known as the fact that the officer’s were accused of a crime. The problem with this individualizing rhetoric, one that focuses on the activities and personality of the accuser, is that it misses the point. Sexual assault and rape are a reflection of larger power structures in our society; the fact that police officers not only have access to the means to commit such a violent and heinous crime, but that they can be acquitted is a testament to the structures in play that protect them from being prosecuted.

It is in this climate that people are beginning to question the “credibility” of a housekeeper who accused one of the most financially prominent and powerful men in the world of sexual assault. I cannot imagine being in her shoes; not only did she make the decision to report the sexual assault to the police, but she stepped into the media’s scrutinizing spotlight. As a black immigrant woman working in the service industry, this was an extremely brave step indeed. Now, news sources from the New York Times to the New York Post to The Atlantic are questioning the accuser’s credibility, her immigration status, and her work. One news source went as far to label her as a “prostitute”- a piece that she is taking action over. In fact, now news sources are speculating on the devastating effects that the focus on her character might have; the case may culminate in her being deported.

Little is said about Strauss-Kahn’s credibility; on why he was allowed to be released without bail; or about the danger he poses to women being released. No one is questioning why it is so easy for him to cross borders, to board a plane hours after the alleged assault took place. No one is wondering how this man makes money, or what he does at night. No one questions the legitimacy of his earnings at an organization that drives countries into debt and benefits from interest rates that make their loans impossible to pay back. Jamaica Kincaid spoke out about this in a powerful documentary called Life and Debt on Jamaica and the institutionalization of the IMF’s unequal and unsustainable lending strategies. These strategies shape the way that international trade agreements are put into place, on how certain countries are systematically targeted to increase the profits of some of the richest countries on the planet – including France and the US.

While news outlets struggle to make this an individualized story; a story about a woman who is engaged in criminal activities, a woman who “lied” on her visa application, they lose sight of the ways that sexual violence and assault mirrors larger power structures in society. And the fact that Strauss-Kahn was previously at the helm of one of the most powerful international economic organizations is not merely a coincidence. In June of 2008 the IMF approved a loan of $28.7 to the government of Guinea, the country from which the accuser immigrated. I am not suggesting that this provoked the assault; however the global inequalities in place created a climate where this assault was made possible. Let’s not forget that this is the same country that Amadou Diallo immigrated from, a NYC man who was murdered at the hands of the New York City Police Department.

In postcolonial landscape Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s actions should be analyzed using the lens of a global framework; one that takes into account the damage that the IMF has wreaked on countries around the world, a framework that takes into account the police brutality and systematic violence that is committed against immigrants, people of color and women living in the US, or a culture of victim-blaming where victims of sexual assault are rarely taken seriously as victims. People want to know what kind of a person would lie on their visa application. Perhaps instead we should ask the question, what kind of a global community would make it necessary for immigrants to lie, and sometimes die, to escape the systematic economic inequalities that are held in place by the IMF? Furthermore, what type of a society would use a reported assault as an opportunity to attack the “character” of the accuser rather than taking the difficult step of thinking about the ways that sexual violence and gender based violence are not only prevalent, but used to enforce state structures of power. Think about the recent revelations on rape in US military, and how women soldiers are more likely to be raped by their fellow troops than killed by enemy fire. This, unfortunately, is no coincidence.