When sex becomes a race issue...

By Tim Bester

The sexual adventures of the rich and powerful have always been the focus of public fascination when these are aired in the public domain. These peccadilloes make for good and lurid copy in our newspapers. The most recent of these, involving Dominique Strauss-Kahn and Arnold Schwarzenegger, are good examples. And they have produced some alarming local journalism. Two recent opinion pieces published locally are worthy of analysis.

The first, luridly headlined “Loving scumbags who grope other women” written by Lihle Z Mtshali, appeared in The Sunday Times (May 22 2011). Her lead-in paragraph was set up as a joke in which “an Austrian-American actor and a French presidential hopeful” share comment on their recent sexual improprieties. The joke itself was weak and does not warrant repeating. Her narrative was interesting in that it did raise the issue of the betrayal that the wives of these two libidinous individuals would be experiencing.

In the article she asks rhetorically, with reference to Strauss-Kahn’s wife, Anne Sinclair: “Does she say that the quiet, serious, religious, West African woman who was allegedly attacked wanted Strauss Khan’s advances?” This description of Strauss-Kahn’s accuser is loaded with emotive positive characterisation and national/race description. It is in sharp contrast to the description of Schwarzenegger’s (presumably complicit) mistress, Mildred Baena, who is described simply as a “woman”.

The second article, rather aptly headlined “Time for manure to hit the DSK” written by Nikiwe Bikitsha appeared in the Mail & Guardian (May 27 to June 2 2011) issue. Dealing only with the Strauss-Kahn case her article starts off with valid and unbiased opinion. Her narrative then takes the reader to an exclusive venue and (in her words “posh”) event to which she had been invited; a polo match. The conversation at this event, she says, led “inevitably to the downfall of Strauss-Kahn”. His reputation as a “cad and seducer” she says “was well known and accepted by the French who are less bothered by issues of sexual impropriety than other nations”.

She then goes on to say “that this particular incident raises other debates about power, race, class and gender”. Another guest then arrives at the polo match. She describes this newly arrived guest thus: “An elderly white gentleman who tried to pull a DSK … he deliberately sought out the black women at the gathering … he spoke fluent isiZulu … he figured it gave him licence to make inappropriate and sexually suggestive remarks to us, much to our annoyance and disgust.”

She goes on to say “it was his sense of entitlement and the brazen manner in which he foisted himself on all the black girls that was disturbing. It communicated a slave-owner mentality that suggested that he could and should do with us as he wished because he was white, wealthy and powerful … I shudder to think what his black female staff … might have to endure”. Nikiwa then carries on, saying: “I thought then of the poor Guinean housemaid … confronted by a naked, wrinkly DSK determined to have his way with her. As a poor black immigrant woman from Africa, the fear and insecurity she must have felt must have been overwhelming, but she was brave enough to report the matter to the police.”

Sexual harassment and rape are crimes and they are not made worse (or better) as result of the race or age, or any other characteristic of the harasser, the rapist or the victims of such behaviour. These are crimes if proven in court. They are heinous and should be punished with the full force of law. Strauss-Kahn will have his day in court. Her description of the potentially criminal behaviour of the unnamed old, white, wealthy, male lecher who brought down the “tone” of her polo match is explicitly lurid. Does she intend laying charges of harassment against him?

The Schwarzenegger peccadillo was by all accounts, consensual and therefore not the subject of an impending trial. And, most often, the out of wedlock sexual behaviours of the rich and famous are consensual and are not “rape” or “harassment”. The list is long: JFK, Bill Clinton, Francois Mitterrand, Silvio Berlusconi, to name a few … are some woman attracted to men of power?

But the narratives quoted above play out other metaphors. One is that of “victimhood”: “female, black, African, slave, immigrant, employee, poor, young.” This stereotype is positioned in juxtaposition to the “oppressor/aggressor” metaphor being “male, white, European, colonial, employer, wealthy, powerful, old”. Surely we should shed such metaphors and stereotypes? They have the effect of masking the truth and obfuscating remedies to criminal sexual predation. They are also backward, not forward looking.

We have excellent South African examples why such racially loaded anti-white diatribe is wrong.

The first example we find in our own President Jacob Zuma’s sexual behaviour. He was accused of rape by a young women, the daughter of a friend (or comrade) who saw him, Zuma, as an “uncle”. He successfully defended himself, and was found innocent of the charge. In his defence he admitted to unprotected intercourse with a known HIV carrier and proclaimed a quaint custom that called on Zulu males to satisfy “sexually aroused” women. He had a shower. The disgusting scenes played out by his supporters in the street during his trial horrified us all. In another space he fathered a child out of wedlock with the daughter of another friend. He has four wives, each of whom could feel betrayed by this behaviour. But lobola was presumably paid to their fathers; a custom that, in my opinion, dehumanises women to the status of “uncomplaining” barter goods.

And in neighbouring Swaziland, King Mswati has first choice of parading virgins (young, black, poor) and, perhaps, not even “willing”; just a part of an old and accepted social custom … and definitely not French.

Schwarzenegger no longer holds public office and Strauss-Kahn has resigned as head of the IMF. Zuma and Mswati rule on.

I could go on and on but being a male, white, old, moderately wealthy, an employer, colonial (with roots that go back to Germany and the UK), happily married for 45 years, the dice is loaded against me. I do not want to appear sexist (or racist) as well.

I’ll leave that sexy race space to Nikiwa and Lihle who clearly know more about these things than me.