Eye | DSK's Wife Anne Sinclair | Men, Women & Power

Michael Appleton for The New York TimesFrench intellectual Anne Sinclair

RedTracker| Today’s NYTimes profiles Anne Sinclair, wife of Dominique Strauss-Kahn since 1991. New York born Sinclair is regarded as a major intellectual in France, previously hosting ‘7/7’ where as many as 12 million people listened to her interview the powerful including François Mitterrand, Mikhail Gorbachev and Bill Clinton, Hillary Rodham Clinton as first lady, and stars like Yves Montand and even Madonna.

Anne Sinclair was even a model for Marianne, the symbol of freedom and republican pride in France, putting her fact on every city hall.

The granddaughter of art dealer Paul Rosenberg quit her show after 13 years to avoid a conflict of interest when her husband became finance minister in 1997. She herself became deputy director of channel TF1 and later, director general of its Internet arm. Elie Weisel describes Anne Sinclair as a cross between Pete Rose and Barbara Walters, ‘very well read, very well prepared’.

Passionate about her Jewish history, ‘she always wanted to prove that, 75 years after Léon Blum, the French were capable of electing a Jew,’ a friend told Le Monde. ‘In her eyes, that would be a formidable revenge on history.’

On April 30, Ms. Sinclair wrote about the wedding of Prince William on her blog. “I can understand those who didn’t miss a crumb. As if, quite simply, we were like children who, before going to sleep, want a tale, a story with a princess and a dream, because real life catches up with you soon enough. …”

In expressing his sadness and support for Anne Sinclair, Elie Weisel says ‘There is a Talmudic saying, ‘No one is the owner of his instincts,’ ” he said. “But controlling them, that is civilization.’

Stories Related to DSK Case

DSK Accuser: The Dangerous Life of a Hotel Maid The Daily Beast

Sexual Affronts a Known Hotel Hazard NYTimes

The Daily Beast article presents a less caring, more negative portrayal of the security risks of hotel maids. Both articles cite examples of the challenges of sexual advances from clients. The Daily Beast weaves union complaints having nothing to do with the security topic into the discussion.

Bernard-Henri Lévy Essay

Bernard-Henri Lévy Defends Accused IMF Director The Daily Beast

Early in the week Bernard-Henri Lévy, good friend of Dominique Strauss-Kahn wrote a passionate essay on behalf of his good friend. That essay has been somewhat reframed by the media as one that denies DSK’s guilt under any circumstances. This is not true, although Lévy says it’s inconceivable to him that DSK is guilty of his alleged crime. 

Bernard-Henri Lévy believes his friend Strauss-Kahn is also a victim, paraded before press cameras on his way to court appearances. This is the thrust of Lévy’s essay. Interviewed last night, the intellectual says he has full confidence in the judicial system in New York but believes his friend has already been tried in the press.

Hey France, You Are Right About the Perp Walk The Atlantic

Boys Club

Sex, Lies, Arrogance: What Makes Powerful Men Behave So Badly? TIME

Because women barely figure in the world of powerful people, we don’t know what life would be like if women ran the world. Also, what is the definition of ‘behaving badly’. 

One new study being quoted in the press argues that ‘sexual misbehavior’ comes with power, not gender. In today’s world, both genders have easy access to extramarital affairs.

Dutch researchers analyzed anonymous responses to an online questionnaire from more than 1,500 readers of Intermediair.

“Power … increases infidelity among women as it does among men,” according to the study, by a team from the universities of Tilburg and Groningen. Its findings suggest that “women in high-power positions are as likely to engage in infidelity than men.” via Reuters

One must consider the fact the Dutch women are among the most liberated in the world. It’s also a big step from concluding that women are willing to engage in affairs to suggest that they are equally prone to sexual aggression and attempted rape. Or that women are equally prone to living a total double life for years, as it appears the Terminator Arnold Schwarzenegger did with wife Maria Shriver.

All analysis of financial dealings about the habits of women versus men indicate that more women executives in finance would have changed the recent financial history of the world.

The Sex Difference in Sex Scandals The Atlantic

Lane Wallace argues that even though women are seriously underrepresented in having power, those that do have fewer scandals. No one denies that women can and do stumble, but the general consensus is not as often.

In 2009 Newsweek tallied up the scandals in Congress since 1976 and found that only 1 out of 53 involved a woman. Republican and Democratic men were evenly split. While it’s true that women have held only about 16-17% of seats in Congress for ages and currently 12% of governors, we don’t have our fair share of sex scandals to date.

Wallace cites the example of a man and woman pilot walking into a bar. American culture sees the man as sexy and powerful in a uniform. A woman will see her chances of being perceived as attractive fall.

The theory goes that a politician (or star athlete, for that matter) will find a dizzyingly high number of adoring admirers at their disposal. And that theory may be true … but I would argue that phenomenon is one known far better by male politicians than female ones. Why? Because the very features that make a male politician so much more attractive to people they meet (power and competence) make their female counterparts less sexually attractive, at least in many people’s eyes.

Men — especially powerful men — believe they’re entitled to sex. Sex on demand is an expression of their power. Women, argues Wallace convincingly, use withholding sex as a form of power.

We frequently call up the Greek play ‘Lysistrata’ at AOC as an example of how women can use power sexually when they have it — which they don’t. Without whitewashing women’s potential capacity to do evil, the current research on female behavior in groups supports the idea that women are less ideological and more devoted to problem solving.

As for using our bodies as weapons against other living and breathing human beings, when you consider just how much current legislation in the Republican War on Women is devoted to conquering women’s bodies once and for all, you’ll understand what a joke it is to equate power and sex equally to both genders. Anne