Exploits and Exploitations
Exploits and Exploitations
A Micro and Macro Analysis of the “DSK Affair”
The “DSK Affair,” on the surface, provides a classic example of the role that intersecting power differentials play in sexual assault. A classic rape script is re-enacted when a powerful rich white man is accused of sexually assaulting a black female domestic worker. Despite an emerging pattern of sexual aggression by the accused, it is the credibility of the victim that is called into question, as her vulnerable societal position is used against her. These gendered, raced, and classed power dynamics take on a whole new dimension when considering the accused’s role as the director of the International Monetary Fund and the complainant’s status as a migrant with asylum from Guinea, one of the poorest countries in the world. This chapter examines the parallels as well as the connections between the macro-level power politics of neoliberal exploitation and the micro-level power politics in the exploits of Dominque Strauss-Kahn.
Keywords: Dominque Strauss-Kahn, DSK Affair, sexual assault, exploitation, International Monetary Fund
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