Women and the French

Watched a bit of another French moving yesterday, 'La Loi', 1959. It was apparently "Yves Montand" day because he was also in this movie; so was Gina Lollobrigida. You get the idea. Macho male and sexy female vie for power; the former with his fists and the latter with her wiles. By today's standards, its depiction of women was inconceivable. Here was head honco, Yves, sexually attacking and slapping loose woman, Gina, around while she alternately egged him on with relentless teasing and then laughed off his viscious attacks. She was also sleeping willy-nilly with this one and that, which made Yves even more heated, if you get my drift.

In this film, Yves is the bossman of the village, but Gina has the real power because she is the wayward daughter of the local Don. The pecking order established itself early, with a sort of Greek Chorus of villagers sitting on the sidelines, commenting on the action. I was riveted watching Jules Dassin's depiction of the male/female relationship and how the power ultimately lies with the woman because she dispenses sex as required to further her ambitions. (Not much has changed there.)

In an effort to rein Gina in, her mother, aunts and sisters...get this...seriously...strap her to the dining table and take turns viscously whipping the life out of her! Nevermind, ever the brave heroine, Gina refuses to cry and is finally rescued by one of her father's lascivious servants, who climbs on top of her in an effort to convince her that if she accepts his "advances", he will unbind her. Once again, Gina uses her sexuality to pretend she will let him have his way, but rejects him once he lets her go. More slapping.

Not restricting himself to women, Yves wallops and smacks his too-independent son around, along with anyone else who defies or disobeys him. I could not turn the tv off! In the end our Gina prevails by convincing her father on his deathbed -- again with her wiles -- to have Yves arrested. Oh yes, I forgot, there is another suitor -- Marcello Mastroianni -- who she sleeps with from time to time, because...um...?...I guess just for the heck of it(??!!).

Coincidentally, I watched this movie before I read that French prosecutors have now dropped all charges against Dominique Straus-Kahn, recently accused of the rape of a french journalist. You remember this guy -- the one who escaped the New York courts for allegedly raping a maid. Apparently in France, "sexual assault" and "rape" and miles apart and the fact that he claimed only to have "kissed" her a couple of times against her will was deemed to have been pretty harmless. Afterall, he didn't actually proceed to a full-on-Yves-Montand-style rape. Nice guy, he let her leave, so they dropped the charges. How considerate of him -- especially when he must have been in such an Yves-heated state.

All this is in stark juxtaposition to a new ad campaign here in Calgary. It features drunk young women being taken advantage of by horny young men. The caption reads, "Don't be one of those guys. Just because she doesn't say no, doesn't mean she says yes." This is a marked switch from the "she asked for it" refrain, whereby women are to blame for their rape. Now young men are also being held to account. Good thing, but ultimately both men and women have to behave appropriately. Being scantily-clad and drunk in a bar is still a dangerous thing to do because my guess is there will still be lots of guys lurking around in the shadows who haven't yet seen the ad campaign -- or who have, but raucously laughed it off.

Just to add yet another bizarro twist, today's paper also featured a story about a middle school in BC that has banned breast cancer awareness bracelets because they read, "I love boobies!" The bracelets are part of the "Save a Breast" campaign, but are apparently too edgy and offensive for some parents.

Go figure.