Importune — v. to harass (someone) persistently for or to do something.
Origin: mid-16th century, from French importuner or medieval Latin importunari, from Latin importunus “inconvenient, unseasonable.”
Why am I providing you with this dictionary definition? Because the French newspaper Le Monde has published an open letter, signed by more than 100 French writers, performers and academics, stating that the “liberty to importune” is indispensable to sexual freedom.
In a tedious and worn-out sleight of hand, the signatories to this sexism-by-numbers letter elide sexual assault with sexual freedom, and they elide women freeing themselves from that sexual assault with “Puritanism.” By trying to rid ourselves of leches and creeps, they warn, we are handing power over to “the enemies of sexual liberty.”
Forgive me for disagreeing with such luminaries as Catherine Deneuve, but personally I consider those self-same creeps to be the actual enemies of my sexual freedom.
