THERE is a scene in “Marseille”, a new television drama billed as a French version of “House of Cards”, in which an ambitious deputy mayor holds a campaign meeting in his office. A photo is selected for election leaflets. New polls provoke cheers. As the male staff file out, the deputy mayor shuts the door behind them, detaining the sole young woman on his team. “A good poll should be celebrated,” he mutters, pinning her to his desk and unbuttoning her shirt: “Isn’t this what you wanted?”
Sex and smoking feature to excess in “Marseille”. Perhaps the French writers are catering to what they think Americans expect from a drama about French politics. Yet there is something about the casual indifference of this scene, of no great narrative consequence, that makes it unusually plausible. Five years after the DSK affair—when Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former IMF chief and Socialist politician, was arrested on rape charges (later dropped)—France again faces claims of predatory sexism.
This month Denis Baupin resigned as deputy speaker of parliament after claims of years of sexual aggression and harassment (which he denies). Days later…
