Does a Parisian escape game about the DSK affair promote rape culture?

He had slipped under the radar of the media, but without counting on Dare’s keen eye for feminism. On Tuesday 15 November, on its Instagram account, the feminist association pinned the Parisian escape game presented under the name of “The DXK affair”. Does this name tell you something? It is in fact a reference to DSK, the abbreviation of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, a former French minister. But the case in question is more precisely that of the Carlton in Lille, in which the former director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had been implicated for the exploitation of prostitution. A visibly funny subject, according to Wanderlust Escape Game, the escape game brand that markets it.

Carlton: not just a scandal

“The Carlton affair is not just a scandal of amusing and falsely subversive sexual adventures “remember the feminism of Dare. In this case, which broke out in 2011, 14 people, including Dominique Strauss-Kahn, were tried for aggravated prostitution. DSK, then director of the IMF, attended the evenings organized by René Kojfer, public relations manager at the Carlton. Under the cover of swinging, the latter actually brought together wealthy and powerful men with prostituted women. Finally, apart from René Kojfer, sentenced to a one-year suspended prison sentence, almost all of the defendants were released from prison. The court of Lille had in fact held that they could not be qualified as pimps, but simply as clients of the prostitutes involved in the case.

Dehumanization of the victims

The escape match theme doesn’t even try to be a discreet nod to the Carlton affair in Lille. As evidenced by his name, which could not be more obvious, but also the website description of the game Wanderlust. Players are then invited to step into the shoes of DXK’s accomplices “to make the evidence disappear” and “the practices DXK tries to hide”. Sailing on the idea that, in real life, DSK would have been trapped by this affair to thwart his political ambitions, the game’s scenario casts the bad role on journalists “traveling to gather clues in order to damage the presidential candidate’s image and to discredit him. The players must therefore act as quickly as possible and choose which side to take when faced with the question posed to them: “Will you prevent journalists from making fun of his reputation or will you report him as the adventure progresses? “.

“This escape game dehumanizes the victims of the Carlton trial,” denounces the feminism of Dare which recalls the sexual assaults mentioned by the victims during the investigation. Serious facts that this escape game turns into entertainment, and that once again illustrates the avenue where the culture of rape spreads.

Front page image: Youtube screenshot