'Flirting is not a crime'

paris - The French actress Cathérine Deneuve and 99 other women have expressed their disgust in the French newspaper Le Monde against the 'wave of puritanism' that has engulfed the western world since the Weinstein affair, and against the hatred of radical feminists.

Among the female advocates of perfectly legitimate flirting, seduction or awkward insistence are the German actress Ingrid Caven, the French publisher Joëlle Losfeld and the presenter and actress Brigitte Lahaie.

Rape is a serious crime, but flirting, seduction and courtesy are not 'macho aggression', the women emphasize. Since American media started writing about the sexual urges of the American film producer Harvey Weinstein last fall, much more attention has been paid to sexual violence. According to the women, that is good in principle, but it would also have turned into a kind of witch hunt.