Before his arrest in for sexually assaulting a hotel maid in New York, many considered Dominique Strauss-Kahn to be living the dream. The thrice-married head of the International Monetary Fund and father of four was a millionaire and serious contender for the French presidency. Highly connected, he had homes in Paris, Washington and Marrakech and a deal with Air France whereby he was always upgraded to first class.
But not that regular. Dominique Strauss-Kahn says women had a habit of 'offering themselves to me'. DSK 'regrets' text messages describing women as 'equipment' and 'gifts'. France still respects Dominique Strauss-Kahn but new trial will destroy him.
They need that extra something. Like much else, orgies originated in Ancient Greece, with the word orgia applied to secret ecstatic worship sessions. When the custom spread to Rome, they became increasingly depraved. As Christianity took hold of Europe, such activities were outlawed.
In , the Puritans banned maypoles, after reports of mass copulation in the fields after dancing round the phallic symbols. Since then, romps became upper-class affairs. The Marquis de Sade and his wife enlisted young male servants and pretty girls for violent sex and cruelty, as depicted in The Days of Sodom.
In the Victorian era, British aristocrats headed to Paris with its renowned maisons closes, including Le Chabanais, where King Edward VII was a regular, with his own copper swan-shaped bath that he liked filled with champagne and a stirrup-fitted armchair. Yet, while such gatherings were depicted as glamorous, the mainstream wife-swapping scene which the US Kinsey Institute estimates involves between 2 and 4 per cent of couples was mocked as the province of bored suburbanites dumping car keys in bowls.
