European nations appeared to be closing ranks behind the French Finance Minister, Christine Lagarde, to run the International Monetary Fund, trying to nip in the bud a campaign to appoint an emerging-market candidate for the first time in the organisation's 65-year history.

French feminist groups demonstrated yesterday against what they said is a "flood" of male chauvinist comments generated in France by the Dominique Strauss-Kahn (DSK) affair.

Let's talk about men behaving badly. No, actually, let's talk about rape and sexual aggression, the accurate descriptions of some of the behaviours that have just caused a media frenzy. Most of the myths around the subject have surfaced during the past seven days. I'm going to list them as a small public service.

The distinction between who is and isn't fair game for the press is complicated. So it is a relief that we can all agree on Sir Fred Goodwin. Actors and footballers are one thing: a hubristic banker who left the taxpayer with the bill for his rampage is a different matter. We can tell that the alleged affair between Goodwin and a senior colleague at the Royal Bank of Scotland is a solid-gold scandal rather than diverting gossip because the Financial Services Authority has deemed it worthy enough of investigation.

What a week it's been for alpha males behaving badly.

Bail plans in disarray for former IMF chief as exclusive apartment block refuses him entry

The timing was weird. I'd just returned to New York from Paris, where I'd heard a fair amount of discussion in Montparnasse and elsewhere about the next elections, and about the likelihood that someone named Dominique Strauss-Kahn would be the Socialist candidate, and quite possibly the next president. And here he was in my town, being paraded in handcuffs in front of the cameras.

Connoisseurs of classical journalese were delighted to see this headline on a news page on Thursday: "Bride-to-be saved from death leap."