A Mir kiss? No, it was sex assault, says astronaut

By Marcus Warren in Moscow 3/28/00 UK Telegraph Russian Space Agency Mir Space Station

AN experiment to study the tension and loneliness of long-haul space travel has ended in controversy over a kiss which Russian participants say was just a kiss but the only female taking part claims was sexual violence. Judith Lapierre, 32, the only woman among eight guinea pigs confined to a replica of the Mir space station for 110 days, has forced scientists to rethink plans for future stations by complaining of her ordeal at a party to celebrate the Millennium.

The New Year's Eve party inside the mock-up station outside Moscow was enlivened by a few shots of vodka, but the festivities rapidly swung out of control with a violent fight between two Russians and the stolen kiss. The brawling Russians had settled their differences in minutes, but later the Russian commander grabbed Mrs Lapierre, pulled her out of range of the observation cameras and gave her a full-blooded kiss.

Mrs Lapierre, a Canadian from Quebec, said last night: "An unwanted French kiss when the woman says no is completely unacceptable. He was really aggressing my personal space." Russian scientists have attempted to play down the incident by blaming it on a clash of cultures, the politically correct, puritanical West and the old fashioned gallantry favoured by Russian men.

Vadim Gushin, a Russian psychologist in charge of the project, said: "The kiss happened, no one is denying that. The question is what importance was attached to it by the parties involved." In Russia there is no real distinction between a kiss on the cheek and one on the lips, especially at parties or celebrations to mark red letter days, say the project's controllers.

Mrs Lapierre said: "It was not a kiss on the mouth. He was very intrusive with a kiss with the tongue. That's very different from a kiss on the lips." Mrs Lapierre's crew, which included an Austrian, a Japanese man and a Russian, had been specially selected to maximise the potential for conflict and cultural misunderstanding.

However, the biggest rift appears to have emerged between Mrs Lapierre and the macho Russian cosmonauts who shared their isolation chamber. Girlie posters and the men looking at pornographic web sites she could take, Mrs Lapierre said. But she drew the line at the use of physical force, either in a fight between crew members or against a woman.

Mrs Lapierre said: "I'm not a crazy lady. I knew I was coming to a man's place. But for me this was absolutely out of the ordinary and unacceptable." The project's Russian supervisors have conceded that they were insensitive and should have given Mrs Lapierre more support. But they also argue that she should have been more flexible and tolerant herself.

Mr Gushin said: "We didn't understand the weight of the moral pressure she was under. But I think she would do well to appreciate the moral and psychological stress she has caused the Russian members of the crew. She would have done well to study Russian culture a bit more.

"The problem of sexual harassment is given a lot of attention in North America but less in Europe. In Russia it is even less of an issue, not because we are more or less moral than the rest of the world; we just have different priorities."

Despite the personality clashes and fall-out afterwards, the project has been hailed as a success by Russian psychologists, who say it has made an important contribution to plans for the International Space Station.

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-- Kissing Bandit (kb@kissme.youfool), March 30, 2000

Answers

Can you imagine how Hawks gerbil feels?

-- madman (onthewater@let.loose), March 30, 2000.

And this has what to do with LL?...... come on people, give it a rest :-)

-- Netghost (ng@no.yr), March 30, 2000.

"The project's Russian supervisors have conceded that they were insensitive and should have given Mrs Lapierre more support. But they also argue that she should have been more flexible and tolerant herself."

All she asked was to keep off her personal space. If she tolerated a grabbed by force french kiss, the russian would have felt more emboldened. Russians lose all civility after a drink of vodka anyway. The introduction of vodka in the experiment was the mistake.

All in all, I'm impressed that was all that happened after 110 days.

-- Chris (!@#$@pond.com), March 30, 2000.

yes but LL would not have the same problem

any men in her vicinity would be impeccably behaved

well we all know the reason why

-- sir richard (richard@onion.com), April 02, 2000.

-- Patsy Cline (crazy@crazy.crazy), April 02, 2000.

When normal, healthy guys are "deprived" of female companionship for any length of time, just about any available female starts looking pretty good. Before long the men naturally begin to compete for her attentions. If she is so inclined, they can easily be pited against each other and will quickly be at each other's throats.

Is Lady Logic manipulative? Does the Sun rise in the morning? She's have had those guys cutting each others air hoses.

-- mr. sunshine (mrsunshine@sunrise.time), April 02, 2000.

Yeah, while she was keeping files on them. For her book, of course...

-- don't believe her (shelies@too.often), April 03, 2000.

I guess Lady Logic didn't cut Mr. Polley's hose, at least not yet! Musta jerked his chain, tho.

-- justa thot (justa@thots.rus), April 04, 2000.

Is Lady Logic manipulative? Does the Sun rise in the morning? She's have had those guys cutting each others air hoses.

More likely their own air hoses!

-- nutz! (shesnutz@nutz.nutz.nutz.nutz), April 07, 2000.

-- idiot (learn@trade.computers.not4u), April 07, 2000.

And you still presume to compare this forum with the other. LOL!

-- What a (joke@this.is), April 07, 2000.