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July 5, 2017 7:53 AM Subscribe
"The effortlessly chic French woman is one of the most persistent tropes in our lifestyle landscape. Sixty years after a young, unapologetically sexual Brigitte Bardot danced her way into the pop culture canon in the film ...And God Created Woman, publications like Vogue, Into the Gloss, and Who What Wear now publish a steady stream of articles on the supposedly superior and increasingly specific ways that French women dress, do their hair, eat, exercise, and fall in love." How to Sell A Billion Dollar Myth Like A French Girl (from Eliza Brooke at Racked).
A little bit of racism (French people are naturally more sexy and stylish), a little bit of ageism (girl, not woman), a lot of sexism (innocent, but likes sex, but not in a slutty way), that's how you sell a billion dollar myth like a French Girl.
posted by MartinWisse at 9:26 AM on July 5, 2017 [6 favorites]
posted by MartinWisse at 9:26 AM on July 5, 2017 [6 favorites]
That's interesting; I'd never thought about how the French girl stereotype affected French girls themselves. I've only ever read it from the perspective of Americans (e.g. the book French Toast, which I found in our school library and looking back it was exactly the same as the rest of the French Women Do It Like This magazine articles).
posted by taskmaster at 9:28 AM on July 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by taskmaster at 9:28 AM on July 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
Coco Chanel, immortalized not so much as a young woman but as an elegant matriarch, retires nearby.
Eh.
"Gabrielle Chanel — better known as Coco — was a wretched human being. Anti-Semitic, homophobic, social climbing, opportunistic, ridiculously snobbish and given to sins of phrase-making like “If blonde, use blue perfume,” she was addicted to morphine and actively collaborated with the Germans during the Nazi occupation of Paris. "
Fuck Coco Chanel. How her name isn't in the same graveyard as Petain and Quisling is beyond me.
posted by leotrotsky at 9:32 AM on July 5, 2017 [27 favorites]
Eh.
"Gabrielle Chanel — better known as Coco — was a wretched human being. Anti-Semitic, homophobic, social climbing, opportunistic, ridiculously snobbish and given to sins of phrase-making like “If blonde, use blue perfume,” she was addicted to morphine and actively collaborated with the Germans during the Nazi occupation of Paris. "
Fuck Coco Chanel. How her name isn't in the same graveyard as Petain and Quisling is beyond me.
posted by leotrotsky at 9:32 AM on July 5, 2017 [27 favorites]
I feel like I should be repost fraula's awesome comment whenever one of these gets posted.
I've said it before here, and will say it again: whenever someone writes a book or an article (with advertising) about How The French Are and it A. piques puritan sensibilities or B. teaches you How Much More Sensible the French Are, they are not telling you the truth.
They are selling you books and page views.
posted by leotrotsky at 9:49 AM on July 5, 2017 [9 favorites]
I've said it before here, and will say it again: whenever someone writes a book or an article (with advertising) about How The French Are and it A. piques puritan sensibilities or B. teaches you How Much More Sensible the French Are, they are not telling you the truth.
They are selling you books and page views.
posted by leotrotsky at 9:49 AM on July 5, 2017 [9 favorites]
And for god's sake only elderly men, Basques, and American tourists were those black berets.
That sounds pretty horrible. Have they considered using fabric instead?
posted by Sangermaine at 9:59 AM on July 5, 2017 [3 favorites]
That sounds pretty horrible. Have they considered using fabric instead?
posted by Sangermaine at 9:59 AM on July 5, 2017 [3 favorites]
Coco Chanel was also anti-union and attempted to bust a strike in her own atelier.
She is an interesting figure and had a difficult life - if you're interested in fashion and biographies of people who are Not That Grate But Also Sort Of Victims, she's your woman.
Now that I think about it, she does kind of make Karl Lagerfeld look like a huge improvement by comparison.
posted by Frowner at 10:05 AM on July 5, 2017 [4 favorites]
She is an interesting figure and had a difficult life - if you're interested in fashion and biographies of people who are Not That Grate But Also Sort Of Victims, she's your woman.
Now that I think about it, she does kind of make Karl Lagerfeld look like a huge improvement by comparison.
posted by Frowner at 10:05 AM on July 5, 2017 [4 favorites]
Fashion seems to function like some kind of magical spell, clouding people's judgment while they're under its influence, and then years later, leaving them puzzled and confused about why, at the time, choices that seem obviously dumb/bad/ill considered in hindsight seemed reasonable and normal.
That dynamic makes me question the value of the whole enterprise from time to time, even though in general, I appreciate and greatly respect the efforts and sincere love of the art and creativity of fashion among the "dedicated followers of fashion" among us. But fashion as a creative field has historically been a lot more willing to tolerate fascistic thought and to forgive authoritarian sympathizers and supporters than most creative fields, and it's an interesting question why that is.
posted by saulgoodman at 10:05 AM on July 5, 2017
That dynamic makes me question the value of the whole enterprise from time to time, even though in general, I appreciate and greatly respect the efforts and sincere love of the art and creativity of fashion among the "dedicated followers of fashion" among us. But fashion as a creative field has historically been a lot more willing to tolerate fascistic thought and to forgive authoritarian sympathizers and supporters than most creative fields, and it's an interesting question why that is.
posted by saulgoodman at 10:05 AM on July 5, 2017
They are selling you books and page views.
Yes, that is covered very early in the piece, which actually covers a lot of territory about how selling French and specifically Parisian-ness became such a big thing.
posted by everybody had matching towels at 10:06 AM on July 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
Yes, that is covered very early in the piece, which actually covers a lot of territory about how selling French and specifically Parisian-ness became such a big thing.
posted by everybody had matching towels at 10:06 AM on July 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
Yes, that is covered very early in the piece, which actually covers a lot of territory about how selling French and specifically Parisian-ness became such a big thing.
And then the article goes on to name-drop a bunch of places making money off it. And describes a bunch of women in terms of how stereotypically French they are – so stylish! so chic! so effortless! "She has eye-grazing bangs, brown hair worn in a state of controlled chaos, and a charming accent that inspires fans to leave her videos playing as background noise." An accent!! Ohlala!
Then we get to a bit where we are taught that there is a specific Parisian look. Playing on the assumption that Paris is somehow superior (you wouldn't be reading it if you didn't think that, right? no seriously, you wouldn't be reading it if someone were talking about Eugene girls. You know, Eugene, Oregon. Yeah. Nah.). "While Pinel knows Americans who don’t put any thought into their wardrobe, she says she’s never met a French woman who doesn’t care about style." Bull. Shit. I can name three who were present in a steering committee we held today. In Paris. Do you want to read about managers who don't brush their hair, wear no makeup (no really, none), have on t-shirts and jeans and old Adidas sneakers? Will that inspire anyone to say that hey, this person must really know France? Yeah, it won't, I'm from Eugene and I'm not trying to sell you anything.
"Women don’t talk about exercising, and they don’t talk about dieting.”
Bull. Shit.
"Its tag line, “presque Parisienne,” translates to “almost French.” "
I'm not sure how anyone can take this seriously.
And then we get a whole spiel about French brands and books and ohlala so Parisienne.
Yeah, sorry, this Eugenian woman's comment will always stand so long as this sort of tripe continues to be written. Have I mentioned I live in Paris? And I'm French? cue comments telling the woman going against the grain how wrong she is. She's a woman who doesn't want to own up to the insouciant power of her appearance!! Quick! Grab a duck! (although I am also a Duck. sorry.)
posted by fraula at 10:35 AM on July 5, 2017 [30 favorites]
And then the article goes on to name-drop a bunch of places making money off it. And describes a bunch of women in terms of how stereotypically French they are – so stylish! so chic! so effortless! "She has eye-grazing bangs, brown hair worn in a state of controlled chaos, and a charming accent that inspires fans to leave her videos playing as background noise." An accent!! Ohlala!
Then we get to a bit where we are taught that there is a specific Parisian look. Playing on the assumption that Paris is somehow superior (you wouldn't be reading it if you didn't think that, right? no seriously, you wouldn't be reading it if someone were talking about Eugene girls. You know, Eugene, Oregon. Yeah. Nah.). "While Pinel knows Americans who don’t put any thought into their wardrobe, she says she’s never met a French woman who doesn’t care about style." Bull. Shit. I can name three who were present in a steering committee we held today. In Paris. Do you want to read about managers who don't brush their hair, wear no makeup (no really, none), have on t-shirts and jeans and old Adidas sneakers? Will that inspire anyone to say that hey, this person must really know France? Yeah, it won't, I'm from Eugene and I'm not trying to sell you anything.
"Women don’t talk about exercising, and they don’t talk about dieting.”
Bull. Shit.
"Its tag line, “presque Parisienne,” translates to “almost French.” "
I'm not sure how anyone can take this seriously.
And then we get a whole spiel about French brands and books and ohlala so Parisienne.
Yeah, sorry, this Eugenian woman's comment will always stand so long as this sort of tripe continues to be written. Have I mentioned I live in Paris? And I'm French? cue comments telling the woman going against the grain how wrong she is. She's a woman who doesn't want to own up to the insouciant power of her appearance!! Quick! Grab a duck! (although I am also a Duck. sorry.)
posted by fraula at 10:35 AM on July 5, 2017 [30 favorites]
Fashion seems to function like some kind of magical spell, clouding people's judgment while they're under its influence, and then years later, leaving them puzzled and confused about why, at the time, choices that seem obviously dumb/bad/ill considered in hindsight seemed reasonable and normal.
See, I don't really agree with this. I think it's mostly a stereotype that is used to denigrate Things Associated With Women.
First, because it doesn't take into account the many, many times that people look back and say "oh, yeah, when I was twenty I had this great pair of shoes, you can't get anything like that now and I was heartbroken when they wore out", or similar. Lots of people look back on fashions of the past with happiness and/or nostalgia, but we don't talk about that even though it's a huge driver of the fashion cycle. I look back on the fashions of my youth and pretty much remember them with pleasure. The only things I regret are things where I liked them but spent more than was really a good idea.
Second, because that whole "oh I looked so dumb, what dumb hair I had" thing seems sort of rooted in misogynistic assumptions anyway. It seems rooted in the idea that changing the way you look is dumb and frivolous, so of course if you looked markedly different in the past, or obviously took some trouble over your appearance, that must have been dumb and bad and pretentious or affected or whatever. I mean, presumably one enjoyed one's mullet/flares/Bugle Boy jeans/black lipstick/etc at the time, and that's what really counts. Also there's this whole idea that we should be aspiring toward the eternal, which seems weird for such time-bound creatures as we are - like, it's ipso facto ridiculous that in 1998 you wore platform mary janes, platform mary janes are dumb, blah blah, even though in the context of 1998 those shoes were awesome. I mean, I had some fantastic platform shoes in the mid/late nineties and I loved wearing them. I have a couple of pairs still, even though I no longer wear women's clothes. My platform mary janes were not a failure to tap into the eternal; they were something of the moment that was fun and satisfying.
posted by Frowner at 10:37 AM on July 5, 2017 [36 favorites]
(The company itself sounds French because its Jewish, Queens-born founder, Josephine Esther Mentzer, chose to go by an accented version of her childhood nickname, Estée.)
This is a deeply weird way to put this. There are a bunch of French Jews in Queens — someone should've introduced Eliza Brooke to them.
posted by RogerB at 10:42 AM on July 5, 2017
This is a deeply weird way to put this. There are a bunch of French Jews in Queens — someone should've introduced Eliza Brooke to them.
posted by RogerB at 10:42 AM on July 5, 2017
And then we get a whole spiel about French brands and books and ohlala so Parisienne.
I mean, I guess? I certainly didn't get the idea that the article is promoting this stuff. I don't disagree with your comment, I just thought this piece explored that idea in interesting ways.
posted by everybody had matching towels at 10:45 AM on July 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
I mean, I guess? I certainly didn't get the idea that the article is promoting this stuff. I don't disagree with your comment, I just thought this piece explored that idea in interesting ways.
posted by everybody had matching towels at 10:45 AM on July 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
I would like to know more about Eugene girls.
posted by orrnyereg at 10:47 AM on July 5, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by orrnyereg at 10:47 AM on July 5, 2017 [5 favorites]
Fraula, I was also going to link to one of your comments but couldn't find it, it was the one about how this idea of the aspirational French Woman is really pretty racist and excludes French Women who aren't white. Anyway, your commentary when this topic comes up has really burst my bubble about the French Woman mystique, so thank you for that.
posted by lunasol at 10:51 AM on July 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by lunasol at 10:51 AM on July 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
I keep trying to read the article but it just seems like endless name dropping and ooh la la!
Her first foray into French Girl anything was writing French Girl Knits, a book of knitting patterns that took inspiration from French film and history.
I did, however, learn that French girl knits (as written by a not-French woman) appear to be a bunch of sloppy lace, so there's that.
posted by Squeak Attack at 10:58 AM on July 5, 2017
Her first foray into French Girl anything was writing French Girl Knits, a book of knitting patterns that took inspiration from French film and history.
I did, however, learn that French girl knits (as written by a not-French woman) appear to be a bunch of sloppy lace, so there's that.
posted by Squeak Attack at 10:58 AM on July 5, 2017
I think my biggest pet peeve about "french girl" marketing is the magically thin aspect. As in "look at these chic women that eat croissants and chocolate but are still a size 0, what magical genetic thinness!". It totally ignores that french women diet and sometimes even starve themselves to be thin,same as the size 0s here in north america.
It's this weird bit of "you can have it all" that's completely unrealistic and honestly quite stupid. Those women are not eating pastries and desserts every meal, their thinness is not some act of magic, and it's not because french junk food is somehow above american junk food. The truth is just boring and unmagical. #youdidnoteatthat
posted by InkDrinker at 11:10 AM on July 5, 2017 [8 favorites]
It's this weird bit of "you can have it all" that's completely unrealistic and honestly quite stupid. Those women are not eating pastries and desserts every meal, their thinness is not some act of magic, and it's not because french junk food is somehow above american junk food. The truth is just boring and unmagical. #youdidnoteatthat
posted by InkDrinker at 11:10 AM on July 5, 2017 [8 favorites]
And for god's sake only elderly men, Basques, and American tourists were those black berets.
I'll wear what I like, thank you, but I appreciate your input. I readily concede that my basque makes me look like an old man.
posted by Capt. Renault at 11:17 AM on July 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
I'll wear what I like, thank you, but I appreciate your input. I readily concede that my basque makes me look like an old man.
posted by Capt. Renault at 11:17 AM on July 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
I've always heard it argued that women haven't historically been the drivers of change in the fashion industry and I had tons of close women friends in high school and throughout life who complained constantly about the onerous expectations the fashion industry imposed on them. I got my mistrust of the industry largely from women who identified as feminists, whether that matters or not now.
But as for the magic spell effect, I've definitely looked back and wondered why in the heck I thought some fashion choice I made in the past seemed reasonable at the time. That's my experience I'm speaking to there.
posted by saulgoodman at 11:47 AM on July 5, 2017
But as for the magic spell effect, I've definitely looked back and wondered why in the heck I thought some fashion choice I made in the past seemed reasonable at the time. That's my experience I'm speaking to there.
posted by saulgoodman at 11:47 AM on July 5, 2017
Those women are not eating pastries and desserts every meal, their thinness is not some act of magic, and it's not because french junk food is somehow above american junk food. The truth is just boring and unmagical.
What galled me about French Women Don't Get Fat was the author's failure to mention that many French women (who don't get fat) also think cigarettes are one of the four food groups. That strikes me as cheating.
posted by orrnyereg at 12:01 PM on July 5, 2017 [6 favorites]
What galled me about French Women Don't Get Fat was the author's failure to mention that many French women (who don't get fat) also think cigarettes are one of the four food groups. That strikes me as cheating.
posted by orrnyereg at 12:01 PM on July 5, 2017 [6 favorites]
I've always heard it argued that women haven't historically been the drivers of change in the fashion industry and had tons of close women friends in high school and throughout life who complained constantly about the onerous expectations the fashion industry imposed on them.
I think this is slightly careless thinking, because "the fashion industry" and "fashion" overlap but aren't the same thing. I bet that the vast, vast majority of those women friends didn't just throw on the handiest thing that fitted - I bet they dressed in ways that, to the extent possible, amused and pleased them, somewhat in dialogue with the times. I mean, I never followed the "fashion industry" when I wore women's clothes in my twenties; I wore funny things from the thrift store, had vague aspirations to dress like Coco Chanel (boo!!!) or a character from The Last Days of Disco or a member of the Raincoats or the most beautiful alternative girl from my high school or an awesome punk rocker; I made stenciled t-shirts regularly; I bought the occasional vintage thing for its beauty when I could afford it. (In retrospect, I am amazed by how few of my clothes were machine washable.) I certainly dressed like it was the nineties, because I was responding to cultural cues, but I wasn't especially doing what women were supposed to do. I too railed against the fashion industry and its expectations, and I too thought that this meant "fashion".
I think women actually do drive most fashion, because most fashion at its origin comes from the street, from people of color, from queers and from sex workers. The fashion industry is driven by men, but that only partly maps onto fashion qua fashion. Under capitalism and blah blah blah you can't separate the two, but that doesn't mean that disliking "the fashion industry" means disliking clothes, any more than disliking the restaurant industry means disliking cooking.
Right now I feel like there's both less and more space for "alternative" fashion - less, because everything spreads via the internet and is immediately commodified, also everyone is always in dialogue with everywhere, so there's less truly local style and truly subcultural style; and more, because there's more room for individual people to create images and looks and have influence, and more room for weird internet-only styles to develop.
Basically, back when I was young and in my prime, I mostly dressed to imitate books, movies and the various punks and artsy people I saw around me, and there was (up to a point) what I'd call a Minneapolis punk style that was regional and unique. Now this is not the case.
My mother truly is fashion-indifferent (and my entire family is still astonished that my parents created such a clothes-horse as I). She really wore whatever was handy and cheap, and after retirement but before her health gave out wore mostly my old tees and jeans from high school that had been sitting around for the past ten years. Is this what we'd all be like "after the revolution", "after capitalism", etc? Is she a paragon? Well, she's someone who was always in her older sister's shadow and got her older sister's hand-me-downs, to the extent that she did not get her own high school graduation dress even though my grandparents were well-off and could easily have afforded it and even though styles had drastically changed in the five years between graduations. And then my parents were broke as a joke for quite a while. So was this intrinsic virtue, good home training, a learned response to parental withholding or what? Whatever it is, I'm confident that it is not some original and pure human response to the idea of clothing as ornament.
posted by Frowner at 12:02 PM on July 5, 2017 [14 favorites]
I think this is slightly careless thinking, because "the fashion industry" and "fashion" overlap but aren't the same thing. I bet that the vast, vast majority of those women friends didn't just throw on the handiest thing that fitted - I bet they dressed in ways that, to the extent possible, amused and pleased them, somewhat in dialogue with the times. I mean, I never followed the "fashion industry" when I wore women's clothes in my twenties; I wore funny things from the thrift store, had vague aspirations to dress like Coco Chanel (boo!!!) or a character from The Last Days of Disco or a member of the Raincoats or the most beautiful alternative girl from my high school or an awesome punk rocker; I made stenciled t-shirts regularly; I bought the occasional vintage thing for its beauty when I could afford it. (In retrospect, I am amazed by how few of my clothes were machine washable.) I certainly dressed like it was the nineties, because I was responding to cultural cues, but I wasn't especially doing what women were supposed to do. I too railed against the fashion industry and its expectations, and I too thought that this meant "fashion".
I think women actually do drive most fashion, because most fashion at its origin comes from the street, from people of color, from queers and from sex workers. The fashion industry is driven by men, but that only partly maps onto fashion qua fashion. Under capitalism and blah blah blah you can't separate the two, but that doesn't mean that disliking "the fashion industry" means disliking clothes, any more than disliking the restaurant industry means disliking cooking.
Right now I feel like there's both less and more space for "alternative" fashion - less, because everything spreads via the internet and is immediately commodified, also everyone is always in dialogue with everywhere, so there's less truly local style and truly subcultural style; and more, because there's more room for individual people to create images and looks and have influence, and more room for weird internet-only styles to develop.
Basically, back when I was young and in my prime, I mostly dressed to imitate books, movies and the various punks and artsy people I saw around me, and there was (up to a point) what I'd call a Minneapolis punk style that was regional and unique. Now this is not the case.
My mother truly is fashion-indifferent (and my entire family is still astonished that my parents created such a clothes-horse as I). She really wore whatever was handy and cheap, and after retirement but before her health gave out wore mostly my old tees and jeans from high school that had been sitting around for the past ten years. Is this what we'd all be like "after the revolution", "after capitalism", etc? Is she a paragon? Well, she's someone who was always in her older sister's shadow and got her older sister's hand-me-downs, to the extent that she did not get her own high school graduation dress even though my grandparents were well-off and could easily have afforded it and even though styles had drastically changed in the five years between graduations. And then my parents were broke as a joke for quite a while. So was this intrinsic virtue, good home training, a learned response to parental withholding or what? Whatever it is, I'm confident that it is not some original and pure human response to the idea of clothing as ornament.
posted by Frowner at 12:02 PM on July 5, 2017 [14 favorites]
Maybe those complaints were more valid in the 80s and 90s when I was hearing them and the economics and gender politics of the fashion industry have since changed in fundamental ways I can't fully appreciate as somebody who doesn't follow the industry, but it was impossible not to get the overriding message that being pro-fashion industry was antifeminist when I was coming up. Nobody I knew made arguments in defense of the industry on feminist grounds at that point, that I was aware of, so maybe there's just a gap in my understanding and education there. The cultural cliche I encountered most often was that the fashion industry was dominated by controlling men who seemed to enjoy putting women in impractical, uncomfortable clothes to make themselves more appealing to men, who insisted on women "putting in the effort" to make themselves desirable.
Understand, not disagreeing with your thoughtful points, just describing my own less than complete education on the subject.
My friends were punks and queers, mostly, though a lot of them have since gone in different directions in life that don't make it so clear how they'd identify now.
posted by saulgoodman at 12:07 PM on July 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
Understand, not disagreeing with your thoughtful points, just describing my own less than complete education on the subject.
My friends were punks and queers, mostly, though a lot of them have since gone in different directions in life that don't make it so clear how they'd identify now.
posted by saulgoodman at 12:07 PM on July 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
Above all, the look is predicated on what Pinel calls “purposeful negligence”: working hard to appear as though you didn’t try at all.
Sprezzatura! I am mildly indignant on behalf of Italian clichés.
(Also, I can't find anyone mentioning Connie Willis' prediction of Millenial Pink as a return of "ashes of roses"; it's in Bellwether, her book most about fashion and style.
posted by clew at 12:20 PM on July 5, 2017 [7 favorites]
Sprezzatura! I am mildly indignant on behalf of Italian clichés.
(Also, I can't find anyone mentioning Connie Willis' prediction of Millenial Pink as a return of "ashes of roses"; it's in Bellwether, her book most about fashion and style.
posted by clew at 12:20 PM on July 5, 2017 [7 favorites]
I did, however, learn that French girl knits (as written by a not-French woman) appear to be a bunch of sloppy lace, so there's that.
Yeah, that book was terrible.
And it's very true that any discussion of the French diet that excludes cigarettes is a shameful lie. I'll keep the extra five pounds and skip the mesothelioma, thanks.
posted by praemunire at 12:25 PM on July 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
Yeah, that book was terrible.
And it's very true that any discussion of the French diet that excludes cigarettes is a shameful lie. I'll keep the extra five pounds and skip the mesothelioma, thanks.
posted by praemunire at 12:25 PM on July 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
french women diet and sometimes even starve themselves to be thin
Listen, if you're drinking, food isn't as interesting as it used to be
posted by glasseyes at 12:28 PM on July 5, 2017
Listen, if you're drinking, food isn't as interesting as it used to be
posted by glasseyes at 12:28 PM on July 5, 2017
cigarettes are one of the four food groups. That strikes me as cheating.
I wish nobody had said this, because now I'm remembering the pleasures of tobacco, which are real and persistent.
Can we not allow the young and slender to be slender and young? Survivors, such as they are, can regret their bad habits. Or think it was totally worth it.
posted by glasseyes at 12:39 PM on July 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
I wish nobody had said this, because now I'm remembering the pleasures of tobacco, which are real and persistent.
Can we not allow the young and slender to be slender and young? Survivors, such as they are, can regret their bad habits. Or think it was totally worth it.
posted by glasseyes at 12:39 PM on July 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
If I could get rid of one concept that's floating out there in the culture, it might be the glorification of "effortlessness." Feigning effortlessness deprives people of credit for the work they put into achieving something, mystifies the process of achieving that thing, and makes people feel like there's something inherently wrong with them if they don't have the know-how or energy necessary to accomplish it.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 12:40 PM on July 5, 2017 [27 favorites]
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 12:40 PM on July 5, 2017 [27 favorites]
Listen, if you're drinking, food isn't as interesting as it used to be
When I drink a little too much, food becomes extremely interesting to me, especially salty, fatty, unhealthy food consumed late at night.
posted by cell divide at 12:57 PM on July 5, 2017 [12 favorites]
When I drink a little too much, food becomes extremely interesting to me, especially salty, fatty, unhealthy food consumed late at night.
posted by cell divide at 12:57 PM on July 5, 2017 [12 favorites]
I thought that effortlessly chic French girl was the product of years of training by an older, also chic, woman, per Besson's "La Femme Nikita"
posted by rmd1023 at 1:36 PM on July 5, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by rmd1023 at 1:36 PM on July 5, 2017 [3 favorites]
and then years later, leaving them puzzled and confused about why, at the time, choices that seem obviously dumb/bad/ill considered in hindsight seemed reasonable and normal.
Also there's this whole idea that we should be aspiring toward the eternal, which seems weird for such time-bound creatures as we are
Karl Lagerfeld once said that in fashion, "timing is everything".
That was the moment I realized he might not actually be overrated.
posted by tel3path at 1:53 PM on July 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
Also there's this whole idea that we should be aspiring toward the eternal, which seems weird for such time-bound creatures as we are
Karl Lagerfeld once said that in fashion, "timing is everything".
That was the moment I realized he might not actually be overrated.
posted by tel3path at 1:53 PM on July 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
What galled me about French Women Don't Get Fat was the author's failure to mention that many French women (who don't get fat) also think cigarettes are one of the four food groups. That strikes me as cheating.
What galled me was that she expected me to start the regime with a fast of boiled leeks, strictly the only thing to be consumed for a period of I-no-longer-remember-how-long, but certainly longer than 60 minutes and, therefore, totally out of the question.
I mean, what a stupidly faddish thing to do, and how totally contradictory to the very premise of the book. I just couldn't make myself do it.
Also, yes, of course French women are not consuming croissants for every breakfast because croissants are a delicacy, not something that's eaten routinely. Just one croissant can be 3-400 calories' worth, imagine if you routinely ate two at a time, as the cliché implies, and buttered them. You'd soon need to remove your doorframes and butter yourself if you wanted to leave the house.
posted by tel3path at 2:05 PM on July 5, 2017
What galled me was that she expected me to start the regime with a fast of boiled leeks, strictly the only thing to be consumed for a period of I-no-longer-remember-how-long, but certainly longer than 60 minutes and, therefore, totally out of the question.
I mean, what a stupidly faddish thing to do, and how totally contradictory to the very premise of the book. I just couldn't make myself do it.
Also, yes, of course French women are not consuming croissants for every breakfast because croissants are a delicacy, not something that's eaten routinely. Just one croissant can be 3-400 calories' worth, imagine if you routinely ate two at a time, as the cliché implies, and buttered them. You'd soon need to remove your doorframes and butter yourself if you wanted to leave the house.
posted by tel3path at 2:05 PM on July 5, 2017
I would just like to say, take a bread knife to slit a croissant in half (horizontally), fill with nice cheese and put in the oven for 5 minutes, with or without salad cream but preferentially with. With black turkish coffee and two untipped cigarettes this will keep a person going till the sun goes down.
It doesn't work if you don't smoke. Woodbines were my preference.
posted by glasseyes at 4:00 PM on July 5, 2017 [3 favorites]
It doesn't work if you don't smoke. Woodbines were my preference.
posted by glasseyes at 4:00 PM on July 5, 2017 [3 favorites]
I am a grandmother now, priorities change, time remains weird.
posted by glasseyes at 4:04 PM on July 5, 2017
posted by glasseyes at 4:04 PM on July 5, 2017
I was with you until the salad cream.
posted by tel3path at 4:15 PM on July 5, 2017 [9 favorites]
posted by tel3path at 4:15 PM on July 5, 2017 [9 favorites]
They are selling you books and page views.
It's a smart business, though -- if I were a smarter person, I'd be financing my retirement by writing a book called "Eat Croissants and Max Out Your Credit Cards: How to Lose Weight and Save Money the French Way" full of spurious claims and flagrantly fictitious stereotypes.
posted by Dip Flash at 6:06 PM on July 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
It's a smart business, though -- if I were a smarter person, I'd be financing my retirement by writing a book called "Eat Croissants and Max Out Your Credit Cards: How to Lose Weight and Save Money the French Way" full of spurious claims and flagrantly fictitious stereotypes.
posted by Dip Flash at 6:06 PM on July 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
Apparently the number one indicator of whether somebody is likely to buy a self-help book is "has bought a self-help book previously". It seems to be a self-reinforcing industry.
posted by Lexica at 8:22 PM on July 5, 2017
posted by Lexica at 8:22 PM on July 5, 2017
There's no shame in falling for the parisienne myth. Even ancient greeks fell for it.
posted by nicolin at 11:43 PM on July 5, 2017
posted by nicolin at 11:43 PM on July 5, 2017
Apparently the number one indicator of whether somebody is likely to buy a self-help book is "has bought a self-help book previously".
Someone who believes self-help books work, despite their bookshelves being loaded with evidence to the contrary, will never stop buying self-help books.
posted by pracowity at 2:00 PM on July 6, 2017
Someone who believes self-help books work, despite their bookshelves being loaded with evidence to the contrary, will never stop buying self-help books.
posted by pracowity at 2:00 PM on July 6, 2017
Someone who believes math books work, despite their bookshelves being loaded with evidence to the contrary, will never stop buying math books.
Someone who believes language books work, despite their bookshelves being loaded with evidence to the contrary, will never stop buying language books.
Someone who believes fiction books work, despite their bookshelves being loaded with evidence to the contrary, will never stop buying fiction books.
I mean I'm sure the standard recommendation here would be to go straight to fashion therapy, but not everyone has the time or money for that after spending everything on money management therapy.
So they buy a book instead, knowing that it is vastly inferior to simply relocating to Paris, acquiring French citizenship, and taking an MFA at the Sorbonne.
Kinda like, instead of taking a Master's in creative writing before they let anyone else see their first fanfic, they just do NaNoWriMo, which they talk about for 11 months of the year and then blog about during November (with no evidence of an actual novel at any time ever).
I mean, people are lazy and self-deluding, so they go for the quick fix instead of the four-year degree every. damn. time. Dunning, meet Kruger, amirite.
(Don't mind me, I'm just bitter because I'm not French and therefore have to limit myself to just the one daily croissant.)
posted by tel3path at 2:59 PM on July 6, 2017
Someone who believes language books work, despite their bookshelves being loaded with evidence to the contrary, will never stop buying language books.
Someone who believes fiction books work, despite their bookshelves being loaded with evidence to the contrary, will never stop buying fiction books.
I mean I'm sure the standard recommendation here would be to go straight to fashion therapy, but not everyone has the time or money for that after spending everything on money management therapy.
So they buy a book instead, knowing that it is vastly inferior to simply relocating to Paris, acquiring French citizenship, and taking an MFA at the Sorbonne.
Kinda like, instead of taking a Master's in creative writing before they let anyone else see their first fanfic, they just do NaNoWriMo, which they talk about for 11 months of the year and then blog about during November (with no evidence of an actual novel at any time ever).
I mean, people are lazy and self-deluding, so they go for the quick fix instead of the four-year degree every. damn. time. Dunning, meet Kruger, amirite.
(Don't mind me, I'm just bitter because I'm not French and therefore have to limit myself to just the one daily croissant.)
posted by tel3path at 2:59 PM on July 6, 2017
In fact, and excuse my overemotion, I think this is the moment when it has finally, really dawned on me that I'm not French, that I'm never gonna be French.
I will never be able to say *oui* to red wine, *non* to Diet Coke at lunch, which is always taken over a span of three hours at a sidewalk *bistro* table that is spread with a jaunty red and white gingham cloth. I have been fired from 20 jobs this year alone and I try to explain my special dietary needs, but they won't listen. How am I supoosed to keep my effortlessly willowy figure.
In fact, I'll never *have* an effortlessly willowy figure. No matter how much I yank and tug that horizontally striped boatneck top down over the waistband of my jeans, no matter how hard I try to make the artful rips of said jeans look artless and the turned up hems hover insouciantly at the exact balance point to maximize perceived leg length... I, I am doomed by my Saxon heritage to resemble Monsieur Patate. I have tried plonking a beret onto my bedroom-haired head at an effortlessly jaunty angle, but I just get people telling me my friend Kimberley went thataway.
To make matters worse, the baguettes just keep tipping over out of the basket of my bicycle. And the beret looks even stupider stretched over my cycling helmet.
Did I ever even have an inner French girl? I'm beginning to think I don't. Perhaps I ate her? Oh, it's just completely hopeless.
I will never feel that *frisson* of excitement as I exchange *bons mots* with my fellow *bons viveurs* at the *corps de ballet*. Partly because I am not actually in the ballet, but also because only your inner French girl has the right to make gratuitous use of French vocabulary more than three times in a two-line sentence.
*Zut alors*.
posted by tel3path at 3:28 PM on July 6, 2017 [3 favorites]
I will never be able to say *oui* to red wine, *non* to Diet Coke at lunch, which is always taken over a span of three hours at a sidewalk *bistro* table that is spread with a jaunty red and white gingham cloth. I have been fired from 20 jobs this year alone and I try to explain my special dietary needs, but they won't listen. How am I supoosed to keep my effortlessly willowy figure.
In fact, I'll never *have* an effortlessly willowy figure. No matter how much I yank and tug that horizontally striped boatneck top down over the waistband of my jeans, no matter how hard I try to make the artful rips of said jeans look artless and the turned up hems hover insouciantly at the exact balance point to maximize perceived leg length... I, I am doomed by my Saxon heritage to resemble Monsieur Patate. I have tried plonking a beret onto my bedroom-haired head at an effortlessly jaunty angle, but I just get people telling me my friend Kimberley went thataway.
To make matters worse, the baguettes just keep tipping over out of the basket of my bicycle. And the beret looks even stupider stretched over my cycling helmet.
Did I ever even have an inner French girl? I'm beginning to think I don't. Perhaps I ate her? Oh, it's just completely hopeless.
I will never feel that *frisson* of excitement as I exchange *bons mots* with my fellow *bons viveurs* at the *corps de ballet*. Partly because I am not actually in the ballet, but also because only your inner French girl has the right to make gratuitous use of French vocabulary more than three times in a two-line sentence.
*Zut alors*.
posted by tel3path at 3:28 PM on July 6, 2017 [3 favorites]
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posted by suelac at 8:50 AM on July 5, 2017 [2 favorites]