Dismantling stereotypes about French women

Brut America

Yes, they get fat. Yes, they age. And no, they're not constantly carrying baguettes.  Author Alice Pfeiffer dismantles the postcard perfect stereotypes of French women in her book, "I am not a Parisian."

Transcript

00:00French women don't get fat. I don't know how this would be even possible.

00:04We don't have a different gene system that processes calories differently.

00:07Of course French women do get fat. All women do get fat.

00:10French women don't get facelifts. That is a lie.

00:13French women don't sleep alone. I wish that was true.

00:30A Parisian woman is many, many different kind of women.

00:32But in marketing terms, it's one long bourgeois white woman

00:39who supposedly represents all of France.

00:41Always the same, being completely ageless, supposedly, never putting on any weight,

00:46always wearing 27 meters heels, in the middle of Saint-Germain,

00:50probably carrying a baguette, running around reading Sartre.

00:54Because you're supposed to be, A, not care about what you look like,

00:57but B, still being chic around the clock without even having tried,

01:01which is an oxymoron.

01:03It descends from the Periode des Lumières, the Enlightenment period,

01:06and the women who used to hold literary salons, such as Madame de Sévigné.

01:10And later on in the 1920s, Garcon came into fame for being rebellious women,

01:16and for smoking, driving, wearing men's clothes.

01:20And from that, slowly, there was a kind of Parisian elegance that popped up in history,

01:24that popped up again in the 60s with Ye Ye Girls, which were a type of singer.

01:28But today, what's happened is that the reason we only talk about Parisienne

01:32when we refer to French women is because we're a heavily centralized country.

01:35The power emanates from Paris.

01:37The money comes from Paris.

01:39It's also one of the most touristic destinations in the world.

01:42So women have become a kind of package deal,

01:44where you'll have the macarons, and you'll have the Eiffel Tower,

01:46and you'll have the chic women.

01:55There's a whole market from America, from the rest of Europe,

01:58all coming to study Frenchness.

02:00It's become a myth, and it's become a marketing ploy,

02:03I think, because luxury groups are based in Paris.

02:05And so they sell Paris as part of the postcard that envelops the act of purchase.

02:10So I was born just outside Paris, and I was schooled up to age 15 inside Paris.

02:14So I technically count as a Parisienne,

02:18but I'm not a Parisienne, and I'm not a Parisienne.

02:21So I technically count as a Parisienne.

02:25So I remember coming back from London after living there for 10 years,

02:29and I was chubbier, and I dressed more eccentrically.

02:34And I remember wearing lots of collared tights, flower dresses,

02:39crowns of plastic flowers on my head,

02:41which didn't even occur to me were eccentric in any way, shape or form,

02:45because in England, no one comments on your appearance in the street.

02:47And I remember coming back and being immediately told off,

02:50as I write in my book, for ordering more chips at the brasserie,

02:53and then, you know, and having the waiter go,

02:56don't, attention, attention, and then tapping his hips

02:58to indicate that I was going to gain weight from it.

03:00Over the years, without even realizing,

03:02I started, you know, wearing more black clothing

03:05and abandoning all the lovely crowns of plastic flowers.

03:08If anyone comes to France, they'll be highly disappointed,

03:11maybe excited, maybe disappointed.

03:13There's a thing called the Paris syndrome,

03:15where tourists come out of either the airport or the train station,

03:19and they realize that it's a city that's mixed and diverse,

03:24and not just like a clean postcard and freak out and end up at the hospital.

03:30Be ready to see women of all shapes and sizes and origins,

03:34and not just a skinny brunette.

03:38Oops!

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