Chic, stylish stereotype of French women is 'racist and sexist', documentary claims

24 October 2022, 21:26

The classic depiction of a French woman - effortlessly chic, stylish and sexy, in the mould of Brigitte Bardot or Catherine Deneuve - is racist and sexist, according to a documentary.

The documentary, She's French, looks at what French women between the ages of 20 and 50 think of the stereotype, often portrayed in classic French cinema.

Some people interviewed for the documentary argue that the image is "racist" because it supposedly depicts a white, middle-class Parisian woman, rather than representing the entirety of French womanhood.

One woman in the documentary said: "It's in your face, what French women are supposed to be like, but 99% of French women are missing."

Other French women interviewed said that they would rather be British, because they feel unable to wear a short skirt or a low-cut top for fear of sexual harassment.

Director Charlotte Seegers, who grew up in France but worked for a decade in London, said she decided to make the film after being bombarded with the stereotype of the French women in British media.

She said: "I was working in a cafe in West Norwood at the time, as a waitress and customers often told me about these books and articles, 'how to be French', and I was bemused by it all.

"I am an anthropologist and so once I realised that this myth about French women was very strong, I wanted to demystify it. I wanted to clash the stereotype with its reality.

"It wasn't just about deconstructing the myth of the French woman in England, but also what it means to be a French woman in France."

Ms Seegers spoke to more than ten French women about their experiences, as well as experts who could give a more analytical insight into the myth of French femininity.

British film director Stephen Frears said that much of that myth could be traced back to the 1960s, when film stars like Ms Bardot and Ms Deneuve achieved fame and notoriety.

Frears said: "Conventional society in England was rather dull. English actresses at the time would have been much paler and French women were these red-blooded, full bodied figures in a forbidden landscape."

Natalie Duval, a historian at the Sorbonne in Paris, said it went back even further, to the time of Marie Antoinette in the late 18th century.

She said: "She was the first Queen of France to set a style for fashion. She loved beautiful fabric, hairstyles and clothes."

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Mirelle Guiliano, author of French Women Don't Get Fat, added: "It's kind of learned, how we move, we learn to be mischievous. Bardot was so sexy."

One woman said: "Why would anyone want to be a French woman? but I'd rather be English because I think they're lucky. 

"They can wear short skirts, they don't get bothered on the streets. 

"In Paris it is impossible to dress like that. Maybe they are more respectable in England.

Caroline Lena Olsson, who moved to the UK from France, said: "We are much more at ease in England, which is why I came here in the first place."

Another woman told the documentary: "When it's assumed we wear mascara to bed, that we are ready to have sex in a bakery, I think these small attacks transform into social pressures; pressures that can seem unimportant because they are invisible and we grow up with it."

Laurence Sessou, whose parents were from the West African country in Benin, said she struggled with a lack of representation of people who looked like her in French media growing up.

She said; "When my teachers asked me where I was from, because I was black, they would expect me to say, "I am from Benin."

"Over here, you could say 'I am British but my parents are from Jamaica' but I did not feel I could call myself French even though I was born and grew up there."

The documentary was made in 2018 but has been added to Netflix in the UK in recent days.