 |
| image by Nick Youngson, see photo credits at bottom of page |
I’ve
recently rediscovered a fluffy French reality show called ‘Les reines du
shopping’ (The Queens of Shopping). The premise is simple: 5 women are given a
theme, a budget, and have to find an outfit in 3 hours that fits the theme.
They then have to model their ensemble in front of the show’s other contestants
and receive a grade.
One thought
struck me while watching the other day. ‘Why is it,’ I thought to myself, ‘that
these women are so opinionated on the clothing of one another?' Of course part
of this is the premise of the show. But for one single outfit you can hear
everything from ‘Wow, that looks stunning on her. I love it!’ or ‘No, Chantal, that doesn’t fit you
at all.’
I noticed
this because it echoed with things I have heard in real life. A clothing store
clerk, for example, once said to me when suggesting a dress to try "Now,
this dress is more ‘flashy’ than what you normally wear, but it will look great
on. Go ahead, try it".
What I
normally wear? This was a clerk I had never seen before in my life. But within
2 minutes she had looked me over and formed an opinion on my style, based just
on the clothes I was wearing that day, in the 5 minutes of our interaction.
And then it
hit me while watching this show: this store clerk and these women on the show
are simply doing what they've been taught all their lives, that is to form a
quick, solid opinion.
Forming an
opinion is crucial in France. It’s how people are brought up, and it’s an
essential ingredient for France’s number one national past time, that is,
debating. It might
seem strange that this realization about debate came from something as mundane
as reality TV, especially during this electric period of the French election. But an
election is exactly where you expect to find opinions and debates. Something as
mainstream as reality TV, however, was not where I expected to encounter it or
even to think about debating skills.
Debate in
France is, quite frankly, a national obsession. Working at the university
level, every semester I conduct a course evaluation to get feedback from
students. And every semester, every class, without fail, students want more
discussion of current events and more
debate. Never mind that we already do debates, students always want more. This is also a comment I get across the board, from students straight
out of high school, to doctoral candidates.
France held
a pre-election presidential debate a few weeks ago and for an American
watching, it could have seemed obsessively micromanaged. All candidates from the
11 parties that were represented in the primary election were there. And there
was a very visible timer that kept track of each candidate’s speech, not
allowing more than 18 minutes for any one candidate. As the Guardian said in
this article, it was « ‘égalité (equality) it is most basic form »[1].
It's also
common to see live debating on public television. Famous politicians, and even
the president himself, appear occasionally on the nightly news for the very
purpose to defend their views/policies. Often this will be an on-air discussion
between the broadcaster and the politician. Keep in mind that this is live
television, where the president is asked difficult and probing questions
on air. It’s not a pre-taped interview where cuts are made strategically to
project a certain image.
Generally the French
president will not be subjected to the same scrutiny as in the US surrounding
certain matters of private life (although this seems to be changing, just look
up President Hollande’s tryst with an actress…). And you would be hard pressed
to find an example of the president making fun of himself or showing any kind
of self-deprecating humor. But one thing
the president is not exempt from is being able to defend his/her views publicly
and on the spot, just like any good French citizen should know how to do.
On May 7, France will vote for its next president, between Emmanuel
Macron (centrist) and Marine Le Pen (far-right). I mentioned Le Pen in a former
post (https://mavieinfrance.blogspot.fr/2017/03/the-aftermath-of-american-election.html) If you don't know anything about the candidates or the French election, I
highly recommend these two articles:
The stakes
for this election are high. But no matter what the outcome, we can be sure that
the future president will be expected to form clear opinions and show their
mastery of France's number one pastime, debate.
[1] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/05/french-presidential-debate-macron-le-pen
Comments
Post a Comment