At least once a week on my Twitter timeline, I scroll past multiple headlines from fashion magazines scrutinizing every aspect of the ‘French Girl.’ Ranging from instructions on how to dress, what to eat, to advice on workouts, dating, and ‘the French Girl's Guide to Turning 30 in Style,’ the internet offers a plethora of content on 'How to...like a French Girl.' Whether it’s an in-depth analysis of a breakfast food, a method to tie a scarf, or a guide on how to drink champagne, Americans are fixated with the myth of the ‘French Girl.’
There’s a reason why the enigma of the ‘French Girl’ occupies a large portion of the beauty and fashion industry—because it sells. Makeup companies and fashion brands have long profited from promising to deliver the ‘French Girl’ essence to American consumers who lust after the ambiguousness of this fictional character.
Perhaps the propagation of French Girl myth is to blame for why countless people of all ages over the years have asked me upon learning of my French heritage (or hearing my mother’s accent) if my family lives in Paris. Would a foreigner assume an American is from a metropolitan area simply because they are well-dressed? The French Girl myth inadvertently stereotypes the country as a whole by restricting it to affluent areas where the myth is most associated with. Not all Parisian women can afford to be dressed head-to-toe in Chanel. By dictating how French girls should look and act, the fabrication of these stereotyped qualities derived from many generations ago includes a white-washing of the imaginary ‘French Girl.’
The 'How to' articles lazily use pictures of iconic style figures such as Jane Birkin and Brigitte Bardot, but fail to include more modern French celebrities who deviate from the standardized French look. The myth reinforces the idea of France as a stagnant country excluded from the conversation of the American-dominated dialogue on pop culture.
However, regardless of how dedicated Americans are to the pursuit of this false identity, anything French is quickly labeled as pretentious. Growing up Franco-American in the state of North Carolina, my table manners were criticized for being too polite and my clothes for not being casual enough. The rejection of reality in lieu of the allure of something imaginary can often be contradictory.
The American infatuation with the French girl may seem like a flattering compliment to describe French women, but there are other ways to interpret the elegance and confidence of a self-assured French girl.
