French bashing

french bashing

Before our year abroad, I thought that it would be great for you to know how we, french people, are perceived around the world. Currently, stereotypes re-emerges during the war . Ilustrating this point, a CNN online article reveals that several thousands of american cybernauts tease about french people. One of them says, quotation: "I don't know why people are surprised thatFrance won't help us get Saddam out of Iraq. After all, France wouldn't help us get the Germans out of France!". People also comment dubious french personal hygiene or the famous french "legerté". As you can see, apparently, these clichés have beeen revived without any diffficulty. These waves of hatred are known as french bashing
We can define the french bashing as the manifestation ofFrancophobia. It signifies a consistent hostility toward the government, culture, and french people that employs stereotypes.
First of all, we will approach this trend and see how important it is in the United States which is undoubtfully the champion of the world in french bashing. Then, we will highlight our point with some examples and see that french bad reputation is not limited to the United States.The most important wave of french bashing seemed to take place during the war in Iraq.
Anti-French feeling in the United States returned to the fore (sur le devant) in the wake of France's refusal to support U.S. proposals in the UN Security Council for military action to invade Iraq. While other nations also opposed the U.S. proposals (notably Russia, China and traditional U.S. allies such asGermany, Canada and Belgium), France received particularly ferocious criticism
Some Americans, particularly commentator Bill O'Reilly have called for a boycott of French products.

A well known incident occurred in 11 March 2003 when the cafeteria menus in the three United States House of Representatives office buildings changed the name of french fries to freedom fries. The trend was startedby fast-food restaurant , North Carolina, and caught on (avait décollé) after being reported in the press.

jokes about french people or french joke are numerous. Here are the favourites theme
The French always surrender, they are cowards, ....
Q. How many French soldiers does it take to defend Paris?
A. Don't know, it's never been tried.

The French are ungrateful, wesaved them several times, ....
Q: What English word has no equivalent in the French language?
A: Gratitude.

They are conceited with the famous quotation "cheese eating surrender monkey" pronounced for instance by willy in the cartoon the simpson

They are dirty
They have reputation to put on perfume rather than taking a bath

A last joke : "it's a nice country : too bad there areso many French people around"

B Who are the French basher
There was much french bashing on TV after 2003, and still now. Saturday Night Live is for instance a channel almost completly dedicated to french bashing.
There are also many french bashing dedicated website as ConquerFrance.com DontBuyFrenchCrap.com , FranceStillSucks.net, FranceSupportsTerrorism.com
And even many writer who havewritted some anti france books
The French Betrayal of America by Kenneth R. Timmerman
Our Oldest Enemy: A History of America’s Disastrous Relationship with France
by John J. Miller, Mark Molesky
Vile France: Fear, Duplicity, Cowardice and Cheese by Denis Boyles

In May-June 2011,when the(French) IMF director was prosecuted for alleged rape, the DSK Saga in New-York gave the gutterpress a great opportunity for French-bashing...
C : Understanding anti-French sentiments
Anti french feeling can be understanding by fact of cultural misunderstanding
Why are the French so cold (or arrogant or distant) ?
In the absence of any relationship, silence is neutral (in the street, in an elevator, etc...). Franco-American anthropologist Raymonde Carroll writes: "It is indeed in...