France.com » Blog Archive Marianne - National Emblem of France - France.com Search for: Marianne – National Emblem of France Marianne is a national emblem of France. She is present in many places in France and holds a place of honor in town halls and law courts. She symbolizes the “Triumph of the Republic”, a bronze sculpture overlooking the Place de la Nation in Paris. Her profile stands out on the official seal of the country, is engraved on French euro coins, and appears on French postage stamps; it was also featured on the former French franc coins and banknotes. Marianne is considered one of the most prominent symbols of the French Republic. But who is this woman, depicted by artist Honoré Daumier as a mother nursing two children, or by sculptor François Rude as an angry warrior voicing the Marseillaise on the Arc de Triomphe? And where does she come from? One thing is certain: her image never leaves the French indifferent. During the last two wars, some people worshipped her like a saint. Others, those with anti-Republican leanings, often dragged her in the mud. History The image of Marianne comes down from Antiquity.

The Phrygian bonnet was worn under the Roman Empire by former slaves who had been emancipated by their master and whose descendants were therefore considered citizens of the Empire. Democracy was already represented as having a woman’s face: at her feet a tiller and a sack of wheat, slumped on the ground and overflowing; having little regard for power, she is concerned above all with the aspirations of the people. In classical times, it was common to represent ideas and abstract entities by gods, goddesses and allegoric personifications. Less common during the Middle Ages, this practice resurfaced during the Renaissance. During the French Revolution, many allegorical personifications of ‘Liberty’ and ‘Reason’ appeared. These two figures finally merged into one: a female figure, shown either sitting or standing, and accompanied by various attributes, including the rooster, the tricolore cockade, and the Phrygian cap. This woman typically symbolized Liberty, Reason, the Nation, the Homeland, the civic virtues of the Republic.

(Compare the Statue of Liberty, created by a French artist, with a copy in Paris.) In September 1792, the National Convention decided by decree that the new seal of the state would represent a standing woman holding a spear with a Phrygian cap held aloft on top of it. Why is it a woman and not a man who represents the Republic? One could find the answer to this question in the traditions and mentality of the French, suggests the historian Maurice Agulhon, who set out on a detailed investigation to discover the origins of Marianne. Note also that both liberté and république are feminine words in French. The use of this emblem was initially unofficial and very diverse. Marianne/Liberty makes an appearance in Eugène Delacroix’s bravura political propaganda ‘Liberty guiding the people’ (Louvre Museum), painted in July 1830, before the first rush of enthusiasm for Louis Philippe had time to cool. In 1848, the Ministry of the Interior launched a contest to symbolize the Republic.

After the fall of the monarchy, the Provisional Government had declared: “The image of liberty should replace everywhere the images of corruption and shame, which have been broken in three days by the magnanimous French people.” Two “Mariannes” were authorised: the one is fighting and victorious, recalling the Greek goddess Athena; the other is wise and serious. She made her first appearance on a French postage stamp in 1849. Later, during the Second Empire (1852-1870), this depiction was clandestine and served as a symbol of protest against the regime. The common use of the name “Marianne” for the depiction of the “Liberty” started around 1848/1851, with a generalization around 1875. It began to be more official during the Third Republic (1870-1940). The city hall of Paris displayed a statue of “Marianne” wearing a Phrygian cap in 1880, and was quickly followed by the other French cities.

Although common emblems of France, neither Marianne nor the rooster enjoy official status: the flag of France, as named and described in Article 2 of the French constitution, is the only official emblem. Origin of the name To begin with, why the name? Some people believe that the name came from the name of the Jesuit Mariana, the 16th century theoretician of tyranny. Others thought it was the image of the wife of the politician Jean Reubell, basing their belief on an old date. According to an old story, its origins date to 1797, when, seeking a pleasant name for the Republic, Barras, one of the members of the Directoire, during an evening spent at Reubell’s, asked his hostess for her name: “Marie-Anne,” she replied. “Perfect,” Barras exclaimed. “It is a short and simple name which befits the Republic just as much as yourself, Madame.” A recent discovery establishes that the first written mention of the name of Marianne to designate the Republic appeared in October 1792 in Puylaurens in the Tarn département near Toulouse.

At that time, people used to sing a song in the Provençal dialect by the poet Guillaume Lavabre: ‘La garisou de Marianno’ (French: ‘La guérison de Marianne’; ‘Marianne’s recovery’). At that time the account made of their exploits by the Revolutionaries often contained a reference to a certain Marianne (or Marrie-Anne) wearing a Phrygian cap. This pretty girl of legend inspired the sans-culottes and looked after those wounded in the many battles across the country. The name of Marianne also appears to be connected with several Republican secret societies. During the Second Empire, one of them, whose members has sworn to overthrow the régime, had taken her name. Models Today, Marianne remains as attractive as ever. She has even grown younger. The official busts, after having had anonymous features, began taking the features of famous women during the Fifth Republic: the first one was Brigitte Bardot in 1970, with the design of the sculptor Alain Gourdon, aka Aslan, who reportedly did so at first as a joke.

She was followed by Mireille Mathieu (1978, Aslan again), Catherine Deneuve (1985), Inès de la Fressange, Sophie Marceau, and Laetitia Casta (2000). Laetitia Casta was named the symbolic representation of France’s Republic in a vote, for the first time open to the country’s more than 36,000 mayors in October 1999. She won the vote from a shortlist of 5 candidates, scoring 36% among the 15,000 voting mayors. The other candidates were Estelle Hallyday, Patricia Kaas, Daniela Lumbroso and Nathalie Simon. Shortly thereafter, a mini-scandal shook France, after it was publicized that Casta – the new icon of the Republic – had relocated to London. Although she claimed that her move was motivated by practical professional reasons, the magazine Le Point, among others, suggested that she was trying to escape taxes. In 2002, a new Marianne was born.

She does not have the features of a famous French women but those of an anonymous beurette (young woman of North African descent), discovered by a scouting agent looking for a model who would symbolize a modern, multiethnic France. In late 2003, Evelyne Thomas, a talk show host, was chosen as the new Marianne. Note that although these figures are “official”, there is no strict regulation governing the display of one over the other ones. A new government logo Blue-white-red, Marianne, Liberté-Egalité-Fraternité, the Republic: these powerful national symbols represent France and its values. Since September 1999, they have been combined in a new “identifier” created by the French government (Lionel Jospin) under the aegis of the French Government Information Service (SIG) and the public relations officials in the principal ministries. As a federating identifier of the government departments, it appears on a wide range of material – brochures, internal and external publications, publicity campaigns, letter headings, business cards, etc.

– emanating from the government, starting with the various ministries (which are able to continue using their own logo) and the préfectures, decentralised government departments in the regions and départements. The first objective targeted by this design is to unify government public relations. But it is also designed to “give a more accessible image to a State currently seen as abstract, remote and archaic, all the more essential in that French citizens express high expectations of the State”. This data was gathered from numerous interviews and consultations conducted by Sofres (a French survey institute) in January 1999, with the general public and public servants. It emerged that the French are deeply committed to the fundamental values of the Republic and expect an impartial and efficient State to be the guarantor of the principles of liberty, equality and fraternity. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License . It uses material from Wikipedia . Posted on June 8, 2004 Marianne: National Emblem of France – A Woman's Paris By Philippa Campsie Barbara Redmond July is a good month for national days. July 1 is Canada Day, July 4 is U.S. Independence Day, and July 14 is Bastille Day in France.

There will be fireworks and feasts and celebrations in each country. Yet we can’t help noticing some interesting differences in what is being celebrated. Canada Day commemorates the day in 1867 when a group of men known today as the Fathers of Confederation signed a document to unite four provinces into the Dominion of Canada. Similarly, on July 4, 1776, the American Congress (another group of men) approved the Declaration of Independence from Great Britain. France is a woman In contrast, Bastille Day is the only celebration of an equal-opportunity event that involved women (and even children). In July 14, 1789, a mob of Parisians stormed an almost-empty medieval fortress that had long been used as a prison. They had come from the Palais Royal (shown above as it looks today), which was the centre of revolutionary sentiment and discussion among the people of Paris. The troops guarding the fortress fired on the crowd. The violence escalated from there. In the end, the only person killed defending the fortress was its governor, but almost 100 of the attackers—men, women, and children—died in the mêlée.

The immediate outcome was that King Louis XVI agreed to the crowd’s demands: he reinstated a popular official he had previously fired, acknowledged the legitimacy of the National Assembly, and promised to demolish the Bastille. Three days later, he came to Paris and was met with enthusiasm; the tricolor was created from the red and blue of the coat of arms of the City of Paris and the white of the Bourbon royal family. Marianne: French feminine symbol of liberty and republicanism Bastille Day celebrates an ambiguous and very local event—several hours of intense violence by a group of people most of whom were never identified, a temporary truce with the king, and the creation of a flag containing the colours of the capital city and a royal dynasty. Very different from the sedate and notably masculine national days of Canada and the United States. Perhaps this is why the national emblem of France is also a woman. Her name is Marianne. Town squares throughout the country feature a statue of this feminine symbol of liberty and republicanism. Before the Euro replaced the franc, she appeared on coins, and she is still sometimes seen on French stamps. Her profile is part of the official logo of the French government.

She is usually depicted dressed like a classical Greek goddess, with the addition of a Phrygian cap—a soft, cone-shaped red cap with its top pointing forward, a symbol of the “common people” of France. A French historian has argued that the French have a feminine emblem simply because the French word for republic (la république) is feminine (and so is the name of the country, La France), but we think there is more to it than that. You just can’t imagine this sort of thing in North America, where our human emblems consist of Johnny Canuck and Uncle Sam. There are many theories about how she got her name. Some say it comes from a popular song. Others say she was named after a pretty young woman who tended the wounded during the Revolution and wore a Phrygian cap. Or it might be that since Marie-Anne was a popular name at the time, the name of the allegorical figure was chosen to represent Everywoman (rather as we might refer to Jane Doe for a typical person in North America).

France’s image of Marianne The image of Marianne has evolved over time and draws from various sources, including Delacroix’s 1830 painting of Liberty Leading the People , which features a bare-breasted Marianne, and the statue of La Marseillaise on the Arc de Triomphe , which depicts a demented, shrieking, winged warrior maiden in full armour. In 19th century, the French government launched a competition to develop a standardized way of portraying Marianne. Two versions emerged—a peaceful one surrounded by symbols of the country’s wealth and progress, and a more militant (véhemente) one with arm raised and breast bared. You can see elements of both types in the statue created by the sculptor Dalou for the one hundredth anniversary of the Revolution in 1889 in the Place de la Nation. Marianne has had her ups and downs. During the Second Empire of Napoleon III, symbols of republicanism were repressed. And during the Vichy Regime in the Second World War, many bronze statues of her were melted down or removed from public places.

When Général de Gaulle became president after the war, he used her image frequently, but in calmer-looking, less militant forms. For the two hundredth anniversary of the Revolution in 1989, Président Mitterand decided to avoid her image in favour of something less, well, revolutionary. After all, that bared breast is troubling. It’s not so much the nudity, but the fact that she is neither fully dressed nor fully naked, but in an in-between state. Marianne represents change, not stability, a state that tends to scare off most politicians. Thus when the French gave a symbol of liberty to the United States, they went for a fully clothed woman with a radiant crown rather than a Phrygian cap, her raised hand holding a torch rather than clenched in a fist. The 1886 Statue of Liberty (La Liberté éclairant le monde) is not Marianne. Her stern face is handsome, but not very feminine. Modern Marianne: Brigitte Bardot, Catherine Deneuve… Originally, images and sculptures of Marianne were created using anonymous models, but modern depictions of Marianne have drawn on the features of famous French beauties.

This trend began with the choice of Brigitte Bardot as a model in 1969. Thereafter, every few years, the image of Marianne has been renewed by association with a contemporary Frenchwoman. Previous “Mariannes” have included singer Mireille Mathieu, actress Catherine Deneuve, fashion designer Inès de la Fressange, actress and model Laetitia Casta, and talk-show host Evelyne Thomas. There is even an unnamed North African young woman who has posed for a version of Marianne that represents a multi-ethnic France. Apparently French mayors have a choice when they commission a statue and are not required to use the latest incarnation of Marianne. Catherine Deneuve thus remains a popular choice. Marianne persists as a popular symbol, although perhaps more outside Paris than within the city, but her image still presides over the Place de la République and other important public spaces in the capital. Judging by the number of representations of Marianne you can see in a day’s walk around the streets, it’s still A Woman’s Paris after all.

VOCABULARY: French to English translations Bleu blanc rouge: Colors of the French flag are always named in the order of “bleu blanc rouge,” since the color blue is the one closest to the flagpole. Le bonnet phrygien: Soft, cone-shaped red cap with its top pointing forward, a symbol of the “common people” of France. Le bras levé: Raised arm. Un sein nu: Bare breast. Philippa Campsie teaches part-time in the urban planning program at the University of Toronto and runs her own writing and research business, Hammersmith Communications. Before starting her own business, she was editor-in-chief at Macmillan Canada. Philippa lived in Paris as a student and regularly travels to Paris and Normandy. She is interested in stories of famous Parisian women throughout the ages and how they influenced the Parisian style we have come to love and know. You may also enjoy A Woman’s Paris® post, French Crown Jewels: Empress Eugénie , by Barbara Redmond who writes about pieces from Empress Eugénie’s private collection and the French Crown Jewels that were split up by the national assembly and sold at public auction.

Stories of Empress Eugénie’s famous Bow Brooch, Pearl and Diamond Tiara, and private jewels. Including Barbara’s favorite book about the jewels in the Louvre, Paris. French Empress Eugénie and her diamonds , by Barbara Redmond who shares the story of Empress Eugénie, the wife of Napoleon III, who lusted after diamonds—the most bejeweled clotheshorse and stylish woman of her day. Stories of Empress Eugénie’s famous Eugénie Diamond, Great Diamond Cluster, Consort Crown, and “Regent” Diamonds. Including Barbara’s favorite book about the jewels in the Louvre, Paris. Bastille Day in France: Tyrants and tigers and blood, oh my! by Canadian writer Philippa Campsie who says, if you are going to be in France this coming Bastille Day (usually known as le quatorze juillet or la fête nationale in France), you might want to learn the words to La Marseillaise, which has been France’s national anthem (off and on) since the days of the Revolution. Including words to the anthem in French with English translation.

French legend proved true with the discovery of blood of King Louis XVI in gourd , by Andrea Johnson who shares with us a stimulating morsel of French history that seems just a little more tangible as it occurs right before our eyes. ( French ) Bastille Day Military Parade in Paris: la fête nationale , by Barbara Redmond who tells her story about watching the Bastille Day Military Parade in Paris with particular affection for the Garde Républicaine as they show off their talents and perform dressage. The world of aristocratic Paris , by author Jan Dolphin. Enter the gates of the eighteenth century parc Monçeau and from there discover two historic townhouses: Musée Nissim de Camondo and Musée Jacquemart-André. Text copyright ©2010 Philippa Campsie. All rights reserved Illustration copyright ©2012 Barbara Redmond. All rights reserved. French National Symbols: Marianne Living in the Languedoc: Central Government: French National Symbols: Marianne A number of female figures have been employed to represent the French Republic. Two of these are Marianne and Liberty - they are not the same. Marianne as on the left is usually young.

She wears a Phrygian cap (or Liberty Cap) and freely displays her ample charms. Liberty is generally more matronly, more modestly attired, and wears a crown. But the distinction is not always clear and one of the most famous representations of Liberty (by Delacroix) shows her decolloté and wearing a Liberty cap. Throughout the nineteenth century there were republicans who thought that the Phrygian cap was too revolutionary and that a legalist and peaceful Republic ought to be represented by a different sort of headgear (laurels for example). During this period Republican symbolism acquired some new artistic creations: for example the "Ceres" figure on the first French postage stamp in 1849. Another example is the head on the L�gion d'honneur medal. Undoubtedly, Marianne is the most famous of the various figures representing the French Republic, and she generally maintains her Phrygian cap or Cap of Liberty . She is depicted by the artist Daumier as a mother nursing two children and by the sculptor Rude, as an angry warrior singing the Marseillaise on the Arc de Triomphe.

In the last two wars, some people worshipped her just like a saint. Marianne holds a place of honour in town halls and law courts, symbolising the "Triumph of the Republic". The origin of the name is uncertain. Some believe the name Marianne came from that name of the Jesuit Mariana, a 16th century theoretician, but this is highly improbable. Others believe her to be based on the wife of the politician Jean Reubell. According to the story, in 1797 when seeking a name of the Republic, Barras (one of the members of the Directoire) during an evening spent at Reubell's house, asked his hostess's name; "Marie-Anne," she replied. "Perfect," Barras exclaimed. "It is a short and simple name which befits the Republic just as much as yourself, Madame." But this story is undermined by a recent discovery of a written mention of the name of Marianne to denote the Republic dating from October 1792 in Puylaurens in the Tarn department near Toulouse.

At that time local people used to sing a song in the Provençal language by the poet Guillaume Lavabre called "La guérison de Marianne" (Marianne's recovery) Accounts of Revolutionary exploits often contained references to a certain Marie-Anne wearing a Phrygian cap. The name of Marianne also appears to be connected with Republican secret societies. During the Second Empire, one of them, whose members had sworn to overthrow the régime, had taken her name. During the last thirty years she has taken on the features of Brigitte Bardot, Catherine Deneuve and those of French fashion models, Inès de la Fressange and Laeticia Casta. French Jerk - TV Tropes French Jerk You need to login to do this. Get Known if you don't have an account Share — Frank Martin, Transporter 2 In popular culture, usually comedy, Frenchmen are often Acceptable Targets . They will be portrayed as villains, antagonists or someone who is just plain mean, arrogant, snobbish, bad tempered, foul mouthed or rude. Often he will talk and laugh triumphantly in a Maurice Chevalier Accent , after insulting foreigners.

These are the most common situations in which this character turns up: 1) Characters visit France or meet a Frenchman. They'll ask him a simple direction or question, but the French Jerk refuses to answer, starts insulting or threatening them and/or feels they are beneath him. 2) French Cuisine Is Haughty : Characters visit a French restaurant, where the cook and/or the waiter are all arrogant, badly tempered and dirty snobs who refuse to give their clients what they want or interpret everything they say as a complaint. If they deliver the meals the food will always be filthy, disgusting, cold or at the very least overpriced. 3) Characters meet a rich Upper-Class Twit , who happens to speak Gratuitous French in order to appear très chic and looks down upon the others because they are out of his noble league. A lot of comedy will be built around the fact that he or she doesn't understand or care for the common people and is unable to speak the language of the protagonists correctly. To top it all off he/she will wear or carry a lorgnette, a monocle or a small handkerchief, to emphasize his/her snobbishness. In the end he or she will always be humiliated or put in her place.

This Stock Character can be found in a lot of countries who were conquered/colonized by the French or dominated by a French elite in the past, such as Belgium. 4) Characters meet an arrogant Frenchman full of Misplaced Nationalism , either in their country or in France. He acts as The Rival to The Hero and will start a discussion about whose country is better, either in dialogue or through some sort of competition, such as a sport tournament. After the conflict is resolved, however, he often will have grown to love the country of The Hero and isn't as arrogant about himself or his country as he was before. This follows after he is defeated or after any interaction between them that resolves the conflict. 5) In the USA in particular the French jerk will be portrayed as an ungrateful coward, whom the brave Americans saved in World War One and Two, but who has no respect for Americans in modern times.

This is a somewhat one-sided caricature, because the French have in the past battled German invaders more than once (Franco-Prussian War (1871), for instance) and during their so-called unheroic retreat in World War Two the French only surrendered because the Nazis had already surrounded Paris and threatened to blow the city up, while much of their forces were stuck in the north. Even then, the population in occupied areas of the country kept on fighting. Some people ought to remember a certain conflict that took place during the late 18th century , in which a resistance movement only managed to overcome their military occupiers with the help of another foreign power, who not only supplied and financed their operations, but also became essential in securing a decisive, final outcome to the conflict . This is more of a Characterization Trope , unlike, say, Eagle Land or Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkeys . Compare Stuffy Brit . Examples: open/close all folders Advertising An old McDonald's ad featured Ronald McDonald and his friends touring around the world visiting humourous reimaginings of famous landmarks. In France, they meet the "Awful Tower", who was a sentient Eiffel Tower that told bad jokes in an obnoxious French accent.

Awful Tower: Why is six afraid of seven? Because seven eight nine! Oh hon hon hon...! Birdie: My, he is awful. Anime and Manga France of Axis Powers Hetalia . A Handsome Lech who frequently annoys the other nations with his antics, especially his Sitcom Archnemesis , England (who is somewhat of a Mean Brit himself). However, somewhat subverted in that in several strips he is shown to be more of a Jerk with a Heart of Gold , most notably the strip involving Jeanne D'Arc . Patrick Colasour from Mobile Suit Gundam 00 . An Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain who always chase the heroes to no avail . In the end, he ends up helping them in the final battle. His name and hair color suggest that he's Irish, though. Regardless, he's the huge Ensemble Dark Horse . Perrine H Clostermann from Strike Witches . Mainly, its due to her attitude towards Yoshika born from jealousy of her closeness to Mio. However, she mellows out over the course of the first season. Huey Laforet from Baccano! , oh , so much .

Henri Claytor from Future GPX Cyber Formula is an extreme version of this in ZERO. While he may not be arrogant like other examples, he is a huge jerk, being a Manipulative Bastard , as well as borderline batshit insane , and he also has a deep-seated hatred for the main character. He mellows out at the end; he's still a jerk, but much less than he used to be. Tiger & Bunny 's Agnes Joubert is a pretty good example of Everyone Looks Sexier If French . And she's really not very nice. Subverted in the last episode, where she gets her own Big Damn Heroes moment. Sophie Montgomery and her mother Jeanne in Lady . Ultimately subverted with Sophie, who shows a quite more sympathetic side as it's shown that Jeanne manipulates and harrasses her in hopes to get her to inherit her English grandma's fortune, threatening Sophie with abandoning her in France if she fails. Meanwhile, Sophie just wants to be loved by her mom . Marginal Prince gives us Henri-Hugues de Saint Germain, the series' resident stoic Deadpan Snarker .

He's relatively silent in general, but when something comes out of his mouth it's often snarkage at others, his favourite target being the American Alfred. Subverted sometimes, when his proverbs and comments veil genuinely valuable lessons/suggestions. He never takes any efford in making them sound nice, though. A unique case in Shokugeki no Soma , Shinomiya Kojirou is Japanese but studied and works exclusively in French cuisine. He gets the jerk label early on because he expelled a cooking student because the student had used a citrus based shampoo that he felt might interfere with the presentation of food they hadn't even started preparing yet . Most Venusians from Battle Angel Alita . A race of hideous, egg-shaped mutants descended from French space colonists, their dependance on Organic Technology has given them a very callous attitude towards other living things. Jewelpet Twinkle has three French sisters - Marianne, Catherine and Angelina - who constantly gloat about their achievements and put the main characters down for going to a "country" school. That said, Marianne gets a bit of Character Development and becomes Tsundere for the (female) protagonist midway through the anime, after the latter saves her life.

While Pierre from Captain Tsubasa averts this by being a Lovable Jock , Louis Napoleon plays it very straight. And boy, does he pay for it . Charles Bonaparte from Freezing is calmly and openly condescending and hostile to everyone, even her own Limiter, and dismissive of the E-Pandora. She gets better . Comicbooks The Cyclone, Pierre Fresson, from Thunderbolts . Vain, egotistical, self-serving, and lecherous to the last. You have Georges Batroc, the Leaper, a classic foe of Captain America and a giant dickwad to boot. Depending on the Writer . He's a tad egotistical, true, but he's not really a jerk most of the time. He gave up crime after hearing Steve lament the fact none of his enemies ever reformed. In fact, Batroc and Cap have a pretty friendly relationship and he has helped Cap numerous times. Even as a villain, he'll team up with Cap to take on the really vile supervillains. Averted in The Boys , in which the Frenchman is probably the nicest, friendliest, most genial guy in the series.

He'll crush your skull if you make him mad, but still, by the standards of an Ennis story, stand-up guy. Phantasy Star Portable 2 gives us Chelsea, the bubbly "French" robot secretary merc , who, in an aversion, is the nicest character on the space station your character is assigned to. Spider-Man : Peter Parker has a couple of run-ins with an obnoxious French waiter during JMS's run as writer. Inverted in the the Thing's Civil War arc. Since the Marvel Civil War seems to involve everyone Ben knows in the U.S. turning into a colossal jerk and he doesn't want to have to pick sides between his friends, he travels to France. The French super-heroes he meets are all a little eccentric, but charmingly nice people, in contrast to how things have gotten back in the States. Astï¿½rix : None of the Gauls is a real French jerk (not surprising, since this comic strip was made in France), but Vitalstatistix and Cacofonix sometimes act very arrogant and mean spirited towards others.

Obelix has a tendency to name people from other nations crazy, though more because he is too dimwitted to understand them, than out of aggressive feelings. Films - Animated Played with in Ratatouille . Collette says at one point, "Sorry to be rude, but we're French", which makes no sense since they are in France. There are some examples of French chauvinism, like the opening narration stating that "although other nations might dispute this fact... the best food in the world is made in France", and Skinner dismissively calling corn dogs "cheap sausages dipped in batter and fried; you know, American." Collette's line is "Sorry to be rude, but we're French and it's dinnertime." She was talking to reporters, so it may have been a joke, but she also had a kitchen to get running and Linguini's interview had them running late, so it may actually have been referring to "the best food in the world", just waiting to be made and eaten. Chef Louie from The Little Mermaid has shades of this - including the obnoxious, nasal "french laugh": Hee hee hee, haw haw haw !

He also sings about cutting up and serving fish for dinner, which seems intensely sadistic from to Sebastian's point of view - especially as the chef is preparing stuffed crab as the main course, thinks Sebastian is a "missed" crab, sings about him being "succulent", dips him in oyster sauce, covers him with flour, stuffs bread in his mouth, and then chucks him at the boiling pot. LeFrog in Flushed Away . "I find everyone's pain funny but my own. I am French!" Meowrice in Gay Purr-ee . Films: Live-Action In Rush Hour 3 , the two heroes try to take a taxi from the airport after they land in France. The driver refuses, saying that he does not drive Americans, and begins to list the numerous ways America is second rate to France. After an exciting car chase, the taxi driver completely changes his outlook on America, chasing his newfound dream of becoming an American spy, like in the movies in America always show. Ryder: God hates the French? Aaron: Everybody hates the French. Played with in The Wolf of Wall Street .

Jordan thinks that Jean-Jacques, the French Swiss banker who aids him in laundering the profits from his securities frauds, sees him as an "American shit" (while conversely Jean-Jacques thinks Jordan sees him as the trope) But the two enjoy a cordial relationship until a key element of their scheme falls apart, whereupon they hang up on each other saying exactly what the other thought they thought of them. In A Knight's Tale , William's main rival is Count Adhemar, a French nobleman who is also a complete and utter Jerkass . Louis de Funï¿½s : This French comedian played a French jerk in all of his films, in high contrast with his real, more modest and friendly personality. The Patriot : Major Jean Villeneuve is a subversion. At first he seems like a snobbish sort who treats Colonel Benjamin Martin with contempt (though not without reason, as Martin killed a lot of Frenchmen in the French and Indian Wars), which Martin dismisses as typically French. However, Villeneuve later reveals that his family was killed by British soldiers, his countrymen keep their word about the ships he promised, and he and Martin become Fire-Forged Friends by the end.

Welp : Two French go-karters are at the camping spot the Belgian Cub Scouts are supposed to be at, but they talk down to them and refuse to move from the spot. This forces the troop to camp even further in the woods, right where the evil Wild Child lives. Since this inadvertantly leads to all the horrible things that occur in the film , this makes the trope all the more apparent. Literature Reynard the Fox : In the Dutch/Flemish version Curtise the posh dog is identified as French, as was common with the noblemen in those days. The narrator of Vladimir Nabokov 's The Vane Sisters is a French literature professor who, upon presenting someone with their sister's suicide note, makes a point of criticizing its grammar. The French have been bad guys in every Matthew Reilly book they've been in. In an interview, he notes that he's never been published in France.

He lampshades this in Hover Car Racer when after having trouble with a famous French racer who is despised by every person outside of France and another less famous French racer the main character asks "is every French person in this sport evil?" Things are shaken up a little in Scarecrow and the Army of Thieves when the French characters sent to kill Scarecrow wind up teaming up with him to take on the villain, and they turn out to be seriously awesome. Renard is even set up to become Scarecrow's new love interest. Rigaud (also known as Blandois), the Smug Snake in Little Dorrit . In The Traitor Son Cycle , the supporting villains in the first three books are overwhelmingly the Galles - French Fantasy Counterpart Culture . With the exception of Comte D'Eau , they're self-righteous, misogynistic, anti-magical and Holier Than Thou assholes who think they can do whatever they want with the peasantry, and their king isn't much better. This being said, it's outright stated that the ones we see in the story have been Reassigned To Alba by their more reasonable fellows.

Live-Action TV An episode of My Name Is Earl had a French character that Earl bullied in grade school. He held a grudge against Earl, and upon seeing him again, knocked Earl out with a headbutt. Near the end of the episode it's revealed that the Frenchman came to America in grade school to flirt with the women, his accent having a much more sexier effect in America than in France, where it's commonplace. After Earl fulfills the Frenchman's purpose for coming, by taking him out to meet the girls he knew from grade school (including one of the teachers ) and having sexnote i.e. making out with them, the Frenchman's view of Earl and America as a whole change. But then the Frenchman lets it slip that he is in fact married, and now has cheated on his wife with several women. Kinda of Jerk Ass thing to do. In The West Wing , the President's youngest daughter took on a French Jerk boyfriend - much to the chagrin of most of the rest of the cast. For most of his run he was just a little bit of a jackass, derided by the gang because he's French but mainly because he knocked Charlie out of the picture.

At the end of the fourth season, however, he gives ecstasy GHB to the daughter, making her kidnapping easier for the perpetrators. Just to pile on the jerkiness, he is written as demanding immunity from prosecution before he'll help US authorities locate her. Henri on Cheers , who made no attempt to hide the fact that he was going to steal Woody's girlfriend. Sam endured the taunts of that very same self-aggrandizing Frenchman until said Frenchman insulted America. Sam then challenged the Frenchman to see who could collect the most phone numbers from women in the bar. When, out of guilt, Sam opted not to get the phone numbers of the two nice women who would have put his total over the top and thereby lost the contest, the Frenchman cheered, "I win! I win! France has won!" "There's somethin' you never hear! An early episode of 7th Heaven had a rather rude French exchange student who smoked and ruined everyone's illusion regarding romantic French people. One episode of The Inbetweeners featured Simon's French exchange partner, Patrice. He was surly and uncommunicative to everyone except Will's love interest Charlotte, whom he slept with instead. Root Into Europe : Mr.

Root assumes all Frenchmen are arrogant intellectuals. Music The Capitol Steps' song parody "Euro Pest" is about having Euro Disney staffed entirely by French Jerks. "The Frog Princess" by The Divine Comedy . Pinball The Dark Queen in Pro Pinball: The Web . Professional Wrestling Frenchy Martin, manager of Dino Bravo, from the Rock & Wrestling Era of the WWE . Martin though is a variation on this trope as he was a French-Canadian jerk. He dressed the part, wearing a beret with monocle and goatee, and waving the flag of Quebec as he made his way to the arena with Bravo. Radio According to Bleak Expectations , Victorian-era France is filled with people who sigh superciliously whenever a tourist asks them a question, and they're not above killing and cooking any Englishman they find (even if said Englishman comes in the form of a giant dinosaur ). It's also how series Big Bad Mister Gently Benevolent disguises himself, complete with striped vest, beret, and an "air of undeserved satisfaction".

Stand-Up Comedy Eddie Izzard , on the French in his stand-up show "Dress To Kill": ...and France hated them all ï¿½cause Southern France was collaborating with the Germans, embarrassing! So since then, they've been kind of spiky and kind of, er, French... I'm very positive on the French, my family way back was French, so I go with it, but they are kind of, well, fucking French at times... "All of Europe, you must do this!" "Wellï¿½ we're not gonna! We're gonna have a sandwich." Later in that show: We play bad guys in Hollywood movies because of the Revolutionary War. Oh yes, no two ways about it. And the French, who were on your side in the Revolutionary war, they play more esoteric characters. They have characters who turn up and go, "My name is Pierre! I have come from Paris. Iï¿½ve come to have sex with your family." "Help yourself! Because of the debt of honor to General Lafayette." You know your own history, yeah? [beat, gives audience a knowing smirk] You don't know who he is, do you?! What was it? The Spanish-American War?

The French-Banana War? What? Revolutionary War! Hung out with Washington. Lafayette. Street named after him in New York. Forget it! French comedian Marcel Lucont uses this as part of his stand-up persona. Robin Williams sometimes had skits to this trope's effect: (Imitating a Frenchman) Fuck you Americans! Uncultured, crass Americans! We hate all of you! Fu- the Germans are here! Hello Americans! We love you! Tabletop Games Flintloque is a Napoleonic Wars wargame set in an Earth with the usual array of fantasy races and Fantasy Counterpart Cultures . The French analogues are elves, with all that that implies. Oh, and the German analogues are dwarves and the British, orcs. Theatre Doctor Caius of Shakespeare 's The Merry Wives of Windsor .

Pretty much every (male) French character in Shakespeare, for that matter, though the trope is averted in All's Well That Ends Well and Love's Labour's Lost where nearly all the characters are at least nominally French, and possibly subverted in King Lear , in which the King of France is impressed by Cordelia's honesty and marries her despite her recent disinheritance. Played especially straight in Henry V , with the French noblemen being complete and utter jerks. The only exception is Mountjoy the herald (who is not, of course, a noble). Not jerks, necessarily. The king is beleaguered and Catherine is completely innocent. Plus, when you consider the pile of BS that is Henry's claim to the throne of France, the nobles' antipathy towards the English invaders is understandable...the Dauphin was always rather contemptuous, though, and not just of the English. Lampshaded as a one-shot joke in the second version of Avenue Q 's musical number Everyone's A Little Bit Racist: Princeton: Well, sure, Gary, but lots of people tell black jokes. But I bet you tell jokes about French people, right? Gary: Yeah, sure I do!

Those French people are such assholes. Princeton: Now don't you think that's a little racist? Video Games Audrey from HuniePop is the only girl of French descent, and is a total Alpha Bitch . Jean-Paul "JP" Arsenault from the SSX video game series. Self-absorbed, self-obsessed, self-serving, and arrogant, JP has a gigantic but fragile ego and is easily unnerved by any hint of disrespect towards himself; Basically, he puts on a Jerkass Faï¿½ade to hide his severe insecurity. But that doesn't mean he isn't still a jerk ; His SSX Blur profile still lists his "trait" as "Arrogant. The Kalos region of Pokï¿½mon X and Y is based on France so its villain organization Team Flare fits. Most of its members are petty crooks after money and power while claiming to be The Beautiful Elite . Ironically, their leader Lysandre is an aversion; he's the most polite out of the franchise's villains . In The Matrix: Path of Neo the Merovingian's jerk-ness is further explored in that he traps Neo in the chateau and forces him to fight his way out.

In the meantime Neo learns that the Frenchman has his own Mooks tortured or deleted for failure. Played With in Saints Row: The Third ; Philippe Loren is a haughty jerk with a heavy French accent... But he's actually Belgian and being mistaken for French is one of his pet peeves . Referenced in Far Cry 3 when you first meet Citra: Citra: Did they teach you to speak without permission in America? Jason: No, I learned that in France. In Bravely Default ,Erutus Profiteur is the very French holder of the merchant asterisk and chairman of the Khamer & Profiteur Merchantry in Ancheim. As if it wasn't bad enough that he works for the duchy that is trying to bring down the warriors of light, he also comes across as an incredibly corrupt businessman by forcing very thirsty customers to buy water at very expensive prices, located in a nearby oasis, surrounded by bandits hired by the very french jerk himself! He even seems to lack empathy for those who have lost all their possessions in these attacks....

Overwatch has Widowmaker, who while sexy , is a cold-blooded assassin who takes pleasure in killing and is one of the antagonists in the game serving terrorist organization Talon . Not to mention the fact that she acts like a complete Jerkass to everyone else, constantly taunting her enemies. In an interesting twist however, she did not choose to be like this. She was once known as Amélie Lacroix, a completely innocent Nice Girl who did nothing wrong of her accord. However, she was kidnapped by said organization and was turned into Widowmaker as she is known today, through intense brainwashing and neural reconditioning . Webcomics Mocked in one issue of Penny Arcade , with a one-off appearance by Raven, who is also an arrogant Mac user. Pierre, the illegal immigrant to the U.S.A. in C'est la Vie . Just very occasionally his sister Mona, who has been in the U.S.A. longer and is legally resident. Chloe De Sade in Rival Angels is from France, and she is a heel in a world where Pro Wrestling Is Real .

Web Originals Alice Boucher of Survival of the Fittest is an example of this trope : one of her biggest regrets about being in America is that she doesn't know any insults in English. Due to Character Development after being put on the island (as well as a change in writer), she grows out of this very quickly though. Averted in The Octonauts where the French-accented remipedes initially seem like they're going to be a nuisance to Shellington being wary of him in their cave, but prove to be wholly helpful and actually nice after he passes the literal smell test by leading the team out by smell, upside down at that. Being that it's an education show, real remipedes are actually blind and swim upside down. Although in most retellings, Robin Hood is an English Saxon fighting the tyranny of French-descended Normans, in Shrek he inexplicably has a French accent. And is a jerk to boot. In Ultimate Spider-Man , Batroc the Leaper (see Comic Books, above) shows up several times. His French Jerk tendencies seem to have been greatly exaggerated for the show. The Ice Dancers of Total Drama Presents: The Ridonculous Race are French-Canadian.

However, both of them are rude, arrogant, and ill-tempered towards the other contestants so it's this trope played semi-straight. The Davincibles : Quaba looks very French, and is very much a jerk. :: Indexes :: Marianne, historic symbol of France You are here: French History Marianne Marianne, historic symbol of France and the French Marianne is a national symbol of France, symbolising reason, liberty and the ideals of the republic. The portrait of Marianne is seen frequently in France, including numerous statues, coins, stamps and banknotes. But the origins of Marianne remain unclear. She emerged as a single figurehead during the revolutionary years, and was often shown in heroic roles, leading the republicans to freedom for example. Typically she wore a 'phrygian cap' (a soft felt conical hat), and this is now usually how Marianne is depicted. It has been claimed that the choice of a female as the symbol of France was a deliberate attempt to reject the male dominated centuries that came before, but it is unclear whether this is correct.

The use of Marianne as a symbol was not widespread in the years after the Revolution, but in 1848, after the monarchy had fallen, the Ministry of the Interior held a competition for an image to represent the newly emerged republic. It was also in the following years that the name Marianne started to emerge to represent Liberty, and was in common use by 1875. The origins of the name Marianne are as unclear as the figure herself. Some possible sources include: (1) Possibly it came from a song popular at the time of the Revolution, called 'Marianne's recovery'; (2) some suggest it came from a lady who nursed many of the injured revolutionaries; (3)and possibly it was simply because Marianne was a common and popular name at that time. Nowadays, a current personality (e.g. Catherine Deneuve in the 1980's) is chosen to represent Marianne and the spirit of liberty in France.

National Symbols in France: The Phrygian Cap or Liberty Cap The liberty cap is one of the gererally recognised symbols of sovereignty not mentioned in article 2 of the French Constitution of 1958 , which refers only to le drapeau tricolore, bleu, blanc, rouge: The French Flag , L'hymne national, the national anthem, The Marseillaise and La devise de la République; the motto . "Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité". The Liberty Cap in North America. In the American colonies the Liberty Cap had been was used, perhaps a little melodramatically, by the Sons of Liberty in 1765. During the American Revolution some soldiers who fought for the rebel cause wore knitted stocking liberty caps of red. Sometimes they had the motto "Liberty" or "Liberty or Death" knitted into the band. This style of cap was common in the North East (possibly reflecting French influence). "Jonathan" (the allegorical figure of colonial New England) is sometimes shown wearing a liberty cap. Liberty caps were sometimes held aloft on a Liberty Pole during the American Revolutionary War as a symbol of freedom.

It is not clear whether the idea of using these caps was imported from France. The liberty cap, or something like it, was already associated with revolt against established authority in France. The Revolt of the Red Caps for example was a series of riots in Brittany in 1675 triggered by Colbert's taxes. The coin (of 1850) on the left shows Liberty holding a Liberty Pole with a Phrygian hat on it. On the right is the Liberty Seal of the US Senate with a Liberty cap surmounting the arms in the centre and crossed fasces underneath. A Liberty cap - oddly a golden one - features in the arms of New York, the original national capital of the USA.

The dexter supporter to the arms is blazoned as follows: "The figure of Liberty proper, her hair disheveled and decorated with pearls, vested azure, sandaled gules, about the waist a cincture or, fringed gules, a mantle of the last depending from the shoulders behind to the feet, in the dexter hand a staff ensigned with a Phrygian cap or, the sinister arm embowed, the hand supporting the shield at the dexter chief point, a royal crown by her sinister foot dejected." (In the language of heraldry the word "or" means gold). A Liberty Cap appears on the State flags of West Virginia and New Jersey as well as the official seals of the United States Army and the United States Senate. A Liberty Cap also features on the seal of Dickinson College, in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, the first college to be chartered in the new Republic of the USA. The figure on the left is a detail from the US Senate's painting Telegraph by Constantine Brumidi showing a female personification of "America" wearing a Liberty Cap.

Although the Liberty cap - or cap of Liberty - is so common in US revolutionary iconography, it is curious that it is rarely shown being worn. It is shown either as an isolated symbol, or on top of a Liberty pole or similar support. The one on the near right is coloured like an American flag and held on a pole. The design on the far right features another Liberty cap also on a pole along with a fasces . This design was taken from an envelope dating from the American Civil War. Plans for the new dome of the national Capitol, which was authorized in 1855 included an allegorical figure of Liberty (called "Freedom triumphant in War and Peace") wearing a Liberty cap. Jefferson Davis (then Secretary of War) objected to the Liberty cap so the architect replaced it with a rather eccentric Roman helmet (See Liberty ). The Liberty Cap in France. The Phrygian cap (in French, bonnet Phrygian) is also known in French as the Liberty cap (bonnet de la Liberté) or as a red cap (bonnet rouge). It was adopted during the French Revolution. Liberty is sometimes shown wearing a Phrygian cap. So is Marianne .

Representations of soldiers in the French revolutionary army show them wearing liberty caps as part of their uniforms - as in the picture on the right. In revolutionary France the use of the Liberty cap is documented from 1789, but the cap became a popular symbol only in the spring of 1790. It was initially worn by goddesses Liberty and Nation (the latter later morphing into Marianne ). In 1792, it became part of the uniform of the sans-culottes. On 20 June 1792, King Louis XVI was obliged to don a liberty cap by a crowd that had stormed the palace of Tuileries. When the Archbishop of Paris was forced to resign his duties he was made to replace his mitre with the red Cap of Liberty. After the fall of the French monarchy, the Liberty cap became more common. It coiffed representations of Liberté , sometimes sitting, sometimes standing. It also appeared on top of pikes and flag poles, Liberty trees, Fasces of Unity , Triangles of Equity and atop the scales of Justice.

On the left a Liberty cap is shown being worn by a soldier, and another one hides the ax head of the fasces just visible behind the banner. By 1793, members of the Assemblies of Paris were obliged to wear a Liberty cap. The Convention accepted it as a national symbol and had it placed on the French Seal of State of the Republic and also on milestones (to replace the royal fleur-de-lis). The cap was clearly regarded as an importannt icon - on the right is a portrait of one. It seems always to have been associated with the more extreme revolutionaries and so has always faded into the background during periods of stability when French governments are keen to discourage new revolutionary ideas. Under the Consulate, the capped Liberty was replaced by a less revolutionary helmeted Minerva. Liberty caps were removed from all public monuments. Napoleon is reported to have detested the Phrygian cap. The picture on the left is called La Liberté guidant le peuple (Liberty Guiding the People). It is by Eugene Delacroix and hangs in the Louvre in Paris.

In it, Liberty is brandishing a French tricolore flag and wearing a red Phrygian cap - which you can just about make out in the detail on the right. The painting was inspired by the insurrection of July 1830 in Paris during which the last king of France (Charles X) was forced to abdicate and was replaced by the 'King of the French' Louis-Philippe. Apparently there is some subtlety in the different titles that must have carried significance at the time. During the Second Republic, insurrectionists forced the provisory government to add a liberty cap on the white stripe of the French tricolore flag around February 1848. The cap then disappeared again - not only from the flag but also from the French Seal of State of the Second Republic. It was reestablished as national symbol during the Third Republic. The liberty cap is still worn by Marianne , the feminine representation of the French Republic; but only sometimes. Her bust, which adorns city halls of France, sometimes sports a rather less revolutionary tiara. She wears a very discreet Liberty cap on the new French logo shown above.

A Liberty cap is visible on the 1989 100 franc coin shown on the right. Until 2002 the cap appeared, along with the Cross of Lorraine , on the logo of a right-wing French political party called Rassemblement pour la République (RPR), the neo-Gaullist party of Jacques Chirac. The logo is no longer used, perhaps because of the forgivable tendency to see it as as a deformed parrot. (The parot's "eye" is actually a blue, white and red cockade .) Other Countries. Elsewhere, the cap was incorporated into the symbol of the late 18th century Irish revolutionary movement known as the Society of the United Irishmen. It also carried over to Latin American revolutions of the 1820s. The cap appeared on Mexican coins through the late 19th century into the mid 20th century (including the old 8 Reales coin). Today, it is featured of the coats of arms, national flags or seals of Nicaragua, El Salvador, Colombia, Paraguay and Cuba.

In Argentina it appears not only on the national arms and flag, but also those of the army and navy, on presidential flags and the flags of provinces including Corrientes, Jujuy, Mendoza and San Juan. As in the US, the cap invariably seems to feature on top of a stick, rather than people's heads. The Phrygian Cap before it became a Liberty Cap Before the Phrygian cap came to symbolise freedom or revolutionary fervour, it had another signification in the west. It was a symbol associated with the east. Indeed it seems to have been worn by arange of peoples in the Balkans and Asia Minor. Macedonian, Thracian, and Dacian military helmets all had forward pointing tops perhaps mimicking Phrygian caps. The Phrygian cap can be seen on Trajan's Column, worn by the Dacians, and on the Arch of Septimius Severus, worn by the Parthians. Roman poets habitually used the term "Phrygian" to mean Trojan. In Greek art, the Phrygian cap served to identify Paris as a Trojan - and so definitely not a proper Greek.

The mosaic on the right shows Orpheus wearing a Phrygian hat. The cap also appears on murals in a 4th century Thracian tomb at Kazanlak in modern Bulgaria. The Phrygian cap was worn by the god Mithras - shown on the right. He was a Saviour god in the Dualist Persian tradition based on the Zoroastrian religion. Mithras was a forerunner of the Saviour-god Jesus Christ who borrowed Mithras's halo, his birthday and his temple on the Vatican Hill in Rome, but not his Phrygian hat. The same headgear also features on the heads of the Three Magi in old depictions of them - marking them as being from the east, like this depiction (above left) from a church in Ravenna. The name Magi denotes Zoroastrian priests from Persia. Curiously, Mr Punch, as in Punch and Judy, always wears a red Phrygian cap - did he originally come from the east? Smurfs wear them too! The name Liberty cap also denotes a type of mushroom that looks reminiscent of a Liberty Cap on top of a Liberty Pole.

Question: What is the name of the fictional woman who is depicted as the national emblem of the French Republic?
Answer: Marianne