|
|
Index Previous Letter
Next Letter
Friday February 27th '98 An obsession with the French
Most people see Americans as a parochial lot, but if there's any other single country in the world that fascinates Americans, it is France. Maybe it is because they stole Louisiana from the French. Or it may be because of the Statue of Liberty (donated by the French) eternally watching out at the bottom Manhattan. Or it could be that they see the French as annoyingly like themselves, each nationality being stereotyped as arrogant and thinking their own culture superior to any other.Whatever the cause, the fascination is nowhere more evident than in the large number of newspaper articles that discuss the French reaction to MonicaGate. Last weekend Diane Johnson in the New York Times Magazine's "Style" column, wrote about the French discussing President Clinton's taste in women. Quoting from several people at recent dinner parties in France, Ms. Johnson discussed the French opinion of the chicness of Monica Lewinsky. She concluded, "... in her little hat and suit [Monica] has a sense of propriety and chic. She might be French, even!" A few weeks ago the same paper interviewed French people in cafes, on their reaction to the latest Clinton sex allegations. And earlier this month, in a report headlined, "Vive La Difference: In Europe, a Sneer, a Cheer and a Lament", Craig R. Whitney of the New York Times wrote of the French journalists' reaction, "French commentators congratulated themselves that Americans were finally coming of age and becoming more like, well, the French." In a recent interview Mike Nichols (who won the movie rights for Primary Colors), is quoted as saying in relation to the allegations, "As everybody keeps saying, in France they have no problem. Private acts are private acts." (New York March 2). We are constantly reminded that the late French President Francois Mitterrand had a mistress, and that she attended his funeral. For example, Francis X. Clines in an article titled, "Public Tolerance in the Clinton Era, and Its Limits" (New York Time Jan. 25th) cited Suzanne Garment, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute: "Ms. Garment referred to the modified American version of the European model for tolerating politicians' peccadilloes, which, carried to the French extreme, saw tout le Paris sympathetically watching Francois Mitterrand's widow grieve alongside his mistress at the statesman's bier." It's all a bit much, and is as if the French opinion counts more than any other. I was reminded of the silly song, "I once new a girl who once knew a man who once knew a girl who danced with the Prince of Wales", when I read Diane Johnson's column in the New York Times Magazine last weekend. Describing the French assessment of Monica Lewinsky as evidenced by conversations at other people's dinner parties in France, Ms Johnson related, "My neighbor went to a dinner party where there was a man who found Monica 'pas mal du tout' Not bad at all)." I should ask my neighbours if any of the people whose dinner parties they've been to lately, have had anything interesting to say on the subject. I will if I ever meet any of them! Uniformly free and uniform
In a city where nearly everyone dresses uniformly, in black and white (but only in white in socially prescribed months), where they "don't do color", and when every morning millions of people decide which shade of black to wear, it is interesting that there is a move to introduce school uniforms to public (state) schools. I will be intrigued if it happens, to see if the uniforms are all black. I just cannot imagine Manhattan school uniforms being green or red or tartan.
But it may not eventuate, as there's a bit of an outcry about it. The idea of having children dress uniformly is seen by some to be an infringement of freedom of expression. No doubt those people complaining about it, express themselves creatively through the donning of black clothes everyday. Meanwhile the local baseball team, the Mets, has a new "alternate" uniform. No points for guessing its colour. The Spice Girls? Fuhgedaboudit!
The Brits might have the Spice Girls, but here in o-so-cool New York City we have the Gorilla girls. The name is said to have come about because one of them couldn't spell "guerrilla".
These young women and their city is so cool, that when one of their group, a Ms. Frida Kahlo went to an uptown salon for a Village Voice interview, the other patrons were, according to the Voice reporter, "more interested in making their own impressions than in scoping the woman who sat sipping chablis through a hairy toothy maw" (Village Voice Feb. 24th). In their own words (www.voyagerco.com/gg/gg.html), the Gorilla Girls are "a group of women artists and arts professionals who make posters about discrimination [...] the conscience of the art world, [...] feminist counterparts to the mostly male tradition of anonymous do-gooders like Robin Hood, Batman, and the Lone Ranger." They wear gorilla masks "to focus on the issues rather than personalities". Their blurb ends with, "We could be anyone; we are everywhere." I don't THINK so!  Your Questions and CommentsTroy, an Australian at Princeton emailed: I was reading your 'Letter from NY, Friday February 20th 1998' and I noticed a very very minor mistake that I probably shouldn't bother to correct, but here goes anyway: A person from Adelaide is an Adelaidean not an Adelaider. Could you imagine being called a Melbourner? :)Needless to say Kate, I'm still an avid fan of your weekly letter but I was a little taken aback last week when I read that the only things you *really* like about NYC are the diner brekkies and Maureen Dowd's Op-Eds. Could that be really all that you like in the city that supposedly has everything, the city that some think to be the most exciting in the world (whatever that means)?? Keep up the good work Thanks Troy. I will remember that about people from Adelaide. There are some other things I like about New York, but I have to be honest and say that the best things about the place for me are the brekkies and Maureen Dowd's OpEds. And I haven't thought her latest ones were all that good, so maybe soon I'll just like the brekkies. There is not a lot here that can't be found elsewhere. I'm even told the noise of car horns honking is louder in Bombay. I do think that New York is exciting on the first visit, but after you've been here a while it all becomes a bit to nerve-making. A young woman commented to me in the street today (people often talk to you in the streets here - it's maybe their only non-work related human contact in the day), "I have a love hate relationship with this city". I know exactly what she meant. We'd both just had to leap out of the way of a cab running a red light. Life here is not a soothing experience. Anthony of Malaysian Mail emailed: The toilet paper cake was just too tempting to pass. Interesting and very amusing what it takes to amuse those weirdos over there. I have Bungy Jumped on more than one occasion and found it gives a tremendous adrenaline rush, I believe the next best thing to sex without having sex. "Clayton's Sex" perhaps? But, try as I might , I cannot get a mental picture of Bungy Sex that you referred to in your article. But then I am not a New Yorker either. Anthony, I think you should offer to write the Bungee Sex ads! You could borrow from the Fosters ads as well. There are definite possibilities here. |