Racism. Always has been and still remains one of the most present problems in media from Brooklyn 9-9 to Emily In Paris. Release of the latter, in fact, became a standing event.
Emily In Paris, is a show released on Netflix about an American woman who moves to Paris for work. From the first sight it doesn’t convey negative associations, however, after a few episodes the theme of ignorance and racism is brought to front. Emily herself, people who she encounters and the city of Paris, representations of all enforce clichés and American perspective as supreme to other cultures. Almost every single episode promotes extreme intolerance and arrogance.
Surprisingly, it starts with representation of Paris itself. Emily’s life in Paris covers exclusively common stereotypes about France, meaning “cheating, croissants and couture” (De Oliveira & Smith, 2022), while omitting important cultural characteristics that make Paris look Paris. Some of the most disturbing issues in the show is the city’s unrealistic portrayal. Paris is known to be an extremely multicultural city with various neighbourhoods; however, Emily in Paris mainly shows white people with a few exceptions. Real Parisians referred to scenes of walking down the street without an Arab, Asian or black in the background as “not Paris”, and commenting that French do start early and work long hours to contradict long lunch breaks with wine presented in the show (De Oliveira & Smith, 2022).
Another disturbing issue is that while uprising American culture, the show also insults other cultures, namely the example of Ukrainian culture in second season. Representation of Ukrainian shoplifter migrant woman, who appeared in a single episode and wasn’t intended to contribute to the story development, basically was there to bring yet another insulting stereotype. In fact, it caused a scandal that even involved Ukrainian culture minister who had to react after the issue was brought up by a number of Ukrainian influencers.
Still, despite having such unpleasant representations and having experienced a hate wave from the audience, the show was extended to third season. This fact frankly suggests that even such disturbing and intolerant things as humiliating a whole culture can be omitted if the product sells. This is cruelty of media companies that are solely oriented for profit, instead of taking account of morality and tolerance that can be well claimed one of the central concerns of the modern world.
References
De Oliveira, A., & Smith, S. (2022). Cheating, croissants, couture: Young Parisians revile cliché-packed 'Emily in Paris'. NBC News. Retrieved April 28, 2022, from https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/emily-paris-angers-real-life-parisians-rcna11889
Hi Lisa, I really like that you discuss this issue and illustrate it on an example like Emily in Paris series, because millions of people have watched it, thus it has quite an influence on large amount of viewers. I also think that the portrayals of Paris life and generally Paris were very distorted, unrealistic and too glamorized. Also, the inappropriate scene with the Ukrainian woman was totally unnecessary and it was not even funny. However, as you mentioned, I think the series will go on like nothing happened because it had a big success on the Netflix scene.
ReplyDeleteHi! I did watch a single episode so I am glad that you described the specific stereotypes that appear in the show. You actually made me think about watching the show as I want to see how bizarre the stereotypes are. But from what you wrote I can imagine the portrayal of Paris, as it appears also in lot of movies. I think that the film and tv show creators do not realise how offensive it can be and that they are actually supporting racism with these stereotypical portrayals. Thank you for mentioning the show and this issue in general. I hope that this problem will be solved soon.
ReplyDeleteHello Lisa!
ReplyDeleteI remember being shocked by the fact Netflix allowed Emily in Paris to get another season.
I totally agree with you, companies keep putting money above the issues, unless people bring attention to them. Also, I believe some companies are “woke” only when they see profit from it.
Emily in Paris is disrespectful mainly toward French and other European/Slavic cultures (aside from other issues), which are not a popular topic in the representation discourses right now. Since Emily in Paris doesn’t bring much outrage from the target audience due to these issues being less popular topic in the media right now, Netflix will keep renewing this show for more seasons because it still brings in the money. They will keep humiliating/disrespecting these cultures and get as much money as possible from the show, until people will stop letting them to get away with it so easily and as the result, company will stop gaining profit from it.