Marianne has been the personification of France since the French Revolution. The artist of this sticker has called in “Mariannes De France.” The artist has drawn one of the women in the traditional style of Marianne (the one on the far left with a cap and exposed breast) and at least one of the three women as a seemingly Black woman traditionally non-western clothing (the Marianne in the back). By taking the personification of French identity and French beauty and showing that it is a range of women, including women of color, the artist makes a statement that immigrant women and Black women in France are just as French as European women. By drawing a Black woman in non-Western clothing, the artist also asserts that to be French one does not have to assimilate. This is a stark contrast to French nationalism, including the focus of the French government on preserving the French language and culture.
Marianne as the logo of the Police Prefecture.
“Liberty Leading the People” by Eugene Delacroix personifies French ideals of freedom as a woman and can be interpreted as one of the early and most famous representations of Marianne.
A modern Marianne, this advertisement for Lancome personifies French beauty as a white woman. These traditional but clearly still powerful ideas of Frenchness, beauty, and Marianne serve as an example of the foil that the sticker above is purposefully differentiating itself from.
Works Cited
Marianne. elysee.fr. (2015, September 24). Retrieved August 22, 2022, from https://www.elysee.fr/en/french-presidency/marianne
