The Glorification of the French Woman

Louise and I were a bit intimidated to present on the statue of Joan of Arc in the Snite Museum after we presumed that our presentation could turn out to be a bit boring for our classmates whom had already heard Joan analyzed a hundred times over. We approached Ms. Hoyt at the museum with the question on how the keep the presentation relevant. Meeting with Ms. Hoyt was incredibly helpful; we wouldn’t have found half the information on the statue that we needed had we not been pointed in the right direction. The most intriguing point made was the connection between the statue and the French National Front Party leader Marie Le Pen. The reason I enjoyed learning so much about Le Pen was due to the fact that much of this course has been focused on glorifying French culture and French women, whereas to me, Le Pen served as a negative example of French nationalism.

            After analyzing so many different French women such as Coco Chanel, Edith Piaf, and Joan of Arc, I was surprised by Marie Le Pen because while she demonstrated the same amount of passion in her love of France as her counterparts, she seemed a little too nationalistic for her own good. Le Pen’s negative, xenophobic stance on immigration has earned her a lot of criticism both in France and from other politicians around Europe who encourage diversity and accept immigration. Le Pen’s intentions seem less noble than Joan’s were in their respective fights to expel foreigners, thus it was hard for me to respect her as a representation of French women, especially as one that likens herself to a martyred Saint.