#it must really hurt to be constantly told that your worth lies in producing sons when your husband won't even touch you!

[marzipanandminutiae]

Hello! I loved your writings about the french revolution and how its inappropriate to idealize it as a socialist uprising that ended inequality, and how Marie Antoinette has been unjustly vilified. That’s why I really want you to watch this video: https://popular-c-c.tumblr.com/post/182180796160/i-uhhhh-got-a-little-heated-about-sofia-coppolas and tell me your opinion on it. The video is mostly about the depiction of Marie Antoinette in Coppola’s movie, which the reviewer hates. It more or less says that Marie deserves no sympathy for living an opulent lifestyle at the cost of poor peasants. Both the reviewer and many in the notes heap a lot of vitriol towards Marie, saying she was callous, selfish and uncaring. I would want to hear your opinion on it. 

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Oh boy.

So, first of all, I’m not a Marie Antoinette stan. I try not to be an anybody stan, in terms of history, especially not monarchs. Humans are complicated, and humans who make decisions from the perspective of an absolute hereditary ruler are DEFINITELY going to do things a citizen of a 21st-century republic finds appalling.

But I do think there’s a lot of misunderstanding happening in this video.

Misunderstanding on the part of the reviewer, who thinks the point of the Coppola movie is to make MA out to be a flawless #girlboss- which I never got from it at all. Misunderstanding on the part of some of the media outlets the reviewer cites- I don’t think I’ve cringed so hard in weeks as I did at seeing “Marie Antoinette was super-feminist!!!!” headlines. Just a lot of missing the point all around

I found the movie to be, overall, a pretty balanced take. yes, it’s from her perspective, but the viewer already KNOWS the French people are starving. it’s the understood undercurrent beneath all the balls and shopping sprees, the construction of the Hameau de la Reine and the wacky all-night parties. I found myself equally dazzled by all the glitz and gritting my teeth over it. you know where it’s coming from, and you know where the story is going. I don’t think Coppola intended it to be an uncomplicated Yas Queen portrayal

MA denies ever having said “let them eat cake” as she’s being fussed over by multiple servants. the message I got there was definitely “it’s not as bad as the press made out, but...um....”

I also think it DOES matter whether she said it. or, more specifically, the real historical truth of her words and actions. not because I want her to be held up as a feminist icon or excused for everything. but because she has become a cultural symbol of selfish opulence, and her husband hasn’t

how many times has M*lania Tr*mp been called “Marie Antoinette?” I can’t even count. her husband has been compared to MA, too. but not once have I ever heard “oh, that’s so Louis XVI of them!” not once has a quote attributed to him become pop culture shorthand for spoiled, out-of-touch rich people. he hurt his people just as much as she did, if not more. and yet, he’s not the one we use in our critiques and caricatures

he did every bit as much to bankrupt the country by getting involved in the American Revolution as she did with her “retail therapy.” and I think it says a lot about misogyny in pop history that she’s the one we pin all the blame on

(now, I do want to be clear re: my previous posts- I’m not a FrRev scholar. and obviously, yes, the people had legitimate grievances against the monarchy and things urgently needed to change. what I’ve said in the past- and what I still think -is that idolizing the French Revolution is a mistake, because it really didn’t end well for anybody)

(also they had an emperor again less than a decade after things quieted down)

(it’s just not a great model for a revolution, no matter how you look at it)