Le Buzz: Beyond the French News

This article is in English. Click here to read it in French.

Last Friday, 8 March, International Women’s Day was celebrated. And so this week, women have pride of place in the Buzz.

First of all, we’ll talk about the French politician Christine Lagarde – currently the director of the International Monetary Fund – and her exceptional journey. Then, a close-up on Louis Vuitton’s Autumn-Winter 2013-2014 women’s collection. Finally, we will welcome the arrival of Natalie Nougayrède, the first woman at the head of the French newspaper Le Monde.

Christine Lagarde, a French woman’s incredible journey

With the occasion of International Women’s Day, on last Friday, 8 March, Christine Lagarde has shown her support for women in interviews with the French economic newspaper La Tribune and the BBC World News chain. According to Christine Lagarde, women are “gaining visibility but not everywhere,” and “solidarity between women is strong and efficient. It must be furthered, leaving none behind,” she began.

According to Forbes, Christine Lagarde is one of the 10 most powerful women in the world. This French woman, always impeccably dressed and a former synchronised swimming champion, has led an exceptional professional life.

First a lawyer at the heart of the prestigious and powerful legal firm Baker & McKenzie, she then worked in politics – notably in the post of Finance minister under the presidency of Nicolas Sarkozy. Since 2011, she has been at the head of the IMF (the International Monetary Fund).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VnlvXhlUT0

Interviewed by Dee Dee Myers, ex-White House spokeswoman in the Clinton presidency, Christine Lagarde said she believes that “women shouldn’t imitate men”. She added that the 2008 crisis could have been avoided or would have been different had there been a “Lehman Sister”, women having a developed sense of the notion of risk.

Do you think a world led by women be a better world?

We await your comment at the end of this article or on Twitter @MaVieFrancaise.

Chic or Shock? The film from the Louis Vuitton AW collection

A three-and-a-half-minute long film directed by Katie Grand and produced by James Limas for the fashion house Louis Vuitton has created an uproar in France. It features the top-model Cara Delevingne as well as other models, playing luxury Parisian prostitutes working the streets at night in the Pont Neuf quartier of Paris.

Behind-the-scenes photos from the runway show make it possible to make a link with the Autumn-Winter 2013-2014 collection which had been presented a few days beforehand.

While certain people applaud the artistic aspects of the film, others denounce “the degrading and demeaning cliché” as well as the lowering of women to the level of sexual objects. For several months, the Senate delegation for women’s rights and for equal opportunity between men and women has warned of the return of ‘porno-chic’ and objectification in advertising.

The communication agency Euro RSCG explains this phenomenon “by the very particular and complex logic of the luxury universe, linked to desire as well as a sexuality. The world of luxury is assimilated into a world of the construction of desire.”

Journalist with ELLE magazine, Sophie Fontanel, has applauded the artistic talent of the video, seeing in it the influence of Luis Buñuel, and asserting that it is therein making reference to the role of Catherine Deneuve in ‘Belle de Jour‘.

Nevertheless, as a columnist of the Tendance de Mode magazine who denounces the message conveyed by the images suggests: are “all means good – even selling yourself – in order to wear Louis Vuitton?”

What do you think? How does this video make you feel?

Don’t hesitate to share your comments at the end of this article or on Twitter @MaVieFrancaise.

Finally a woman at the head of the French Daily Newspaper Le Monde!

For the first time in its history, the prestigious newspaper Le Monde, which first started circulating in 1944, has appointed a woman as its director and editor-in-chief. This news has made a buzz in the French media. A woman at the head of a newspaper must be rare indeed if this information has to be spread by the entirety of the French press.

Congratulations to Natalie Nougayrède, the 46-year-old journalist, for this promotion.