Tribune. At the beginning of February, a sequence from the television program “Touche pas à mon poste! “, broadcast on January 31, on C8, conveying transphobic remarks caused a scandal on social networks.
The subject of the debate: a new pregnant emoji proposed by Apple. “Do you realize the importance of the United States and American culture today? Because of the Americans, on your passport, you can put “neither male nor female”! », protests Matthieu Delormeau. Gilles Verdez replies: “But where is this United States? »
We are indeed entitled to ask. For more than a century, the threat of Americanization has regularly stirred up the French public debate. Today, it is the “woke”, bearers of anti-racial, feminist and environmentalist struggles, who are regularly accused of Americanism. But why does the United States haunt our national imagination in this way, even though we are witnessing a gradual decline in American influence in the world?
The moral panics aroused by the introduction into Europe of cultural products from across the Atlantic are not new.
At the dawn of the XXe century, the success of American popular fiction caused a scandal. A few years later, it is the cinema that is called into question. Then come comics and video games.
Anti-American sentiment
In 1906, as in the 2000s, violent and poor quality content was denounced. Their incompatibility with European cultural norms is pointed out. This aversion is rooted in centuries-old anti-American sentiment, which has grown as the United States has grown, and which has resurfaced, intact, in the attacks on Wokism.
In an interview with France Culture, Brice Couturier, author of OK millennials !, (Editions de l’Observatoire, 2021), accuses American academics of having “oddly reconstituted knowledge” from the French Theory, and this “without having the intellectual bases” which were those of the French researchers.
A typically European view, according to historian Rob Kroes: “In their way of perceiving history and tradition, Americans show a characteristic talent for cultural dissolution, mixed with an ingenious nonconformity, which European observers understand as a cultural deficiency. » (If You’ve Seen One, You’ve Seen the Mall. Europeans and American Mass CultureUniversity of Illinois Press, 1996, untranslated).
You have 59.63% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.
Tribune. At the beginning of February, a sequence from the television program “Touche pas à mon poste! “, broadcast on January 31, on C8, conveying transphobic remarks caused a scandal on social networks.
The subject of the debate: a new pregnant emoji proposed by Apple. “Do you realize the importance of the United States and American culture today? Because of the Americans, on your passport, you can put “neither male nor female”! », protests Matthieu Delormeau. Gilles Verdez replies: “But where is this United States? »
We are indeed entitled to ask. For more than a century, the threat of Americanization has regularly stirred up the French public debate. Today, it is the “woke”, bearers of anti-racial, feminist and environmentalist struggles, who are regularly accused of Americanism. But why does the United States haunt our national imagination in this way, even though we are witnessing a gradual decline in American influence in the world?
The moral panics aroused by the introduction into Europe of cultural products from across the Atlantic are not new.
At the dawn of the XXe century, the success of American popular fiction caused a scandal. A few years later, it is the cinema that is called into question. Then come comics and video games.
Anti-American sentiment
In 1906, as in the 2000s, violent and poor quality content was denounced. Their incompatibility with European cultural norms is pointed out. This aversion is rooted in centuries-old anti-American sentiment, which has grown as the United States has grown, and which has resurfaced, intact, in the attacks on Wokism.
In an interview with France Culture, Brice Couturier, author of OK millennials !, (Editions de l’Observatoire, 2021), accuses American academics of having “oddly reconstituted knowledge” from the French Theory, and this “without having the intellectual bases” which were those of the French researchers.
A typically European view, according to historian Rob Kroes: “In their way of perceiving history and tradition, Americans show a characteristic talent for cultural dissolution, mixed with an ingenious nonconformity, which European observers understand as a cultural deficiency. » (If You’ve Seen One, You’ve Seen the Mall. Europeans and American Mass CultureUniversity of Illinois Press, 1996, untranslated).
You have 59.63% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.