To Flaubert, to whom I owe everything, and to
M. Le Quintrec, to whom I owe Flaubert.
Studying
stereotypes is mostly about dispelling myths. One of the most enduring ones,
and possibly most damaging, is the idea that stereotypes are a truth
universally acknowledged. They are not. They are certainly not the truth, and
they are not often acknowledged. Nor are they universal. Or logical.
“BLONDES:
plus chaudes que les brunes (v.brunes)
(…)
BRUNES:
plus chaudes que les blondes (v.blondes)”[1]
You
can just picture it, even if your mind’s eye requires a couple of top-hats in
order to imagine two men of Flaubert’s time. Man-in-a-top-hat A will mention a
woman Man-in-a-top-hat B doesn’t know, explaining she is blond/ brown-haired.
Man-in-a-top-hat B by way of response will make a sniggering sexual comment, because
it is easy, because it is expected, because he doesn’t bloody know the first
thing about the woman, apart from the fact that she has a gender, a sex. From
having a sex to having sex, this is the kind of connection your brain barely
needs a synapse for.
There
are all sorts of advantages to using such a stereotype for M-I-A-T-H B:
a) It maintains the
conversation on a very well-trodden path where it is unlikely he will say anything
new or surprising (and unusual opinions are extremely dangerous things in
conversation, they force you to take a side without knowing if your
co-conversationalist is going to agree with you, they expose you to the risk of
being rebuked and called ignorant, all sorts of nasty things).
b) It gives the
impression that our hero is talking with the authority of a man who has
extensive and detailed knowledge of LOTS of women, he studied them all
throughout his extensive sex-life (men in top hats love having an extensive
sex-life), he has done scientific measurements and he can now reveal to M-I-A-T-H
A the secret link between a woman’s hair-colour and her sexual appetite. He is
a man of the world. He knows these things. In the conversation, he is winning.
And
all this at the expense of barely half a thought! In brain economy terms, this
is excellent value for money.
Of
course MIATH B is not explicitly thinking all of this when he makes his
comment, but safety and the appearance of knowledge is what he is looking for. However,
as he is speaking, MIATH B is probably thinking of one or two specific examples
of blond/brown haired women who were particularly saucy (not that he necessarily
met them, but, someone told him…): as far as he is concerned, he is telling the
truth. And he will be telling the truth as well, two weeks later, when he makes
the same comment about a woman from the opposite end of the hair-colour
spectrum.
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