Emily Cooper is a Parisian’s Nightmare
By: Mehnaz Abdulrahman
Emily in Paris – a show with no diversity and lack of cultural knowledge
With the pandemic and online university classes, there is one thing that all students do without fail, and no, it’s not attending online courses. It’s binge-watching Netflix shows. Recently a show that has been trending on Netflix Canada and is super popular among many youngsters is Emily in Paris. At first, I was not too interested in watching the show. However, with the hype on it all over social media, I decided to give in. And now I have a lot of thoughts.
Recap
Before we begin, let’s recap about the show. Emily in Paris is a show about a girl from Chicago who works at a marketing firm. Due to some unforeseen circumstances, she is allowed the opportunity to go to Paris and represent America in the Parisian marketing firm Savoir. This show is highlights Emily’s time in Paris revolving around a new job and lifestyle.
The lead character Emily Cooper is a nightmare. She is the basic entitled white girl who thinks her American way of life is, correct and everyone else is wrong. This is shown right at the beginning of the first episode, where she states that the ground floor not being counted as the first floor is “weird.” She came to Paris to make a living. One of her goals is to impress her boss, but her behaviour does the total opposite, and I don’t blame her boss for not liking her.
@dilettamenta Emily in Paris fever #emilyinparis #netflix
Everything wrong with Emily in Paris
She comes to Paris, not knowing how to speak French. That is the first impression of Emily, where her boss starts despising her. Emily didn’t come to France with the idea that things would be different from Chicago. But instead, she decided that everyone should adapt to her comfort. One of the main reasons Emily’s behaviour in Paris affected me a lot is that she does not respect their culture and way of life. Even if it is different from what she is generally used to. Me being a person of colour, her behaviour was offensive because I would expect the same respect for my culture that I give to others. Emily lacks the basic characteristic of respect. Whether this is how Americans act or not, it gives the wrong impression of the tourists that come to Paris.
Unplanned posts on social media can be good or bad (Netflix)
Emily’s profession is also a very confusing part of this show. She does many tasks that may not even apply to marketing, such as being responsible for a celebrity who comes to Paris. Where she fails to take care of them.
Emily comes to work for a company that markets for Parisian fashion and luxury brands but has zero knowledge of luxury brands. Her aim is to make the brand mainstream even though that is not their intention.
Also, being a so-called marketing person, Emily has no plans for the content she will post. For example, in episode seven of the show, she finds a dress a celebrity wore on the floor. She takes a picture of that and decides it’s good for a professional Instagram page. Without approval from her boss.
Even as an “influencer,” Emily does not plan out her posts ahead of time. She goes with the flow, which is okay for a personal page. Still, if you are branding yourself or are working for a marketing agency, you need to have more of an outline before posting. As you need to make sure everything is approved and appropriate for the brand.
Overall View
Emily in Paris is a series that shows Paris from a white girl’s perspective, but Paris isn’t all croissants and cafes. There is more personality to it, which has been overshadowed by Emily in Paris by only showing Paris through fashion, wine and restaurant. The overall series has a lot of aspects that don’t have clarity. However, the show is watchable; it has a few funny scenes and a nice aesthetic, but other than that, a lot of the things in the series doesn’t make a lot of sense to the general audience, such as myself.