The social construction of the parisienne. Reflections in contemporary popular publishing on a historical icon of feminility

The image of the Parisienne incorporates values and meanings close to those ideas of progress, style, natural elegance and femininity required by women in the modern age. This image does not reference a ‘pacified’ femininity but appears at first glance to be ‘breaking the mould’, aiming to supplant the image of the traditional woman and bring radical innovation to customs and lifestyles after the ‘prudish’ Victorian era. However, beyond the ‘brazen’ surface and liberal customs, the Parisienne is a shared and communicated social construction (Berger and Luckmann 1966), contiguous with the traditional vision of the feminine. A reading of some of the images and figures of this model, which occupies a minor editorial narrative ‘trend’, reveals continuity with old gender stereotypes resistant to the many social transformations the twentieth century has witnessed.