Baroness Nadine de Rothschild, the widow of deceased banker Edmond de Rothschild, has denounced the MeToo movement, attacking it as making men “soft” and women “charmless”.
The MeToo movement has had a disastrous effect on both men and women, Baroness Nadine de Rothschild has argued, denouncing the movement as having left men “soft” and women “charmless”.
De Rothschild is the latest major figure in French high society to denounce the movement, with a number of influential women in the country banding together back in 2018 to denounce the movement as an attack on male “gallantry”.
In an interview with Le Parisien, De Rothschild — who married into the powerful banking family years after running away from home and working in a car factory and then as a model — described the MeToo movement as having had a major negative effect on both sexes.
“[Today’s men are] too soft, don’t know how to take risks, don’t dare to say anything anymore,” she opined, while she says modern women “totally lack charm” as a result of the movement.
In a separate interview, De Rothschild emphasised the value of charm for women, saying that without it, even those with education will not succeed.
“There are women who have all the diplomas on earth but who don’t succeed because they are bad-natured and are in a sulk from the early morning,” she said, but adding for the sake of clarity that charm is a separate quality that should not be conflated with beauty or the ability to seduce.
“Charm is about smiling and being in a good mood,” she described. “Beauty has nothing to do with it… I get up in a good mood, I go to bed in a good mood, no matter what problems I might have.”
Though her criticisms of the movement, along with modern-day feminism as a whole, are likely to anger many of the country’s progressives, de Rothschild’s view is not all that uncommon in France.
Senior figures from across French society have not been shy about denouncing the #MeToo movement, with many seeing it as an attack on the country’s culture and way of life.
One of these individuals is actress Catherine Deneuve, who led a large group of notable women in France in resisting the movement back in 2018.
“Rape is a crime. But insistent or clumsy flirting is not a crime, nor is gallantry a chauvinist aggression,” a letter penned by the actress along with over 100 other notable women from entertainment, publishing and academia read.
“Men have been punished summarily, forced out of their jobs when all they did was touch someone’s knee or try to steal a kiss,” the letter continued, describing the movement to cancel men for minor sexual infractions as a “witch-hunt” that threatens sexual freedom.
“We agree that sexual violence is a crime but insistent or clumsy chatting up is not an offence,” the letter also read. “Instead of helping women this frenzy to send these (male chauvinist) ‘pigs’ to the abattoir actually helps the enemies of sexual liberty – religious extremists and the worst sort of reactionaries.”
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