EMILY IN PARIS : DEPICTION OF A MISTRESS IN A NETFLIX SERIES

 EMILY IN PARIS

The series takes place in contemporary Paris, France.  An all American young woman, Emily, who has a Masters degree and a career and boyfriend in Chicago, goes to Paris to join the team - as she sees it - of a firm that is considered Old School - and works to promote exclusivity of their client's products. Emily is brilliant and ambitious, but she encounters generational and cultural clashes.

Does this series rely too heavily on stereotypes of American values versus French values?

Perhaps.

Emily is no virgin. She had a serious relationship in America. She has affairs in France. French men have no issues with having sex with the American even if doing so is potentially complicated.  She isn't up for the bluntness of the man who tells her outright he wants American p****. She learns her female boss, who says she is a woman not a feminist, and that expectations of happiness are not realistic, is the mistress of a wealthy client Emily is trying to woo in business.  Her co-workers clues her in that his wife knows. She is startled and doesn't know what to do when a gift shows up for her at work, the most expensive lingerie in the world, from this same man.  And what about sex with a good friend's boyfriend? Or sex with someone who proves to be underage?  Is it funny when the kid's mother only confronts her to know if her son is good at sex?

Perhaps the most interesting dilemma she finds herself in is how to turn down the proposition implied in the lingerie and keep the client, who clearly finds her American brashness charming. His wife knows about this too.  She tells Emily that she approves and thinks she would be a good mistress for her husband.

You may want to read around Paris and France in MISTRESS MANIFESTO BLOGSPOT, using the tags beneath the posts or going through the archives here.

Though I do think the French attitude about Mistresses and Sex in general has long been different than the American, I'm personally sitting on the fence when it comes to this Netflix series.  Are you a fan?  Why?  Let me know in Comments!

Missy