BINGE WATCHING the TOTAL FANTASY of EMILY IN PARIS : BLURRING THE BOUNDARIES

I got hooked on Emily in Paris last year, and just binge watched the second season.  If anything the show is going a bit slow for me; I'm ready for the third season and don't want to wait.  Am I a fan? Well...

My first impression was that the writers were highly dependent on stereotypes of the French, especially the comparatively accepting attitude about sexuality outside of marriage compared to most Americans. That's why I'm posting this here at MISTRESS MANIFESTO BLOGSPOT.  There are just so very many Parisian Courtesans to cover, and though few modern women in this world live lives comparative to the Belle Epoch Courtesans, you can use the search feature in this blog to discover just how important France is to our subject. You can muse along with me. There isn't just lots of sex outside marriage and other seemingly committed relationships in this show, there is a blurring of the boundaries about what's personal and also what is unacceptable sexual harassment on the job.

Emily is a modern American girl, from Chicago, who also seems to have an unlimited budget for Paris fashion, some of it by my way of thinking quite unprofessional for the office. Also she seems to be happy most of the time and is constantly chronicling her adventures using her social media and personal cell phone to take photos proving it.  With that I figure she has little sense of privacy.

But OK, it's a fantasy that a girl who just graduated college working for an American marketing firm, could get this paid experiential or whatever it is she's doing at the firm, live in a small apartment - that she shares with the richest girl in China who is estranged from her family and busking - and afford all those clothes. Maybe they're gifts from some of the client companies?  She is cuteness unlimited, bopping around, and really making the most of her French experience. She manages to get on the nerves of her woman boss - a woman of a mysterious age but let's say she's 40-something and still hot. The work crew includes an openly gay black man who also wears loud colors like Emily does and also seems to otherwise be a stereotype of gay creatives. The office crew seem to go somewhere between agreeing with clients and influencing them to market, promote, and advertise their products and hone their reputations.  Meanwhile there are some conflicts because of Emily's American values. She never means to, being exuberant and helpful and sweet by nature, but she can ruffle feathers not knowing what the boundaries are, and she still seems to be surprised at how open about sexuality the French are.

Except that, when it comes to sex, Emily is an adventurer who doesn't know what to make of a client sending her sexy underwear as a suggestion or what to do since she just had the best sex of her life with a good woman friend's special man. So much forgiveness though! Can Emily chose between the friendship and what she wants and needs for herself?  And has this become the conflict of the show - to be a Parisian or remain an American when it comes to values?  Last season she had sex with a teenager not knowing he was so young. His mother found out and approved. It happens.

Her American boss has come to visit the office and is quickly appalled by the idea that an employee would have an affair with a client. Where does Emily stand on this? Does she accept it as a team player at the company or because she is a peon in the scheme of things?

I've had coworkers who were involved with the married boss. They were unmarried women who were not in relationships.  If everyone in the office didn't know it, they suspected it. And friends have fallen for someone at their job, jobs they intended to keep, and it was messy when it didn't work out. 

On the lighter side, I laughed out loud at some of the antics of this second season. I anticipate that at some point in the show Emily is going to be called back to America and she is not going to want to go. Don't we all want her to find true love?  Is refusing to have sex outside the relationship the test?  Would the chef she had great sex with ever consider opening a place in Chicago?

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