Le Bon Sauvage: The Origins of One of the Worst Racial Slurs Found in the French Language
Photo by Jake Nackos on Unsplash
Photo par Jake Nackos sur Unsplash
Freya Abbas
(FR) Le 30 août 2019, la marque de parfums française mondialement réputée, Christian Dior, avait posté une publicité pour la réintroduction d’un de leurs parfums classiques sur Twitter. Le parfum a été nommé « Sauvage » et la publicité utilisait l’imagerie amérindienne. Dior a été immédiatement réprimandé pour son racisme. L’utilisation de « sauvage » comme une insulte raciale peut être retracée à l’histoire coloniale française et était utilisée pour opprimer les peuples autochtones depuis des siècles. L’histoire de cette insulte raciale est examinée dans cet article en analysant la manière dont elle avait capté l’imagination des philosophes et des écrivains français et s’est poursuivie dans la publicité moderne.
As the air slowly fills with the gentle strumming of a guitar, viewers are mesmerized by majestic shots of the Canyonlands in Southeastern Utah. The landscape instantly evokes nostalgia for those who grew up fascinated by the Wild West. There are no people in sight until we are presented with a solitary dancer, dressed in regalia, standing at the edge of a picturesque ancient cliff. The man who emerges next, taking in the scene, is none other than Johnny Depp. He wears a cowboy hat, leather boots, and a serape draped around his shoulders. A Native woman observes from nearby, her head covered by a wolf pelt. The minute-long commercial concludes with its star announcing the name of Christian Dior's new fragrance, Sauvage, in a French accent that female viewers are supposed to find irresistible.
It is well-known that activists use social media to criticize public figures if they express racist or hateful ideas. No amount of wealth or influence makes a celebrity untouchable. With this in mind, it becomes perplexing that a multimillion-dollar brand like Dior would risk ruining its reputation over a single commercial. Yet, that is what happened. On August 30th, the “Sauvage commercial” was released on the company’s Twitter page. The backlash started almost instantly, with Indigenous Twitter users pointing out that “savage” is one of the most notoriously used slurs in colonial history; and that saying it in French does not make it any better. Under enormous pressure to respond, Dior removed the commercial from both Twitter and YouTube. While it appeared to be a swift victory for Indigenous activists against a large corporation, not everyone got the message. Johnny Depp fans were among the most vocal in defending the name of the perfume. They were quick to point out that Dior consulted an Indigenous organization, Americans for Indian Opportunity (AIO), while creating their commercial. However, it was later discovered that Dior did not properly consult AIO, as evidenced by a Facebook post on the AIO’s page five days after the incident.
This incident is not just a marketing blunder for advertisers to be warned about. It gives us the opportunity to examine a dehumanizing slur throughout the long and grotesque French colonial history. To begin understanding this history, we must first start by discussing the French explorer Jacques Cartier. Most historians agree that Cartier was the first French man to explore what we now call Canada. He charted the area around the St. Lawrence River from 1534 to 1542 and, on his travels, he visited the Iroquoian village of Hochelaga, which is present-day Montréal. Cartier’s accounts compare the Natives to children, saying that they live in a “wild state” close to nature and describing them as uncultivated “young people”. He also kidnapped several Native villagers, including some young children, and took them back to France to present to King Francis I. Such kidnappings by European explorers were not uncommon, as Europe began to exhibit shows and human zoos in the 16th century, which featured people taken from their colonies who experienced dehumanizing mistreatment.
The “noble savage” or bon sauvage archetype captured both French and European literary imagination. Even if the exact term wasn’t used, the image it conjured was heavily drawn upon. Jean-Jacques Rousseau used the concept in his writings about human nature, believing that human beings who live in wild, so-called primitive states are morally superior because they are uncorrupted by institutions. Michel de Montaigne described the Tupinambà people of Brazil as “pure and innocent wild fruits.” Some may ask why the “noble savage” is such a bad stereotype. After all, it seems better than the depiction of a ruthless barbarian. However, this stereotype is extremely damaging in that it does not recognize Indigenous societies as complex, with rich and diverse cultural traditions of their own. Like all other racial stereotypes, this oversimplification strips the stereotyped group of their humanity. At best, when translated to English, sauvage means “wild.” Clearly, it is a word that is meant to describe animals, not people.
Dior’s campaign is nothing new. Ferris State University in Michigan houses the Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia, which contains many more examples of how racial stereotyping has been used throughout history, especially in advertising. The museum specializes in collecting artifacts with racist caricatures of African American people, and then sorting them into common archetypes. It has identified “the mammy caricature,” a subservient slave woman, and the “picaninny,” an African American child with exaggerated facial features. Over time, the museum has also categorized stereotypes about Native Americans. There is the classic savage: a ruthless, bloodthirsty warrior. There is also the “Indian maiden,” one of many examples of stereotypes rooted in the oppression of Indigenous women.
From sports mascots to Halloween costumes, inaccurate depictions of Indigenous people can still be seen virtually everywhere in modern culture. To understand how these media representations can have dire consequences in society, simply take a look at the statistics for missing and murdered Indigenous women or at the fact that Indigenous women are at a greater risk for sexual assault than non-Indigenous women in Canada. There are also plenty of other statistics, such as those about mass incarceration rates or police brutality. All Canadians should be outraged and feel inclined to do whatever they can to stop contributing to the legacy of colonialism. We have a duty to educate ourselves on the first people of this land and to listen to their voices without speaking over them. Most of all, we need to remember that it is going to take a lot of time and effort to make up for centuries of oppression. If the racism of the French perfume brand has taught us anything, it is that we still have a long way to go.