Non Threatening Boys*: Emily in Paris, Shipping, and the Dawn of the Man Wars
"Is the show’s objectification of men so bad? I don’t think so."
Words: Janan Jama
The second part of the fourth season of Netflix’s Emily in Paris has landed, and most fans probably mainlined it in a day. For those blissfully unaware, it follows ambitious American Emily Cooper (Lily Collins) as she navigates PR hijinks at work and romantic woes in the French capital. It’s perfect glossy entertainment to switch your brain off to – though it is a bit of a Bechdel failure, to put it mildly.
The men in Emily’s orbit are inextricable from her story, either as colleague, client or love interest. And for a show that is entrenched in the world of luxury goods, high fashion and French fine dining, it’s really the menu of men that seems to be its primary plot vehicle.
This choice to wash Paris as a city of love and luxe, by spotlighting the higher class arrondissements of the 5th and 6th, only adds to this sense of indulgence when and where the men of the show are concerned. To borrow a Cher-ism: “a man is a luxury” or to borrow an Emily-ism, a ‘petit plaisir’ or ‘a little treat’. However, if it thinks that men are only supplementary to the Paris plot, the show is kidding itself. In fact, the relationships are central to the construction of Emily’s story – especially now that she is set to move to Rome with her new beau Marcello.
Similar to Sex and the City with its young glamourous Manhattanites and their high-end hedonism, Emily in Paris exists in a world where PRs wear haute couture and money doesn’t seem to exist, even though there’s patently loads of it.
Both shows are created by Darren Star, who once said that the success of Sex and the City lay in its frank and, for the time, shocking objectification of men. Of this, Star said: “We’ve all seen guys sit around and talk about sex and it’s not fun or funny but to see women do it… This is about women objectifying men and having fun with that.”
While it does it in a different way, Emily in Paris is no stranger to objectifying or typifying its male characters, either. The fourth season plays on a classic pop culture trope, where the action prompts fans to create camps for their fave. Take Gilmore Girls, where fans viciously defended their opinions on which boyfriend – Jess, Dean or Logan – was 'the one' for Rory Gilmore. Or Twilight with its near-tribalistic on-and off-screen fan face-offs in 'Team Jacob or Edward' for Bella.
With a storied history as a TV writer, Star seems to be invoking something similar, and is encouraging viewers to have their fun. And with a year to organise, there will be time to defend your stance on Gabriel, Marcello or even ex Alfie as 'endgame' for Emily.
Team Gabriel reps a suave French restaurateur, whose passion for his craft is an essential part of his allure. His calm charm and history with Emily make him ‘the safe one’. However, cultural differences, prioritising a pregnant Camille and leaving Emily high up on the slopes in Megève were the end of them – until Italian Marcello rescues her from the mountains.
Marcello is characterised in the show as ‘the one that can change Emily’ from her social media-obsessive ways to someone who can live both simply and in the present. Meanwhile, Alfie, Emily’s British ex and French language classmate, is typified simply as ‘the one that got away’ and may still have a chance.
It’s clear now, 4 years deep, that in Emily’s world, romance is all about romanticisation – itself a process of objectification. That is precisely what makes Emily in Paris such an easy watch: its simplicity, lack of nuance and interrogation of identity. Even Julien, Emily’s camp colleague and Alfie are rarely discussed or identified as Black – maybe the 30-minute episode runtime leaves little to be challenged or, more likely, from the show’s point of view, that would just spoil the fun.
Is the show’s objectification of men so bad? I don’t think so. As silly as the show is, it follows that how it deals with its male characters is enjoyably simple too. Either as pawns or walking plot vehicles, they are flattened all so that the strongest opinion you can have is “I like Marcello, I do not like Gabriel”.
Considering that so many shows sideline women in the same way, maybe this is the subversion that Star had always hoped for. And with Emily in Paris already renewed for season five, it’s likely we will see more male-generated theatrics. But if season 4 has shown us anything, it’s that the show has simply boiled down to “choose your fave!” And to be honest, it’s refreshing that there’s no real reason to engage harder than that.
Non Threatening Boys* is Polyester’s platform for exploring all things masculine. To read more of our work, visit our Dollhouse platform, and subscribe to get Non Threatening Boys* directly to your inbox every other week.