It is well known: mothers-in-law are cowhides, criminals have a dirty mouth, and the Chinese eat dogs. But where exactly do these stereotypes come from? Prejudices die so hard that we sometimes forget their origin. A collective work directed by Jeanne Guérout and Xavier Mauduit, History of prejudice (Les Arènes, 465 p., 24 euros), retraces the genealogy of these hasty and preconceived opinions. Its goal, which may seem heavily militant: to constitute a “kind of intellectual self-defense manual to help fight against sexism, homophobia, racism and discrimination”. Fortunately, the cheerful erudition of this collection makes you want to reconsider your received ideas. “In the United States, the cancel culture erases what could discriminate against a minority. But in doing so, it erases part of the story, observes Xavier Mauduit. Better to take prejudice head-on, even if it means making fun of it a little.” Anthology.
“The Russians need a strong man”
In 1843, the Marquis Adolphe de Custine wrote in his Letters from Russia : “It is not today that foreigners are surprised at the love of this people for their slavery.” Abolition of the political rights of the nobility by Peter the Great, installation of serfdom in the 16th century, cult of the leader under Stalin… Are the Russians condemned to autocracy?
Historical memory explains, at least in part, their apparent passivity: “The consent to absolute power of a large part of the Russians of the past, of the Soviets and of the Russians today cannot be dissociated from the use of violence and of arbitrariness that guide behavior and plead for strategies of avoidance, of burying politics and power as far as possible”, explains historian Sabine Dullin, specialist in the country. As for the destinies of the Russian reformers, it is not very engaging: “From Alexander II to Mikhail Gorbachev via Nikita Khrushchev, those who try to loosen the noose and liberalize society end badly, assassinated like the first or forced to resign for the next two.
Is the prejudice, for once, justified? “If some stereotypes seem outdated to us, the context gives others relevance, comments Xavier Mauduit. “Putin is a strong man, so the Russians need a strong man”: it’s hard to get rid of this idea, but it remains a prejudice.”
“Vaccines are dangerous for health”
Since its invention in 1796 by the Englishman Edward Jenner, vaccination has been controversial. It is then feared that it transmits diseases… and even, for the cow’s vaccine, that it causes horns to grow! Napoleon Bonaparte is one of its unexpected defenders. The emperor, who hoped to invade an England affected by smallpox, offered vaccination to his Grande Armée, quartered in Boulogne. Later, for the sake of promotion among his own population, he even had his son, the King of Rome, immunized.
But when vaccination became compulsory in England in 1870 (1853 for children), fierce protest arose. “Smear campaigns flooded Europe with newspapers and leaflets vilifying Jenner’s process,” says Jean-Noël Fabiani-Salmon. submit their children to the vaccination obligation. A century later, Louis Pasteur suffered the attacks of the “enrages”, opposed to his vaccine against rabies (1885). The French scientist and his students nevertheless contributed to lowering infant mortality (from 15% in 1900 to 0.37% in 2000).
“Black people smell strong” and “white people smell death”
In 1886, Dr Ernest Monin mentions, in his work The odors of the human body, the “ammoniacal and rancid” smell of black people. At the beginning of the 20th century, the Japanese doctor Buntaro Adachi symmetrically evoked that, “pungent and rancid”, of Europeans. Olfactory stereotypes that also apply to Germans, English, Jews… They are particularly present in the 19th century, when many positivist scientists were interested in body odours. At that time, Lavater’s theories on physiognomy (the study of a person’s temperament and character based on facial shape, features and expressions) made it “the unvarnished expression of the deepest nature “of an individual, recalls Eugénie Briot, perfume specialist.
How can the persistence of these prejudices be explained? The key would be above all scientific. As the historian points out, the human brain is indeed “designed to note differences, which fade with practice”. It gets used to our personal smell, as well as that of our home group. But he notices an effluvium deviating from the supposed norm. Hence our tendency to stigmatize odors perceived as foreign.
“The English are eccentric”
From the Middle Ages, the French represented the English as “proud, selfish, greedy and, already, bizarre people”. The Hundred Years’ War (1337-1453) left its mark… In the 19th century, almanacs mocked the paraphernalia of British travelers who ventured onto the continent: overcoat, fur cap, detailed road map, telescope, ointments , brushes. Serial novels, such as Jean de la Roche (1860) by Georges Sand, diffuse this image of eccentricity and strangeness.
Sketches make fun of the ugliness of English women, with their thinness, their oversized feet and their protruding teeth. As for the men, chubby and pot-bellied, they are accused of loving meat too much, of eating it raw and of being gluttons… Aren’t they nicknamed “Rosbifs”, in reference to their traditional dish, ” roast-beef”, or roast beef? John Bull, a typical Englishman, is a lover of good food and cigars. In the caricatures, his compatriots delight in the restaurants of the Palais Royal, famous for their gastronomic quality. “At a time when national stereotypes are characterized, the Englishman is characterized by his originality, with the figure of the dandy, of which Georges Brummel [NDLR : favori du prince de Galles, réputé pour son élégance vestimentaire, 1778-1840] or Oscar Wilde are specimens,” notes historian Diana Cooper-Richet.