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Why Marie-Antoinette is the Victim of Gossip
Why Marie-Antoinette is the Victim of Gossip and Rumour
Libby Mullen (MR)
Marie-Antoinette was a victim of misogynistic gossip and scandal. During her time in power, she was the subject of vile sexual rumours and objectification.
Marie-Antoinette was the fifteenth child of Maria Theresa, and she was simply seen as a commodity to be traded. She was married very young, merely 15 years old, indicating how she was inexperienced and not used to French court life. She was further criticised for her age: upon arriving in France on 14th May 1770 Louis XV commented on how child-like she looked, and how she did not have the full voluptuous figure of a woman. This demonstrates from the beginning Marie-Antoinette was exploited and used by the men around her.
Once married to Louis XVI she did not escape criticism or malicious rumours. She did not give birth to her first child until 1778, meaning there were eight years in her marriage to Louis XVI without her bearing children, due to the issues Louis XVI had in producing an heir. This led to Marie-Antoinette being ridiculed and embarrassed, despite the problems with conceiving not being her fault. She even received criticism from her own mother who complained about the time taken for her to produce an heir, indicating how she consistently met with humiliation and criticism for her inability to fulfil what was seen as a queen’s main duty.
Rumours about Marie-Antoinette’s sexual promiscuity were topics of gossip and scandal in France. She was rumoured to have had multiple affairs with both men and women. These rumours and obsessions with her sexual practices indicate the degrading, demeaning, and unfair image of Marie-Antoinette that they created (at least there was no online social media in those days…). Marie-Antoinette is further linked to the infamous comment, “Let them eat cake”, which she did not actually say, further indicating how this image of Marie-Antoinette of being shallow and out of touch is false. The main criticism of her concerned her profligate spending habits - she was even given the nickname ‘Madame Deficit’ - yet this criticism is exaggerated and taken out of context. As Queen of France her role was to make public appearances and create an image of magnificence Image: Portrait of Marie-Antoinnette by Elizabeth Vigee-Lebrun, 1783
and splendour, which required lavish spending. Marie-Antoinette’s whole purpose at court was to produce heirs and look beautiful, and hence spending so much on accessories and clothes and Court spectacle was practically a job requirement. Furthermore, the major issues with the French economy were not caused by Marie-Antoinette’s expenses, but rather the extremely financially draining Seven Years’ War and the American War of Independence that France was involved in at the time.
Marie-Antoinette was simply a convenient figure of hatred, an easy focus upon which to target frustration for the problems in French society. She was never truly accepted in France; the group around her was referred to as the ‘Austrian Party’ and the French public arguably never saw her as their French Queen. Even nearing the end of her life Marie-Antoinette did not escape vicious rumours. Once imprisoned she had to endure prolonged incarceration while her husband was executed and her children were taken away from her. She waited nine months in prison alone before she was executed. When she was put on trial, she was accused of being sexually inappropriate with her son; this charge was simply to humiliate Marie-Antoinette further, whilst Louis XVI who had committed more crimes, did not face such humiliating charges. She retained her dignity and showed poise and equanimity before her execution, showing her strength of mind and character even when approaching death.
