Oh, Capitaine Crouche!

Today I heard a DJ say that French music always sounds sexy.  That surprised me.  A few francophone musicians have made headway in English Canada, and it's always seemed to me that they don't fit any linguistic stereotypes, and are no sexier than your average anglophone indie musicians.

But I've always thought that the inherent sensuality of the French language was a pretty silly concept. For one thing, I thought that in today's more open world, we're surely more sophisticated about the vast amounts and variations of things people find arousing. "French is sexy" seems like rather childish once you've seen the full extent of Rule 34.

But there's also the worldliness of today's society. French people aren't just a caricature; they're actual people we can learn a lot about. They aren't always sexy.  The whole world has watched the people of France blocking highways with tractors to protest government cuts, patronising Eurodisney, or voting for racists. Really they're just as unsexy as the rest of us. And after their apoplectic anti-gay-marriage protests in recent years, surely they sound have dropped right off the list of sexiest countries. For any thinking person Germany, with their rough language but permissive attitudes, has actually become sexier.

But what really surprised me about this is that it's coming here in Canada. Usually, we're free of other countries' French stereotypes because French is so ordinary for us. You can't get romantic every time you happen to see the other side of the cereal box.