The Grisette as a Nanny

As mentioned by Huart in Physiologie de la grisette, the grisette was depicted as a nuisance in the eyes of bourgeois women not only because grisettes didn’t have marital commitment, but also because the beautiful grisettes took away the bourgeois women’s worshippers (college students). This sentiment from bourgeois women towards grisettes is similar to the relationship between mothers and modern day nannies. Working mothers who are not to be present with their children during the day may feel like nannies are taking over their role and connection to their children [1].

As evidenced, the grisette’s role in 19th century France was a dynamic one. Though she falls under the wide category of “sex worker,” her work was not limited to sexual acts. Rather, she existed as a college student’s caretaker of sorts. While her lover was at school or away studying, she would maintain his home. She did his laundry, organized his things, washed his dishes, swept the floor, and generally kept his living space in pristine condition [2]. In this sense, the grisette’s modern-day equivalent is a nanny.

The grisette was seen as a nuisance in the eyes of Bourgeois women, not only because grisettes didn’t have marital commitment, but also because the beautiful grisettes took away the Bourgeois women’s worshippers (college students) [3]. This sentiment from Bourgeois women towards grisettes is comparable to the relationship between modern-day nannies and mothers. Working mothers who are not to be present with their children during the day often feel like nanny’s are taking over their role as mother and thus her connection to her own children.

An interesting point of comparison is the prevalence of the modern-day nanny’s immigrant status. The typical grisette travelled from the French countryside to Paris. Here, she sought out male students at parties in hope that the men would court them and offer them a place to stay. The grisette would offer her company in exchange for a home. Very similarly, many modern-day nannies come from several Third-World countries and migrate to First-World countries, sometimes leaving their families behind, in hope for a better quality of life [4]. A woman's decision to participate in the global sphere of commerce is brave, for migration into “transnational circuits of capital investment... [is tied to the production of these women's] bodies as low quality— as the personification of waste" [5].

 Considering the manual labor being a grisette entailed and the general acceptance of the grisette in 19th century French society, it is easy to forget she was also a sex worker. The media of 19th century France portrayed the grisette as a demure, yet sexual woman. The fact that the grisette posed no harm to French society and its rigid social class allowed the grisette the freedom that characters like the dangerous social-climbing lorette did not have. French illustrations portrayed the grisette as unbeknownst to her sexuality and as a perfect worker, thus ultra-sexualizing her as the perfect maternal figure. Similarly, the nanny fetishized by the media as well. Her status as a migrant worker is commodified to fulfil “the Orientalist fantasies of First World men” [6]. One only needs to look at the amount of nanny-themed pornography as a manifestation of this sexualization.

Another very interesting connection is role of the bourgeois women and modern moms, respectively, in the livelihood of the grisette and the nanny. The grisette, as aforementioned, was seen as only a nuisance in the eyes of the French bourgeoisie woman. The grisette posed no actual threat to her social class, for she remained within the lower middle class throughout her life [7]. Therefore, the grisette was accepted by the bourgeoisie women as a necessary nuisance. Similarly, modern-mothers accept the nanny in a similar way. The nanny is essential because the working mother needs someone to take care of her children while at work, but there is an anxiety within the mother and the connection between the nanny and her child’s love. This anxiety manifests itself in the policing of the nanny “through kindness, pity, and charity,” [8] in which the employer asserts her power under the guise of maternalism. First World women use familial rhetoric, describing the nanny as “one of the family,” in order to further exploit the labor of domestic workers and reinforce their imposed inferior status [9]. The racialized body of the woman worker and her relationship to the mother’s children is severely policed to the point where First World women are able to fetishize the safe nanny-love of their migrant maids [10].

 

[1] Hochschild, Arlie and Barbara Ehrenreich. 2004. Global Woman: Nannies, Maids and Sex Workers in the New Economy. New York, NY: Owl.

[2] Huart, Louis. 1841. Physiologie de la grisette: Vigrettes de Gavarni. Paris: Aubert, Lavigne. p. 8

[3] Swift, Jonathan, Thomas Sheridan, and John Nichols. "To Betty the Grisette." The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift .. New York: W. Durell, 1812. N. pag. Print.

[4] Hochschild, Arlie and Barbara Ehrenreich. 2004. Global Woman: Nannies, Maids and Sex Workers in the New Economy. New York, NY: Owl.

[5] Silvey, Rachel. 2006. “Geographies of Gender and Migration: Spatializing Social Difference.” International Migration Review 40(1):64–81.

[6] Hochschild, Arlie and Barbara Ehrenreich. 2004. Global Woman: Nannies, Maids and Sex Workers in the New Economy. New York, NY: Owl.

[7] Huart, Louis. 1841. Physiologie de la grisette: Vigrettes de Gavarni. Paris: Aubert, Lavigne.

[8] Hochschild, Arlie and Barbara Ehrenreich. 2004. Global Woman: Nannies, Maids and Sex Workers in the New Economy. New York, NY: Owl.

[9] Hochschild, Arlie and Barbara Ehrenreich. 2004. Global Woman: Nannies, Maids and Sex Workers in the New Economy. New York, NY: Owl.

[10] Silvey, Rachel. 2006. “Geographies of Gender and Migration: Spatializing Social Difference.” International Migration Review 40(1)