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Prof. Dr. Sarah Sepulchre: Female Presidents, Politicians Like any Other? Analysis of the Gendered Stereotypes Conveyed in the French Political Series ›L'Etat de Grace, Les hommes de l'ombre, Baron noir‹

At present - although women have been candidates in presidential elections since 1974 and two of them have reached the second round (Ségolène Royal in 2007 and Marine Le Pen in 2017 and 2022) - no woman has been elected president of the French republic. However, television fiction has already taken the plunge, starting in 2006 with Grace Bellanger. Three political fictions will constitute the corpus of our analysis: L'Etat de Grace (2006), Les hommes de l'ombre (2012-2016), Baron noir (2016-2020). These fictions are clearly positioned in relation to reality by the references they make to people and events that have actually taken place in public life. It is therefore particularly interesting to analyse them from the point of view of the social representations conveyed. How are women represented in these fictions? How do they embody the presidential function? While Sarah Lécossais (2015) denounces that female characters are assigned to motherhood and childcare, it is, for example, not innocent that Grace Bellanger is pregnant when she becomes president. One of the major themes activated by the series in the corpus is corruption and political manipulation. Research shows how women politicians are not treated like men, they are considered more ethical (Marlène Coulomb-Gully 2012, Aurélie Olivesi 2010). What are the values of the heroines of the series? How do they fit into the character systems? The proposed analysis is a narratological study of serial characters and narratives. The methodology mixes tools developed by literature studies (Philippe Hamon 1983, Vincent Jouve 1992, Jean-Louis Dufays 1994), social psychology (social representations and stereotypes) and social sciences (Jason Mittel 2015, Sarah Sepulchre 2017).