Some French students mention mannequin to describe elite. Overall, both French and American students have similar ideas about the word: "elite"

Is mannequin commonly used to describe superficiality?

In general, les eleves associate "elite" with intellect while MIT students associate "elite" with money. I find it interesting (and cool) that les eleves also associate "elite" with themselves. Because "elite" has a mostly negative connotation in English, most Americans would not call themselves elite even if they thought that they were intellectuals.

My analysis breaks down when I try to explain the word "pretentieux," which deux eleves associated with "elite." Is there a trend for "elite" to be associated with money and snobbery in France? If not, does "pretentieux" refer to the assuming nature that those who consider themselves intellectually superior and therefore elite might have?

En réponse à Zahra P Karimi, je peux dire que le mot mannequin se rapporte à l’agence de mannequins elite (elite model group : http://www.elitemodel.com) qui est très connue en France.

Je souhaite répondre à Rachel M Niehuus. Il est très difficile de définir le mot élite en français car il définit à la fois des personnes disposant d’une grande fortune ou d’une grande influence qui cherchent à se démarquer des autres, mais aussi pour certains les intellectuels.

Cette ambivalence est très difficile à faire passer dans une autre culture puisque même en France elle prête à confusion.

Cependant, ce qui est sûr c’est que les élèves et anciens des grandes écoles comme l’École polytechnique sont couramment appelés élite par l’ensemble de la population française, Il faut alors replacer ce terme en contexte pour savoir quand il s’agit d’une critique ou non.

Aussi, certaines expressions comportant ce mot sont passées dans le langage courant. On parle de "tireur d’élite" pour décrire un "sniper", ou d’"unités d’élite" pour des équipes telles que le GIGN en France à comparer au SWAT aux Etats-Unis. Pourtant je pense que vous serez d’accord pour dire que ce sont des personnes qui ont fait leur preuve par leur entraînement et leurs qualités, et pas par leur origine sociale.

Enfin, en ce qui concerne l’origine du mot, il faut savoir que l’origine latine est la même que celle du mot "élire", car ces deux mots nous viennent du mot latin "electus" qui signifie celui qui a été choisi. De plus, le mot anglais a été hérité du même mot français au seizième siècle.

Reste maintenant la question de l’interprétation du choix. En effet, à l’époque de la monarchie en France, le roi et la noblesse étaient considérés comme étant élu de droit divin. Mais bien évidemment cette signification de choix divin a totalement disparu de nos jours en France, laissant place à une sélection sur des critères relevant de l’individu. Peut-être existe-t-il encore aux Etats-Unis une telle vision des choses qui laisserait sous entendre que l’aristocratie a été choisie par une puissance divine puisque étymologiquement quand vous parlez d’élite vous affirmez que la personne a été choisie ?

There is an interesting interplay among the responses and discussions of the words "elite," "individualism" and "freedom."

In general the French reactions to individualism were very negative while the reactions to elite and freedom were very positive. The American reactions on the other hand were negative towards elite and positive towards individualism and freedom. Yet the notion of "elite" and of "individualism" are very similar: one is the actual entity of "aboveness" while the other is a philosophy for keeping oneself from being "pushed down."

Now, in the French reaction to freedom there was an abundance of "égalité, fraternité," which is a "freedom" without any "aboveness." The American reaction to freedom on the other hand was a large list of struggles.

A possible conclusion to all this is that a French perspective is one of stability and peace but also of having attained (some time in the past presumably) equality and brotherhood, while the American perspective is one of constant struggle and change and movement in society but never actually reaching the high ground of snobbery and the corruption of money: a sort of Hegelism vs. Utopianism if you will.

The questions which naturally arise are: do the french feel that they have obtained some sort of social pinnacle, and, if not, how do they expect to reach that point, if not through some sort of individualist ideology? Are americans going to drive themselves into the ground with all their constant, self-reproducing, infinite, money-grubbing greed? I don't know. Maybe.

Gildas: In a sense I think that the “Elite” in the US for the most part are chosen by birth, rather then by merit. In the US the “elite” are people with either a lot of money or power/influence. For the most part these people have not “earned” their wealth or connections. They are inherited. A good example of this would be George Bush. I think few people would argue that he became President because he was the best person for the job. Instead, he came from a rich family with a lot of political connections. This wealth/power helped get him into Yale, and later Harvard. There is no way that he could have gotten into these institutions based on his grades/test scores alone. Circumstances of birth allowed him to amass these “credentials” which were later played up as qualifications in his bid for the Presidency. Combine this with the fact that he was the son of a former President and well…we know how that ended. I am fairly certain that Bush would never have achieved any of this on his own.

In response to Gildas: Elite modeling agency is quite big in America as well. However, most Americans would not make such a connection. It is interesting to see that more than 1 French student thought of the modeling agency.