this post was submitted on 20 Aug 2025
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History Memes
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The original phrase, "Qu'ils mangent de la brioche" ("Let them eat brioche"), was recorded by philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau in his Confessions in 1765, when Marie Antoinette was only nine years old and not yet in France. Rousseau attributed the phrase to "a great princess," but did not specify who. The quote was later linked to Marie Antoinette as revolutionaries sought to paint her as an out-of-touch foreign queen who did not understand or care about the suffering of ordinary people. A lot of the attitude towards her was influenced by xenophobia (her being from France' eternal enemy Austria) and misogyny (calling her out for a luxurious life that the entire court, most of them men, were living).
Yeah, and also a weird affair that she wasn't even involved in. Marie Antoinette wasn't innocent by any stretch of the imagination, but yeah her execution isn't what comes to mind when I think "justice".