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Often used attributively, as in the phrase Marie Antoinette mentality, the name Marie Antoinette refers to a person who is ignorant or dismissive of the hardships of others.
The name Marie Antoinette occurs, for example, in the following from Mom, Dad and illegal nanny: an American tragedy, by Diane West, published in the Herald Times-Reporter (Manitowoc, Wisconsin, USA) of Friday 14th April 2006 [page A-4, column 1]:
Listen to what passes for immigration debate and it soon becomes clear: Illegal aliens are bad for our character.
Take New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Deporting illegal aliens, he told WABC-AM radio host John Gambling, would wreak havoc on golf courses across America. “You and I both play golf,” Mr. Bloomberg said on the air. “Who takes care of the greens and fairways in your golf course?”
As I recall, French royalty got the guillotine for less, in part because Les Masses didn’t share this Let Them Play Golf mentality. But nobody stormed City Hall over what writer Lawrence Auster called “Bloomberg’s Marie Antoinette moment.”
This use of the name Marie Antoinette alludes to the phrase let them eat cake (after French qu’ils mangent de la brioche), which, in the first half of the 19th century, was attributed to the Austrian archduchess Marie Antoinette (1755-1793), wife of Louis XVI (1754-1793), King of France from 1774 to 1792.
These are, in chronological order, a few early occurrences of the name Marie Antoinette used in reference to a person who is ignorant or dismissive of the hardships of others:
1-: From The Evening Times (Washington, District of Columbia, USA) of Saturday 26th June 1897 [page 4, column 2]:
Carriages and Cars.
Rather a startling statement comes from one of the charity workers in a large American city. She says that in talking with a rich society woman one day the latter calmly said that “she could not speak from experience regarding methods of transit, as she had never been in any public conveyance in her life, except, of course, the railroads.” Not even in the street car, or the elevated railroad, had this child of luxury set her dainty foot. “When I wish to go a long distance, I drive,” she added. “Surely, you do not go in those awful things?”
How is it possible for the rich to sympathize with the poor, or even to treat them with justice, when a grown woman can show such utter ignorance of the common facts of life in our large cities as not to conceive how a woman of any degree of refinement can use the street cars? The conditions of capital and labor in this country have been compared with those of France before the revolution, and the story repeated of Marie Antoinette, how she asked: “If the poor of Paris cannot get bread, why do not they eat pastry?” In reality, the question of the French Queen showed an acute and practical wisdom far above that of this American society woman.
In Austria a hundred years ago the floors of bakery ovens were always lined with a coarse dough, which, as the bread loaves baked, formed a thick, crusty substratum of coarse but healthy “hoe-cake,” and was always given to the poor. It is the name of this coarse cake which has been wrongly translated “pastry,” and the young Queen’s innocent query showed that she, with her thrifty German upbringing, could not conceive of a kingdom so ill-managed that there should not be plenty of this coarse bread, at least, for the penniless poor. But there are people of the wealthy classes of America who show a carelessness with regard to the condition of their fellow-beings compared with which Marie Antoinette’s attitude was one of solicitous care.
It would be well for the rich and the poor to know more of each other: and it is especially important that the governing half should know “how the other half lives.” But they do not; and some of them, apparently, do not care to know.
2-: From the column Priscilla in Paris, by ‘Priscilla’, published in The Tatler (London, England) of Wednesday 10th February 1926 [page 246, column 1]:
Omnibus and metro fares have been put up since I left Paris (all the more reason to keep on the car) . . . the price of petrol has gone down one farthing per five litres!!! Not being an admirer of the Marie Antoinette mentality, I shall not point out, however, that caviare and champagne did so long ago, and have not risen since. Taxis, rents, and theatre tickets are also to “rise,” and after to-day we must stick a one-franc-twenty-five stamp on our letters abroad!!!
3-: From The Bay City Daily Times (Bay City, Michigan, USA) of Wednesday 1st August 1934 [page 4, column 1]:
Human Sympathy
Historians nowadays generally agree that Marie Antoinette, when she learned that the people of France had no bread, did not make that famous crack—“Let them eat cake.”
Nevertheless, the story will persist; for whether she actually said it or not, the remark illustrates perfectly the attitude of the Bourbons toward the masses of France, and it helps to explain why those masses eventually rose and cut their sovereigns’ heads off.
For some reason one is reminded of that hoary anecdote by the recent experiences of George Allen of Washington, commissioner for the District of Columbia.
Mr. Allen wanted to find out how the nation’s jobless men were getting on, so he put on his old clothes, let his beard grow, and went out to stand in the breadlines in such cities as Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Toledo, and Milwaukee. He came back to Washington the other day and expressed himself.
“The snootiest people on God’s green earth are running the federal employment agencies,” he said. “You ask them for a job and they feel they’re doing you a favor to take your application. Most of the offices close at noon. Why don’t they keep open all day and fight for the unemployed, trying their damndest to get them jobs?”
[…]
Now this whole problem of unemployment relief is a new one, and it was inevitable that we should make mistakes in our handling of it. But it is hard to see how a greater mistake could be made than to permit relief agents to adopt that old Marie Antoinette attitude toward the people they are supposed to help.
4-: From the following letter to the Editor, by one Antonio Lombardo, published in The Standard-Star (New Rochelle, New York, USA) of Friday 2nd February 1940 [page 9, column 3]:
POLICIES ASSAILED
Lombardo Charges Marie Antoinette Attitude Among ‘Our City Fathers and Mother Emerson’Editor, The Standard-Star: The 5 per cent discount on food slips ordered by the head of public welfare, Blanche S. Emerson, is nothing short of a legalized kick-back. This tax is calculated to hit and hurt most the small grocer and butcher. The New Rochelle Independent Food Stores Association is completely right in making a denunciation of this new “regulation” of the Welfare Department.
Mrs. Emerson, who though she is in a position to know the real suffering of the unemployed and the struggle small food dealers are having for existence, adopts the attitude of Marie Antoinette. Marie Antoinette, when confronted with the starving people of France, cynically remarked, “If they do not have bread, let them eat cake.”
Mrs. Emerson, when faced with the justified protest of the New Rochelle food dealers, answers: “It’s all right with me.”
After all, what are the interests of the unemployed and the small food dealers struggling for survival compared with the interests of the rich folk in the community so ably represented by the United Council for Economy and the City Council?
There is only one answer to the Marie Antoinette mentality so common among our “City Fathers and Mother Emerson,” and that is organization.
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