Alexandria Fox ~ New to Utopia Guide ~ Saying Hello!
- Thread starter Alex326
- Start date
Yes. Anytime a word or phrase has more than one meaning, we have to look at the context to see what was intended. In this case, to me anyway, it's pretty clear. (And I suppose it's really no big deal. Certainly not the worst thing he could have said. I'd go so far as to say he meant no disrespect. To me, it just sounded silly and childish).
It is a French idiom - and he used it referring to a prostitute or escort i.e., a woman of the night to use an English idiom .
Do you think if a Frenchman (with limited English skills) was reading it and did an English to French translation of a woman of the night, that he would say "don't understand - she is obviously in a photo taken during the day"? So yes, this La Femme Noir happened to be a black woman, but the term in Quebec (where the poster just came back from and why I assume he used the idiom) or France could have just as well referred to a Caucasian or Asian prostitute.
Do you think if a Frenchman (with limited English skills) was reading it and did an English to French translation of a woman of the night, that he would say "don't understand - she is obviously in a photo taken during the day"? So yes, this La Femme Noir happened to be a black woman, but the term in Quebec (where the poster just came back from and why I assume he used the idiom) or France could have just as well referred to a Caucasian or Asian prostitute.
Yes indeed, femme noir could be interpreted as a black woman if the context was appropriate to that meaning, but putting the term with each word starting in caps as La Femme Noire with the fact that he was referring to a prostitute to me means a dark, sinister one like a lady of the night and is not racist just because the prostitute happens to be black.
