User:RM395/Course/Manypedia/Coco Chanel

I chose to compare the English and French articles on Coco Chanel. Above all, I was curious to see how the two articles treated the most controversial aspects of Chanel's life during WWII.

What first struck me is that the English article seemed more "gossipy" than the French article. Both articles detail her affairs, but only the English article suggests that her sister's son may have actually been Chanel's. The English page also acknowledges her drug use and relays a story that Chanel was "called Coco because she threw the most fabulous cocaine parties in Paris." Instead, the French article made sure to detail Chanel's inspirations for her designs, as well as the fact that she didn't want to raise skirts above the knee because knees were ugly.

As for the WWII discussion I had expected to see, the English article delves right into the controversy regarding Chanel's antisemitism and homophobia, as well as her association with a German military officer during WWII. There's even quite a long section about Chanel as a Nazi agent. The French article does mention Chanel's antisemitism and her Nazi ties, but not nearly to the extent of the English article; I'd say the French word count on the Nazi ties is half of the English word count.

In short, while the English article has separated Chanel from her designs, the French article does not divorce the fashion from the figure.

--Katerwaul (talk) 02:57, 25 March 2013 (UTC)