Not Julie d'Aubigny, in my professional opinion 🤓
Video description: Footage of Chappell Roan's performance at the 2024 VMAs, wearing medieval-inspired armour and backed by knights and a flaming backdrop. Stitch to a white non-binary person speaking into the camera. They have short brown hair and glasses, and are wearing a sheer dark blue plaid collared shirt.
Video text: So I actually did my dissertation on Julie d'Aubigny, AKA Mlle Maupin, and in my professional opinion this is probably not a reference to her. She's leading an army to war, the armour she’s is wearing is very much medieval-inspired. And most importantly Chappell's makeup artist said in an interview it's inspired by Joan of Arc. But I can see why people are picking up resonances with Julie d'Aubigny, the burning building in the back does kind of look like a convent. I don't think it's an intentional reference though. Chappell starts the fire by shooting an arrow from outside the building, but in the convent story Julie is trapped in the convent with her girlfriend, and they start the fire from the inside as a distraction so that they can escape. So I don't think Chappell is channelling Julie d'Aubigny here, but I would absolutely love to see her do a look inspired by Julie, I think that would be amazing.
