The 2024 Paris Olympics logo reminds people of ‘the Rachel’ from ‘Friends’ and the ‘Fleabag’ haircut. Her origins are steeped in French history.

The face of the 2024 Paris Olympics and 2024 Paris Paralympics has many online crying, “Sacrebleu!”

Initially unveiled in October 2019, the logo was divisive from the start, with some early critics calling it “twee” and “sexist.”

Now, as buzz around the Olympics continues to ramp up ahead of July 26’s opening ceremony, criticism of the logo has only intensified online, with many creating memes around the emblem.

However, according to the official Paris 2024 website, the logo has significant historical meaning — and a name: Marianne.

Within the logo are three symbols: the gold medal, the Olympic flame and Marianne, the embodiment of the French Republic, born out of the 1789 French Revolution.

“Marianne is the personification of the bold spirit of creativity that inspires our Games,” the Olympics website reads. “Marianne, symbol of the French Republic, represents the same values we find in sport, the Olympics and the Paralympics – humanism, fraternity, generosity and sharing.”

The logo, created by the brand management agency Royalties, is steeped in culturally significant imagery — right down to the Paris 2024 typeface, which is meant to recall the Art Deco period, and is a reference to the 1924 Paris Olympics.

“The combination of the gold medal, the Olympic flame and Marianne brings together the values, history and French touch that will make these Olympic Games truly special,” International Olympic Committee Coordination Commission Chair Pierre-Olivier Beckers-Vieujant said in a 2019 press release. “I believe that this innovative design will be quickly recognized around the world and be a wonderful calling card for the Olympic Games Paris 2024.”

Not everyone recognizes Marianne as a culturally and historically significant icon. Instead, the logo’s sassy hairstyle has conjured up many other images in people’s minds, from the iconic Rachel Green cut from Friends, to the infamous Fleabag Season 2 chop that Claire gets in a failed attempt to be edgy.

Others see an ad for a women’s skin care line, while some see a “Karen” demanding to speak to the manager.

On social media, people questioned why the logo was changed from the original Paris Olympics candidacy logo, unveiled in 2016, which combined the Eiffel Tower with the number 24. That bid logo made a splashy debut in a projection across the Arc de Triomphe, but never appeared again in promotions for the 2024 Games.

Who is Marianne?

In French culture, Marianne is a familiar face in day-to-day life, appearing on stamps and coins, in courts and outside of every town hall. She is also part of the official government logo of the Republic.

“She reflects our desire to organize the Games for the people, in close collaboration with the people,” the Paris 2024 website states.

Marianne first appeared as a French symbol in 1789 on a medal celebrating the storming of the Bastille and other early events of the French Revolution.

Since then, she has been the national personification of the French Republic, representing liberty, equality, fraternity and reason.

She symbolizes opposition to monarchy and the champion of freedom and democracy.

While the exact origins of her name are not clear, it’s believed to come from the name Marie-Anne, a common name in the 18th century, according to the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs.

Because France and the Republic are, in French, feminine nouns (la France, la République), as are the nouns for liberty and reason (La Liberté, La Raison), a woman is a natural fit as representation of those ideals.

She is commonly depicted wearing a toga, a Phrygian bonnet (a red cap most closely associated with the French Revolution) and laurel leaves, with unbound hair and exposed breasts. She often carries a pike, a weapon used during the French Revolution to parade around the decapitated heads of the nobility.

Beginning in the 1960s, famous French women served as models for busts of Marianne, such as Brigitte Bardot.

Traditionally, each time a French president begins a term, a new representation of Marianne is chosen to appear on stamps and new promotional material.

Other revolutionary symbols at the 2024 Paris Olympics

Marianne isn’t the only symbol of the French Revolution to appear at the Summer Olympics Games and Summer Paralympics.

In 2022, new mascots called the Phryges made their online debut.

“The Phrygian cap was part of all the major events in French history,” according to the Paris Olympics websites. “The French National Archives show records of Phrygian caps worn during the construction of Paris’ Notre-Dame cathedral in 1163, during the Revolution of 1789, during work to build the Eiffel Tower, and during the Paris 1924 Olympic Games.”

The Paris Games are also tying in France’s history of protest and revolution with a square paving stone concept.

“Our visual concept is based on a play on words: ‘Sous les pavés, les Jeux’ [‘Under the paving stones, the Games’],” Paris 2024 brand director Julie Matikhine told Creative Review.

The line comes from a slogan seen during the May 1968 Paris protests, a period of civil unrest against capitalism, consumerism, imperialism and traditional institutions: “Sous les pavés, la plage!” — which translates to: “Under the paving stones, the beach!”

The slogan expressed the feeling that beneath the city, hardened by stone, lies the freedom of the beach, as paving stones were originally placed in sand.

These stones have been incorporated into the design of the 2024 Paris Olympics, which will utilize squares to highlight important symbols of French culture.

“It’s a way to express our revolutionary attitude, but also a way to tell the full story. In France, in every city and village, our streets have paving stones. They’re a symbol of our heritage,” explained Matikhine.