OH! I remember what I was gonna say!

[sonjajade]

So Madame Christmas!  I can't remember how I got to thinking about her, or her name in general, but I was struck with understanding and I just felt like I'd figured out some great mystery afterward!

CHRIS MUStang
CHRISMUS=phonetic spelling of CHRISTMAS

Madame CHRISTMAS actually = Madame CHRIS MUS(tang)

The addition of her title only reinforces in my mind that she really is a whore and not a hostess club owner, although admittedly I don't know anything about hostess clubs in Japan, so maybe they have the same moniker? idk.  At any rate, in 1910's there was no such thing, only brothels.  And that's my head canon and I'm sticking to it!

Etymology for the win!? I think so!

Comments

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

very interesting.

I don't agree completely. Madame has always been a polite term of address for any woman, especially a married older one (a term that I cringed at the first time it was applied to me knowing that i could no longer pass as 'younger')

Not that I haven't written her as a whore mind you but the evidence to me points more to an intel gathering hostess club. Men tend not to give up their info to casual whores (or at least in my head canon)

[sonjajade.livejournal.com]

You make a good point there. I hadn't thought of it as a polite address due to her age. I know our Madames differ but I love how you write her just as much!

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

yeah well, I'm older, trust me, i've been hit with the ole 'can I help you madame?' yeah don't call me that.

thanks. I enjoy yours too. (now I am wondering just how much is illuminated in that one not-translated into English art profile that has Chris in it)

[binaryalchemist.livejournal.com]

My own theory matches yours--my family is from the New Orleans area and I grew up knowing about Storyville, where any woman who ran an establishment that served alcohol, had young women working under her--and no men, and dressed in Chris' manner--and had the goods on the politicians in town--she was a Madame. And the practice was for the wealthy Madames to go to great lengths to send their kids off to be well educated. A Madame herself does not sleep with clients--however I suspect she worked her way up. There's too much in her profile that makes me think otherwise.

[sonjajade.livejournal.com]

this profile you speak of- is it the same one cornerofmadness is thinking of? the one from the fma guidebook? If you have a translation of it, we are both interested in finding out what that says.

And you're right, I have a feeling she worked her way up from the bottom too, but I'm sure she's done her share of mattress time over the years.

[sonjajade.livejournal.com]

I have the japanese copy of that page somewhere, maybe my friend would translate it for me? *digs up file and crosses fingers*

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

there you go. I think there is a translation somewhere which is where we learned she's his aunt. I'm not sure if goes into more detail than that.

[binaryalchemist.livejournal.com]

I don't have a translation of the guidebook but someone on the FM_Alchemist board read a translation--probably done by Tombow--and this the gist of it from the Fullmetal Alchemist Wiki:
http://fma.wikia.com/wiki/Madame_Christmas
Chris Mustang, better know by the name Madame Christmas, is the proprietor of a hostess bar in Central City frequently patronized by Colonel Roy Mustang. At first, it would merely seem that this bar is further proof of Mustang's unapologetic debauchery, but it becomes quite apparent that the women under Madame Christmas' care act as secret informants to Mustang and his squad, and that Madame Christmas herself is a skilled intelligencer and a contact between Roy and Lt. General Grumman in East City.
CharacterEdit

A rather gruff woman, Madame Christmas is the paternal aunt and adoptive mother of Roy Mustang, and is frequently sharp with him. The younger sister to Roy`s biological father, Chris took her nephew in after the death of both Roy's parents, when Roy was still very young, under unknown circumstances. She's said to have raised him to become a "good man."

Well aware of Roy's ambitions as well as the clandestine goings-on of his enemies, Madame Christmas expects great things of her little boy, and worries greatly for him. In preparation for the Promised Day, Roy receives a final piece of intelligence from Madame Christmas confirming the identity of Selim Bradley. The two then retreat below the bar and blow it up as a diversion to allow Roy to go undercover. Madame Christmas then heads east to Xing to flee the darkness of the Promised Day, meeting up with the girls from the bar when she arrives.

[sonjajade.livejournal.com]

wow I didn't know that it states where she went before the promised day. That's cool!