An unmarried president? Sacre bleu!

While Americans prepare to go to the polls in November, just across the pond our French friends have ousted incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy and elected socialist candidate Francois Hollande.

What seems to be making headlines in the U.S., however, is not only what the changes will mean for post-Sarkozy France, but rather the nature of Hollande’s domestic status -- specifically, his domestic partnership with journalist Valerie Trierweiler.

Hollande, like Sarkozy before him, possesses a personal life far from acceptable of a presidential candidate from an American point of view. He has four children out of wedlock with his former partner of 30 years and loser in the 2007 presidential race against Sarkozy, Sergolene Royal.

Where the French seem unconcerned with the personal exploits of their political candidates (with exceptions made in cases such as that of Dominique Strauss-Kahn), the same cannot be said for the Americans. In fact, the notion of the family unit plays a pivotal role during campaign season, so much so that the first family is front and center in recent advertisements put forth by the Obama campaign.

Yet, the impact of a candidate’s personal life on a presidential bid does not seem to surprise some college students -- many of whom will be voting in their first presidential election this November.

“I don't think someone like Hollande could get elected in the U.S.,” said Boston University junior Victoria Kelman, “People can't even wrap their head around gay marriage yet, let alone an unmarried president. I think for the most part, our presidents are expected to be picture-perfect family men.”

Not only are our candidates supposed to by picture perfect family men, they should also be picture perfect family women.

The now popular Hillary Clinton, thanks in part to Tumblr and text messages, did her part to avoid any “baking cookies” slip ups during her 2008 campaign in order to uphold a motherly image for voters.

The nuclear family image championed by American politicians certainly does not fit into the mold of the lives of Sarkozy or Hollande -- a nod what Emily Siner, a senior at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, who is studying abroad in France for the spring semester says is typical of the French culture.

Siner believes that the conception of religious freedom and fact that religion is far less pervasive in French politics than in the U.S. explains the French acceptance of a nontraditional domestic status by American terms. The secular nature of the country is more accepting of those who choose not to engage in marriage.

“Sarkozy (and other French presidents) had affairs and it didn't affect their candidacy. If they had broken a law, like Dominique Strauss Kahn, the French would have cared. But it's their personal lives. Does that affect how they govern the country? Americans would say yes. The French would say no,” Siner said.

Although students like Siner and Kelman may find the American relationship between personal exploits and governing a country rather puritanical, they also admit that it is cultural belief that is unlikely to change in the foreseeable future.

Recent Iona College graduate Lauren Urban asserts that the focus on domestic status or personal rendezvous is a nod to the society in which we live.

“Candidates’ personal lives will continue to effect the electoral decision because that is the way our society is wired. We have access to the most personal details of notable people’s personal lives via magazines, entertainment news and reality shows. For this reason, we feel entitled to know everything about a politician’s personal life,” Urban said.

Whether it is due to accessibility to personal information or to religious beliefs, it is clear that the idea of domestic status and a traditional family is a pillar of American society that is unlikely to disappear in a short six months. Yet, college students and Americans as a whole may want to consider more than just the candidates’ personal lives when casting that ballot on Election Day.

Amanda Kelly is a Summer 2012 USA TODAY Collegiate Correspondent. Learn more about her here.

This story originally appeared on the USA TODAY College blog, a news source produced for college students by student journalists. The blog closed in September of 2017.