It’s our collective responsibility not to let Bardot’s legendary beauty and talent obscure the ugliness of her Islamophobia, sexism, and far-right apologia.
When I heard that French actor and animal activist Brigitte Bardot had died at 91 on Sunday, my first thought was of blasting her song “Les Cheveux dans le vent” non-stop with my mom when I was a kid, and she was introducing me to the Gallic yé-yé pop and its various offshoots that had soundtracked her own childhood.
My second thought, though, was somewhat less nostalgic and pleasant. I recalled Bardot’s late-in-life shift to supporting right-wing political candidates, her way of coldly dismissing actresses who came forward about their experiences of sexual harassment during the #MeToo movement, and how she was fined multiple times by the French government for “inciting racial hatred” with her blatantly bigoted comments about Muslims. It’s perhaps only natural that so many eulogies to Bardot focus on her positive qualities, from her influential style to her devotion to animals. But in this moment of steadily rising Islamophobia, it’s hard to square those celebrations with the opinions of a woman who railed against immigration and publicly stated her opposition to the so-called “Islamisation of France” in her 2003 book A Cry in the Silence. Few would dispute Bardot’s part in embodying and advancing the sexual revolution, but was that role—or any other facet of her legacy—powerful enough to outweigh her history of hate speech? Death often has a kind of flattening effect on legacy. It’s hard to talk about a celebrity like Bardot—someone who brought entertainment and joy to millions, yet also sowed hatred and bigotry—with the requisite amount of nuance. But it’s our collective responsibility not to let her legendary beauty and talent obscure the ugliness of her Islamophobia, sexism, and far-right apologia. No less an authority on complex personal legacy than F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote in his posthumously published 1945 essay collection The Crack-Up that “the test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function”—and Bardot’s death presents a rare cultural opportunity to put that test into action. Instead of limiting our mourning to looking nostalgically back at old photos of a beehived, bikini-clad Bardot and playing “Bonnie and Clyde” on a loop, let’s ask ourselves the hard questions about how Bardot’s embodiment of prototypically “perfect” white womanhood relied upon systemic marginalization and outright racism . After all, if we rush to sanitize our onetime icons in death, what message are we sending to those who are still living?
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Brigitte Bardot, actor, muse and prototype of liberated female sexuality, dies at 91Brigitte Bardot, actress, muse and prototype of liberated female sexuality, dies
Read more »
Brigitte Bardot dies: 11 songs about the French museThe 1960s French sex symbol, actor, singer and animal welfare activist Brigitte Bardot has died. She was 91. With the alliterative cadence of her name and synonymity with a kind of classic beauty, Bardot was also a muse to many, particularly musicians. In songs, Bardot is often not Bardot the woman, but a symbol for desire.
Read more »
Brigitte Bardot, legendary sex symbol turned animal rights activist, dies at 91French film icon Brigitte Bardot has passed away, her charitable foundation announced.
Read more »
Brigitte Bardot, 1960s French sex symbol turned militant animal rights activist, dies at 91French 1960s sex symbol Brigitte Bardot has died at age 91. Bardot became one of the greatest screen sirens of the 20th century and later a militant animal rights activist.
Read more »
Actress Brigitte Bardot dies at 91Iconic French actress Brigitte Bardot passed away on Sunday at the age of 91, according to a statement from her foundation. Bardot acted in films internationally, later retiring to become an advocate for animal rights.
Read more »
Brigitte Bardot, An Absolute Icon of French Cinema, Dies at 91Her foundation has confirmed that Brigitte Bardot has died after a serious illness. A true icon of cinema, Bardot leaves behind a legacy of more than 40 films.
Read more »