Brigitte Bardot has passed away

[StillStunned]

https://www.bbc.com/news/live/c1kpg427pe7t

Sad news. I expect many of us have very fond memories of her.

 

[StillStunned]

I just read that she expressed some pretty bigoted opinions about Islam, immigration and LGBTI+ people. A dark and unpleasant side that taints my memories of her as a beautiful and talented actress and animal rights activist.

 

[DEFCOM5]

She became very right wing and openly racist (she was against mixed marriage) later in life.

This is where you ask yourself "Can I separate the art from the person?"

As a French man, she always had a special place in my heart. She was the symbol of sexually freed women who owned their sexuality. The amount of paparazzi and media obsessions was similar to what they did to Amy Winehouse.

She refused plastic surgery and turned her back on a lucrative movie career and then focused on helping animal welfare and became her strong animal right activist.

Then the drift towards awful beliefs .....

She reminds me of how I feel about Pablo Picasso. I love his painting but he was such a misogynistic POS.

 

[SouthernCrossfire]

Rest in peace, Miss Bardot.

 

[StrentWriter]

I just read that she expressed some pretty bigoted opinions about Islam, immigration and LGBTI+ people. A dark and unpleasant side that taints my memories of her as a beautiful and talented actress and animal rights activist.

This does sadden me.

Her achievements remain, but like all humans, she remains a flawed, imperfect being you wish had been better.

I will remember her for her film career. Was really formative in my youth, with the film mad father I had.

 

[Writer61]

I am a bit too young to appreciate her as an actress, but I respect her animal rights activism. The other stuff is repulsive.

It is sad when people whom you like turn out to have/adopt less admirable views.

 

[MrPixel]

My reaction when my wife told me the news was, "She was still alive?" I was never a fan. Bardot, to me, represented the over-the-top, bing-bodda-boom sex goddess zeitgeist of the 1950s that appealed to my father's generation, not mine.

However, sad to hear of another loss of an era icon. Sadder to hear (for the first time in this thread) that she became reviled for using her celebrity to push extremist and antisocial points of view. She obviously was not somebody on my radar.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

Same. I was there (sorta) for BB, but never did much for me .. same as MM. Jane Russel on the other hand and Brit Eklund.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

Sometimes it's better not to know 'too much' about 'icons'.

One day I found out 'too much' about Walter Brennan.

 

[old_prof]

Same. I was there (sorta) for BB, but never did much for me .. same as MM. Jane Russel on the other hand and Brit Eklund.

I think the nude sunbathing scene in And God Created Woman was one of the sexiest parts of a movie I've ever seen.

 

[stickygirl]

So just an actress that used her tits to effect but liked animals? A result of her generation I guess. Sorry for those affected

 

[DEFCOM5]

So just an actress that used her tits to effect but liked animals? A result of her generation I guess. Sorry for those affected

She embodied sexyness in a times when women were not supposed to be sexy.
She owned her body and her attractiveness in a way that was not seen before.
She was the definition of the sex kitten.
In a period when women were supposed to be virgin, mother or saint, she just embodied the liberated woman before the women libs movement.
So she was was more than a woman that "used her tits to effect".
I think that if you are under 60, her significance is lost in translation.

 

[M_K_Babalon]

I just read that she expressed some pretty bigoted opinions about Islam, immigration and LGBTI+ people. A dark and unpleasant side that taints my memories of her as a beautiful and talented actress and animal rights activist.

Just about everybody has something.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

She embodied sexyness in a times when women were not supposed to be sexy.
She owned her body and her attractiveness in a way that was not seen before.
She was the definition of the sex kitten.
In a period when women were supposed to be virgin, mother or saint, she just embodied the liberated woman before the women libs movement.
So she was was more than a woman that "used her tits to effect".
I think that if you are under 60, her significance is lost in translation.

Raquel
Marilyn
Jane
Jayne
Ann
Britt
Gina
Anita
Mamie
Barbara
Kim
And on
And on
And on


BB was one of many and not the top of the field.


Yes some of those were after her. Some were before.

https://discover.hubpages.com/entertainment/Blond_Bombshells

https://vintagenewsdaily.com/top-17-blonde-bombshells-in-the-1950s/



And Mae?

 

[DEFCOM5]

Raquel
Marilyn
Jane
Jayne
Ann
Britt
Gina
Anita
Mamie
Barbara
Kim
And on
And on
And on


BB was one of many and not the top of the field.


Yes some of those were after her. Some were before.

https://discover.hubpages.com/entertainment/Blond_Bombshells

https://vintagenewsdaily.com/top-17-blonde-bombshells-in-the-1950s/



And Mae?

I think that the main difference between BB and your list is that your list is sexy women. BB public personae was a SEXUAL woman. That is the difference. She was more than a blonde bombshell. She was SEX INCARNATED.

At least this is how they (men) sold her to us (other men). A lot of the stuff she did look quaint now after the 60s sexual revolution and in the world of internet porn. May be it is a French thing .....

She was also hounded by "the press" WAY MORE than the other women on your list.

Mae West was the precursor and is in her class of her own .

I am not trying to defend her late in life political views which I found beyond disgusting. I am trying to explain how 72 years ago, she changed cinema forever in Et Dieu Crea la Femme (And God created woman).

 

[lovecraft68]

Apologies, I meant to click on Lit and ended up on Bluesky.

But before I leave I'll mention how the same people jumping on her opinions are the same people who race to see rape enabler and abuser Tarantino's movies.

Enjoy your self righteous abuse of the dead.

 

[Lovealippy]

She was an almost natural beauty and very sexy but her treatment of her own son, even while he was in her womb was shocking and troubling, just as much as many of her later views. History will not be as kind to her as it has been to the woman she modelled herself on, Marilyn Monroe.

 

[metropolinational]

RIP Brigitte Bardot. She was truly a goddess of beauty. I do not believe her contributions to the arts and her legacy as one of the sexiest women to ever grace the screen can ever be questioned.

I guess I should now pretend to care about her political opinions and express my disgust (lol) that she disagreed with me about... something? No thanks. I can't, for the life of me, fathom why people pretend to care about the opinions of mathematicians about gardening, of chefs about astronomy, and of movie stars about politics. Makes absolutely no sense to me. Should I ignore Socrates because he was a pederast? MLK because he was a cheater? Should I deny the wonders of the Malian Empire because Mansa Sulayman supported cannibalism and slavery? Ridiculous.

​

 

[TheRedChamber]

Usually, in these circumstances, I think its more respectful to focus on the person's achievements that to scrutinize every interview they've ever done for gotchas. However, a quick Google suggest that this time, it's less a case of 'unfortunate old person views' and more a case of 'married into the National Front and was prosecuted for hate speech mutliple times' A bit before my time, but the same Google also confirms yes she was a looker.

 

[old_prof]

If you’ve never seen her in a movie, I strongly recommend watching the first ten minutes of and god created woman. The movies fine after that and fairly predictable overall, but these ten minutes made her a star

 

[DEFCOM5]

If you’ve never seen her in a movie, I strongly recommend watching the first ten minutes of and god created woman. The movies fine after that and fairly predictable overall, but these ten minutes made her a star

 

[Kelliezgirl]

Usually, in these circumstances, I think its more respectful to focus on the person's achievements that to scrutinize every interview they've ever done for gotchas. However, a quick Google suggest that this time, it's less a case of 'unfortunate old person views' and more a case of 'married into the National Front and was prosecuted for hate speech mutliple times' A bit before my time, but the same Google also confirms yes she was a looker.

If you look at what she actually said, your reaction would probably be, "what? That's all she said?"

 

[AwkwardMD]

If you look at what she actually said, your reaction would probably be, "what? That's all she said?"

Marrying into the realm of the National Front seems like an "actions speaking louder than words" situation.

EDIT: Not intended as a judgement. Where one lands on Jean-Marie Le Pen, the National Front, and far right politics is ones business. I just mean that's who she sought out for her life partner.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

Marrying into the realm of the National Front seems like an "actions speaking louder than words" situation.

EDIT: Not intended as a judgement. Where one lands on Jean-Marie Le Pen, the National Front, and far right politics is ones business. I just mean that's who she sought out for her life partner.

James Carville has been married to Mary Matalin for 30 some odd years. One can marry someone they don't share politics with.

"far right" is by definition a VERY relative term. Odd how there is no "far left" isn't it?

Plenty of people with other political views will criticize her for aligning herself with an extremist group like PETA and would say that is the "actions speak louder than words" situation.

But, my point is and remains, before you judge someone for allegedly saying bad things, you ought to read their actual words. Assuming you are an open minded and tolerant person of course...

 

[TheRedChamber]

If you look at what she actually said, your reaction would probably be, "what? That's all she said?"

Bardot said some hateful things. "Savage genes," for example, is racist pseudoscientific nonsense . I can find French speech laws more draconian than I'd like while still finding what was actually said disgusting.

If what she said seems tame these days, it is probably because we are now used to certain leaders in certain countries tweeting out six more hateful things before breakfast.