Brigitte Bardot was a racist who abused her son. Does that revoke her icon status? |
Discussion around Brigitte Bardot's death quickly descended into a game of pointing out the most problematic aspects of her life. Derek McArthur wonders if this judgment erases much of what made Bardot important.
French actress Brigitte Bardot died on Sunday at the grand age of 91.
Her life was impactful, complex and highly influential. When we talk about Bardot, we talk about one of the most identifiable faces of the twentieth century, a screen performer engineered to scandalise and shake off the staunch vestiges of the 1950s, and a fashion icon that appeared on every magazine cover and billboard around much of the world.
She could create waves in a raunchy mainstream comedy, become a sensual force in melodrama, or gaze longingly into the camera lenses of the French New Wave movement.
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She meant different things to different people, and the era she helped usher in holds much of what is easy to take for granted now. Her image became a torchbearer for the sexual revolution, that women could reject the traditional paths patriarchy had set out before them and become something entirely liberated and different.
But look at the discussion of her death and you’re more likely to find out that she was a racist who mistreated and neglected her son. Perhaps her comments speaking out against the #MeToo movement might also make an appearance. But is reducing someone like Bardot down to their worst moments fair, or is it a........