Brigitte Bardot, the French actress who became a global sex symbol in the 1950s with films like And God Created Woman, passed away peacefully at her Saint-Tropez home at age 91.The death of the fêted La Vérité, and Le Mepris star was announced in a statement by the Brigitte Bardot Foundation which reads as follows: "The Brigitte Bardot Foundation announces with immense sadness the death of its founder and president, Madame Brigitte Bardot, a world-renowned actress and singer, who chose to abandon her prestigious career to dedicate her life and energy to animal welfare and her foundation."
French media is reporting that Bardot died in the French Riviera port of Toulon following a brief illness and recent surgery, though a specific cause of death is currently unknown.
Born in Paris, France on 28 September, 1934, Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot grew up in a luxurious seven-bedroom apartment in the French capital's 16th arrondissement where, from an early age, a young Bardot, affectionately known by many as B.B. showed a certain proclivity for the arts and visual media. As a child during World War II, Brigitte trained in ballet, and by the tender age of just 15, Bardot graced the cover of prestigious fashion magazine Elle for the first (and most certainly not last) time, marking the birth of a star who would soon be bound for the big screen
She would become one of the most iconic faces in cinema, starring in more than 50 films. At 39, Brigitte Bardot officially retired in 1973 and devoted her life to animal rights. In 1979, she campaigned against the killing of baby seals in Canada, telling consumers to stop buying sealskin coats. Though her campaigning caused Canadians to misunderstand which coats they were supposed to boycott, as they stopped buying brown coats made from adult seals but continued to buy white coats made from baby seals, activists believe her work helped dramatically change the public's opinion on fur coats.
Bardot created the Brigitte Bardot Foundation for the Welfare and Protection of Animals in 1986 a global force for animal welfare. She then famously auctioned off several valuable assets, including jewelry, to help fund the foundation in its early years. When CNN asked Bardot in 2007 who she would like to work with if she were still acting, she demurred. "Oh la la! The page has turned," she said. "Cinema is finished for me."
A controversial figure who though devoted her life tto making the world a better place for animals, she also sadly in her later years became a virulent islamphobe and was convicted of hate speech 6 times over comments on immigration, Islamism and for using racial slurs against Muslim communities and for inciting racial hatred.
Consequently, she received six fines, with the steepest coming in 2020 when she was ordered to pay €20,000 ($23,500) after calling the residents of Réunion island "degenerate savages" with "savage genes." Altogether, Brigitte shelled out between $59,000 to $65,000 in penalties for racist offenses.
She also made homophobic slurs referring to gay men as "fairground freaks". She said of her own son: that he was a "cancerous tumor" and that she would have "preferred to give birth to a little dog". Her husband Bernard d'Ormale, was an adviser to Jean-Marie Le Pen. Her husband got full custody after the divorce in the early '70s - back when men almost never got full custody, so she had to be genuinely awful for that to happen.
Yes she did good for animals, but she was extremely racist against anyone who was not white, hated most cultures that wasn't her own. Her public image is now widely considered to be well and truly tarnished by her repeated racist and homophobic comments. She additionally voiced xenophobic and Islamophobic sentiments in her book Un cri dans le silence (A Cry in the Silence). In political circles, she has frequently been labeled a "Neo-Nazi," owing to her previously mentioned perspectives and association with far-right ideology.
An icon who turned into a monster. A beautiful face can never hide a truly rotted heart. Obviously so many of us have burned into our brains the Bardot of the 1960s, so it’s inevitable that people are going to whitewash or outright ignore the last however many decades of her being an utter racist and xenophobic, homophobe, who supported a neo nazi party, the Front National (now known as the Rassemblement National or National Rally) backing far right Marine Le Pen in 2012 and 2017 elections.
Let's not forget Bardot was also against the Me Too movement, and was a defender of all male sexual abusers in the film industry and politics. So will spare her the Rest in peace, sometimes I'm a bit too generous. I shed no tears. Praising her would be comparable to praising Charlie Kirk, Donald Trump or Tommy Robinson. I will remember her for her movies and animal rights activism, not her support for and connections with the Le Pen family and French fascism or for her overt racism.
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