Free Brigitte Bardot!

Have you heard that Brigitte Bardot was convicted this week in France for "inciting racial hatred?" Here's what the 73-year-old former sex goddess wrote about the Muslim population in France that landed her in hot water:

"I am fed up with being under the thumb of this population which is destroying us, destroying our country, and imposing its acts."

Oy. In part she was protesting the ritual slaughtering of sheep by Muslims (without stunning them first) as part of the festival of Eid al-Adha. This was Bardot's fifth conviction for racial issues and she was fined 15,000 Euros.

Do any young people today even know who Brigitte Bardot is? She was an international sensation in the 1950s and 60s, and almost single-handedly responsible for a resurgence of interest in French films in art houses all over this country, even if the films were often pitched as saucy "adults only" presentations. Bardot's first huge hit in this country was "And God Created Woman" directed by her husband Roger Vadim, the man who would later marry Jane Fonda. Bardot started her relationship with Vadim when she was 15 years old and married him at 18. But that didn't stop her from having an affair with her costar in "And God Created Woman," Jean-Louis Trintignant, a dalliance that Vadim knew about and supported. Oh, those crazy frogs! When the film was released in December 1957, the Los Angeles Times called it "the most fabulous frolic of the year, starring the most fabulous wench of the decade."

For someone who never really made it in American films, Bardot was a massive star on these shores, and reporters followed her every shocking move including several nervous breakdowns and suicide attempts.

My first exposure to Bardot was a very odd Jimmy Stewart film from 1965 called "Dear Brigitte." I haven't seen this film since I was a little kid but it made a huge impression on me. Stewart plays a professor who has a genius son named Erasmus played by Billy Mumy who would soon take on the iconic role of Will Robinson on the TV show " Lost in Space." In "Dear Brigitte," young Erasmus has an over-the-top crush on Brigitte Bardot and writes her endless love letters. Because of his letters, the young boy is eventually invited by Bardot to France (along with his dad) where they meet the screen vixen. Was this film responsible for me becoming a major Francophile (I never thought about that until just now but I honestly think it may have been!) as well as my penchant for writing fan letters to celebrities at a very early age?

This was one of the only Bardot films I was allowed to see as a child but I was as transfixed by her beauty and sex appeal as the rest of the planet. Bardot retired from films just before she turned 40 and turned her attentions to animal rights activism. She brought a lot of awareness to the horrible way baby seals were being clubbed to death and did a lot of good work in that arena, even though with every passing year she seemed to be getting more conservative. It didn't help matters that following two other marriages, including one to actor Jacques Charrier that produced a son named Nicholas, she ended up married to Bernard d'Ornale, a right-wing former advisor to the National Front party which was founded by vile anti-Semitic politician Jean-Marie Le Pen. Oh-la-la, Brigitte, qu'est-ce que tu fais, ma chérie?

After being accused of homophobia following some derogatory comments she made about gays in a book, Bardot wrote a letter to a gay magazine in France to defend herself:

Apart from my husband--who maybe will cross over one day as well--I am entirely surrounded by homos. For years, they have been my support, my friends, my adopted children, my confidants.

Interesting comment about her husband, no? Bardot is currently estranged from her son Nicholas and did not spend much time with him when he was growing up. When Nicholas was 13, she told a reporter that when she's with her son, "we play poker and he tries on my things, to see if there is anything he likes. Thank God he is being raised by his father. A woman would make a homosexual out of him."

In another frank interview from the early 70s, Bardot was asked if she'd like to have more children.

I think I'm not made to be a mother. I don't know why this is because I adore animals and I adore children, too, but I'm not adult enough--and I know it's horrible to have to admit that at 37 I'm not adult enough to take care of a child. I need somebody to take care of me! It's such a big responsibility to have a baby. Life is so hard now, we don't know what is going to happen to the world tomorrow or even in the next hour. I'm very sad to have had that baby--well, he is not a baby now. I don't want him to be confused by seeing me too often...I don't want him to have worries like: Where is my family? Where is my home?

Yikes. It's hard to imagine any American superstar being so truthful in an interview. When asked how Bardot would describe her own soul, she answered: "Like a labyrinth. Dark--no light enough for me to find the door to escape, to freedom."

The former movie queen is hard to figure out. Her foundation continues to do good work, and all would be peachy if Bardot would just keep her big mouth shut. Her 2004 conviction for inciting racial hatred came after she wrote about "the underground and dangerous infiltration of Islam" in France. She also condemned the "mixing of genes" and compared her beliefs with previous generations who had "given their lives to push out invaders."

Dear God. Does the troubled Brigitte Bardot sound like a misguided jackass? ABSOLUTELY. Should she be tried by a court of law for her views? ABSOLUTELY NOT. I'm grateful that for the most part we are still free to express our opinions in this country, no matter how idiotic they may be, without fearing prosecution. Or am I kidding myself?

Comments

[devadasi]

I appreciated Bardot for speaking her mind, and for not getting a face lift or botox treatments. As a progressive dem, I do sympathize with her feelings re immigration. I live in NY, I feel invaded by the huge wave of immigration over the last 10 years and I can't take it any more.

Yes, I realize we're a nation of immigrants, blah, blah, blah, however, there needs to be a system in place. there's a limit as to how many people you can hold in a building. It's not different with a country. . Point being, it's getting too bloody crowded here in America. Everyone I know is complaining.

The wealthy, don't mind because they live in the best neighborhoods, or gated communities, among their own kind. It's the working class and middle class neighborhoods who are being invaded., who are suffering.

Immigration is an issue that no poltician will touch, because they want the Latino vote. The Latinos have essentially blackmailed us. I realize this is not PC, but I don't care....I'm speaking my mind and I have many colleagues and friends who feel the same way.

[not one of the sheep]

Take a look at America in the near future when the hate police take over in 08.

[TheEuropean]

Oh Danny Boy,

it is not easy to free someone, who is not jailed. Our beloved Brigitte has not been in jail for a single day. As you write truefully, she has been fined 15.000,- euros.

By the way, you should take all your strength to free your American compatriotes. America has about 751 people in prison for every 100,000 in population.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_incarceration_rate)

In France, the rate is 91 per 100.000. (http://www.scribd.com/doc/328143/World-Prison-Population-List-2007)

[QueenCeleste]

Brigitte Bardot is a heroine. Her work on behalf of animals (not just photogenic baby harp seals, but ALL creatures) for decades is extraordinary. Her problem with Muslimism is the tradition of totally needless and barbaric animal sacrifice. What feeling person would not agree with her on that issue? Yes, she is candid and outspoken. She, refreshingly, does not crack to the whip of the p.c. police. The treatment of this national treasure of France is a disgrace.

As for those calling her a Nazi, that is totally absurd.

[Gemma08]

Some of you need to get a clue. Brigitte Bardot also needs to get a clue. The Islamic ritual of slaughtering animals is more humane than stunning. The animal has its throat cut with a VERY sharp knife. Its almost painless.

I know because I've witnessed it. Thereafter the animal is allowed to bleed to death. And you can actually see them close their eyes as they lose consciousness due to blood loss.

There is none of the stress of slaughtering that usually occurs at abattoirs. In fact, the animals are not even allowed to see the knife that will slit their throat, to avoid unnecessary trauma. Nor are they allowed to see the corpses of the animals that were slaughtered before them.

Please tell me how that is LESS humane that lining an animal up, holding it down and then shooting a rivet through its brain.

Just because the animal is unconscious when you kill it, does not mean its death is more humane.

By the way, Kosher meat is slaughtered the same way. Are the Jews barbaric too?

[xxnounxx]

Thank you for clarifying the halal and kosher way of slaughter.
you forgot to mention,that that the sheep is asked for forgivness before the slaughter.
as for stunning sheep,cows and chickn ,i find it barbaric,,the stunning makes them go into shock,and the keep twitching,then the neck is peirced,to release blood. scientifically the sheep i still alive after being stunned,bt in a coma like state.
brigitte bardot is a racist,so is one of her ex-husband,or current le-pen,he is like the BNP in england.

[Wolfgang]

The only thing that Brigitte Bardot is guilty of is speaking the truth in public, which seems to be a crime these days in our ever growing PC dictatorships. She advocated that animals should be stunned before having their throats cut and the Muslims of France freaked out over that.

[xxnounxx]

You and ger are wrong my dear ,stunning couses more stress to the animal.

[Fudgefase]

It disturbs me a little that we (I live in UK but I imagine it's similar throughout western europe) have established ways of doing things, like killing animals, using, what we have worked out to be, we consider, the most humane method.
For an incoming religious group to say that this way isn't their way, and they demand to ritually kill an animal in (we what consider an inhumane) alternative way, and for their view to take precedence over our carefully worked out method - I need to ask why? Is our opinion and belief worth nothing? If we got off our butts and decided to create hell if our beliefs were not explicitly catered for, what would happen?
I don't give a fig about Bardot's opinions regarding gays etc. She's an actress - we don't need to take our moral lead from an actress.
BUT we DO need to stick to our beliefs and defend what we consider to be humane treatment (though I'm assured that a visit to a slaughterhouse would encourage vegetarianism in most of us) or at least as humane as we can make it.
If we bend over much further back to cater for, especially radical Islamists, then eventually our heads will disappear where the sun don't shine and we will not recognise the countries we live in.

[xxnounxx]

Dont forget the jews slaughter the same way,so do third world countries.
now show me proof that stunning,and making an animal go into shock and coma,si more humane than slaughtering and which couses death immediatly. SHOW ME SCIENTIFIC PROOF.

[Ides]

Good point. Then again, how many times do police officers arrest people for walking around naked in the United States? We lack true freedom of expression in this country, too. A 30,000 dollar fine of a millionaire repeat offender hardly bothers me (anyone remember her crap about, "All of those foreign whores have ruined the glory of prostitution in this country." from a couple of years back?). Still, she's a bigoted ass, so while this judgment has my concern, she lacks my sympathy.

[nammy50]

If any of you have visited any of the European cities with large Muslim populations you would know Bardot speaks the truth.

[UKVisitor]

I have and she doesn't.
Don't you have laws against hate speech in the US?
I won't pretend that there aren't some difficulties, but the idea that Europe is under threat from muslims is just nonsense.

[RedDogBear]

Yes, thank you. Its as nonsensical as the idea that Iran poses a threat to the US. We don't have hate laws in the US. As much as I think what Ms. Bardot said was nonsense I don't think the way to address people who say hateful things is through the legal system. In the US the free exchange of ideas was highly prized by our founders and put right into the constitution:
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; ..."
Hence no hate laws.

[Furby]

Some countries have curtailed freedom of speech because humans have not always proven themselves worthy of that right. We are often incapable of using freedom of speech without inciting hate. The right to free speech comes with responsibility. It should come with some fact checking requirements and should be used with civility, two areas in which Miss Bardot failed miserably. Was she making a point about animal rights, or using an animal rights issue to vent anti-muslim sentiment?

[RedDogBear]

Sorry I don't agree. Governments should not be in the business of saying what is or is not allowable speech. "Fact checking" sounds reasonable but look at what passed for truth in the US which all turned out to be lies: weapons of mass destruction, links between Al Queda and Iraq, etc. Thank God that we have the first amendment in the US or who knows how far the patriot act would have gone in trying to outlaw dissent.

[Danny Miller - Huffpost Blogger]

See Danny Miller's Profile

You think I'm "apologizing" for Bardot's comments and in the same breath you criticize the Huffington Post for "losing its support for true freedom of speech?" Amazing.

[Boobaloo]

Right Danny ... if this nazi hag was saying this about Jews ... which they did in the lead up to the Holocaust... you would be gnashing your teeth and demanding that she be hanged, like Saddam.

So spare me your excuses for a racist hag ... "The Jews are destroying France ..."

I guarantee that useless tits at Huffpo wont post this because this stupid site has become so pansy, lost its edge and it's support for true freedom of speech but, gives Danny boy here a platform to apologize for the poor little nazi Bardot.

[Pema]

How evolved are we as a people with this nonsense being spewed?

[Sali68]

well maybe now she will shut up

[marymansour]

She was once an iconic figure in the time of my growing into adulthood. I saw a few of her films and thought her pretty but a lousy actress. I have always admired her fight for animal rights. Sorry about the racist statements but if was in regard to sheep, I can see why she's make a fuss.

[LABC]

Unfortunately, this is the latest of her racist comments -she has been brought up on these charges 4 or 5 times previously and not an animal has been in sight. While I admire her dedication with animals, I do not support her racist comments particularly in light of her husband's affiliations.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brigitte_Bardot#Politics.2C_controversy_and_legal_issues