Eds. note: This piece initially published January 2, and within an hour, I learned more about Bardot’s views and made the unprecedented (for us) step of unpublishing while I talked it over with Janet, the author and Rebellious Magazine’s Arts & Culture Editor. It felt and feels important to honor Janet’s tribute to the admirable elements of Bardot’s legacy while acknowledging the parts that Rebellious exists to combat. My thoughtful conversation with Janet — who is one of the best in the biz, y’all — raised again the dilemma we all increasingly face: how to separate the art from the artist. Ultimately, I can respect and appreciate what Bardot meant to the arts and animal advocacy without cosigning her reprehensible opinions, which I won’t repeat here given the breadth of coverage about her elsewhere. Janet’s full review, with a few modifications, is below. — Rebelle in Chief Karen Hawkins
“When love walks in the room, everybody stand up. Oh, it’s good, good, good like Brigitte Bardot,” sings Chrissie Hynde in the Top 5 hit “Message of Love” (1981).
The Pretenders aren’t the only ones to use Bardot (Sep. 28, 1934-Dec. 28, 2025) as shorthand for inner and outer beauty. For six decades, the pop culture phenom has been popping up in pop, rock and folk songs including Bob Dylan’s “I Shall Be Free” (1963); Elton John’s “I Think I’m Going to Kill Myself” (1972); Liz Phair’s “Stratford-On-Guy” (1993); Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “Warlocks” (2006); Olivia Rodrigo’s “Lacy” (2023), and “Red Wine Supernova” (2023) by Chappell Roan, who has since walked back her admiration due to polarizing politics.
Although the late legend became a controversial figure later in life (repeatedly fined for hate speech in France), her contributions to French cinema, the sexual revolution, and animal rights causes cannot be denied.
“B.B.” catapulted to international fame in 1956 with Roger Vadim’s boundary-pushing romance Et Dieu… créa la femme (And God Created Woman). The provocative pic inspired existentialist/feminist Simone de Beauvoir to deem the Parisian-born bombshell “the most liberated woman of France” and a “locomotive of women’s history” per her essay “The Lolita Syndrome” (1959).
Lead roles in Louis Malle’s Vie privée (1962) co-starring Marcello Mastroianni and Jean-Luc Godard’s Le Mépris (1963) followed, as did a David di Donatello Award for Best Foreign Actress in La Vérité (1960). During this time, Bardot also enjoyed success as a singer.
Off camera, the blonde goddess would wed four times, have one son, and author several memoirs including “Initiales B.B.” (1995), “Le Carré de Pluton” (1999), “Pourquoi ?” (2006), and “Tears of Battle: An Animal Rights Memoir” (2019) with Anne-Cécile Huprelle.
In 1973, Bardot surprised fans when she retired from acting (and ceased eating meat) to become a full-time advocate for animals — long before the lifestyle was en vogue. By 1986, the sex symbol used her celebrity to create the Brigitte Bardot Foundation for the Welfare and Protection of Animals.
Bardot met and befriended Captain Paul Wilson, founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, in 1977. According to his Instagram post, “She spoke with breathtaking passion, calling on Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau to stop the slaughter of baby seals.” Wilson dubbed Bardot “an angel of mercy,” stating she “had the courage to show compassion in a world too often hardened by cruelty.”
Upon hearing the news of the 91-year-old’s death, French President Emmanuel Macron took to X. In addition to saying Bardot “embodied a life of freedom,” he lauded her “universal radiance” by acknowledging “her films, her voice, her dazzling fame, her initials, her sorrows, her generous passion for animals…We mourn a legend of the century.”
PETA Founder Ingrid Newkirk also honored the Global 500 Roll of Honour member via Fox News Digital. “From her rescued pigeons in Saint-Tropez to her beloved dogs, PETA will miss Brigitte, an angel for animals who went to bat and to court to protect them all. A vegetarian for years, a strong voice for all species, [Bardot] sold her jewelry and other possessions to start a sanctuary and defend animals.”
In her own words, the outspoken icon famously noted, “I gave my beauty and my youth to men, and now I am giving my wisdom and experience, the best of me, to animals.”
That’s Bardot’s message of love.