Apparently, Chappell Roan learned a bit too late that Brigitte Bardot’s legacy extends far beyond her iconic hairdo and sex appeal — and into a well-documented history of racism and homophobia. Bardot, the ’60s French movie star and model, passed away on December 28th, prompting Roan to post a tribute message that credited the late icon as the “inspiration” for her song “Red Wine Supernova.” (The song opens with the line, “She was a playboy, Brigitte Bardot.”)
After receiving prompt fan backlash, it seems Roan Wikied Bardot and found out she was infamous as well as famous. “Holy shit i did not know all that insane shit Ms. Bardot stood for,” she posted a day later via an Instagram Story. “obvs I do not condone this. very disappointing to learn.”
Roan is referring to Bardot’s frequent and outspoken hateful views. She once unfavorably compared her “homo” friends to the “fairground freaks” who “jiggle their bottoms, put their little fingers in the air, and with their little castrato voices moan about what those ghastly heteros put them through.” That came from her 2003 book A Scream in Silence (Un cri dans le silence), where she also attacked “the mixing of genes,” immigration, Islam, and the role of women in politics. That led to her fourth conviction in a French court for inciting racial hatred.
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By the time she was convicted for a fifth time in 2008 after saying she was “fed up with being under the thumb of this [Muslim] population which is destroying us, destroying our country and imposing its habits,” a French prosecutor said they were “weary” of constantly charging Bardot with “offenses relating to racial hatred and xenophobia.”
She also called the #MeToo movement “hypocritical, ridiculous and uninteresting.”
Bardot spent her retirement fighting for animal rights, so there’s that. Meanwhile, Roan is fighting for LGBTQ+ youth via her recently launched The Midwest Princess Project, so you can understand why she might want to distance herself from praising Bardot. But, ya know, RIP and everything.
