Brigitte Bardot: Libert‪é‬

From her first starring role in '. . . And God Created Women', Brigitte Bardot has fascinated the public. This extended essay asserts that the primary reason Bardot has captivated public consciousness is that she stands for, indeed insists upon, absolute liberty – the freedom to behave as she pleases, to love who she desires, to say what she feels – even if doing so leads her into controversy.

As a young woman, Bardot represented a break with previous notions of womanhood, embodying the jeune fille, who lived by her own desires and instinct rather than by traditional morality and establishment codes. She changed how fashion, commerce and the media responded to young women. Simone de Beauvoir called Bardot ‘the locomotive of women’s history’.

Her subsequent film career saw her work with many famous directors and actors of the day, often in roles that exemplified (and played with) the sexually liberated persona she had cultivated, but she tired of the limelight and retired from film at age 39. In refusing celebrity, she sought the freedom to live the bohemian life that she had rebelled against her Catholic upbringing to pursue.

Since her retirement, Bardot has devoted her time to animal rights issues, and in doing so has stepped into the French political arena. She says what she wants, refusing to be silent even when she has been fined several times for incitement to racial hatred. Contentious she may be, but the love affair between her and the public remains incredibly strong, because she represents what we all wish to achieve: absolute liberty.