Brigitte Bardot, France’s first celebrity Marianne, died at 91

Brigitte Bardot, the French film star long regarded as an emblem of France, died on Sunday at age 91.

In 1969 she was selected as the first celebrity face for Marianne, the personification of the French republic. Marianne has historically been depicted as a classical-style goddess—slim, young, beautiful and often partially bare-breasted—representing liberty, equality and fraternity.

Ms. Bardot, an original 1950s bombshell alongside figures such as Sophia Loren and Marilyn Monroe, was presented on screen as openly desirous and fully in control of her sexuality; the column contrasts her hair, posture and trained-ballerina carriage with her American counterparts. She retired from cinema at 39 to pursue animal rights activism and later became a divisive figure for espousing nationalistic and often racist ideology, while in later years allowing her face and body to age naturally and keeping her trademark hairstyle.

For a time she incarnated what the column calls the essence of Frenchness, but the piece notes that her selection as Marianne raises larger questions about folding desirous female sexuality into national symbols and asks how that would compare with American practice.

Key Topics

Culture, Brigitte Bardot, Marianne, France, Animal Rights, Nationalism