Stirring the Pot
Apparently French actress Brigitte Bardot is quite the firecracker. I literally knew almost nothing about her until today. I certainly knew or cared nothing about her politics and still don't--though I find her political attitudes to be an interesting mix of left-wring and right-wing concerns, and I like that, as it shows that it is quite possible for people to be not completely one or the other.
I wouldn't even be posting about Bardot except that today, one of the featured posts on LJ mentioned that she considers the "Me Too" movement to be hypocritical. She thinks it's a lot of American actresses flirting with their producers and then complaining that they've been sexually harrassed by them. Bardot doesn't seem to admit to the possibility that some of those actresses indeed may have been sexually harassed or harmed. She claims that she was never sexually harassed and was in fact flattered when she would receive compliments on her appearance.
I put that down to her being French and also of a much older generation than that of young people today--which facts the young people don't seem to consider.
I think dismissing the "Me Too" movement out of hand is short-sighted of Bardot. For instance, what was done to actress Eliza Dushku--at age 12!--was beyond disgraceful and incites my rage; the same for what happened to Grace Lee Whitney, among, I believe, many others. I do believe that some of what young women of today regard as sexual harassment is actually harmless, and I do think some of the accusations are going overboard--but not all.
So I went into reading that post knowing zero about Bardot beyond the fact that she is French and considered hot. I saw a photograph of her included in the thread and had to revise my idea of her age upward. I didn't realize she is in her eighties.
Most of the comments were along the lines of "Yep." "Uh-huh." "Figures." and "What did you expect?" and someone's smart remark that Bardot has not aged well.
Yeah, I hope you like the way you look at age 80, too, asshole.
But someone named Unefaux actually mentioned the notion that attitudes in Europe toward sexuality and sexual behavior are a lot different from American attitudes. S/he thought Bardot's attitude was sad, but s/he at least admitted the possibility that Bardot's upbringing and age possibly had something to do with the way she thinks.
I thought that was the most intelligent answer I had yet seen to the thread and said so.
Someone else called Bardot anti-Semitic. I did some checking to find out. Actually, Bardot is an animal-rights activist who objects to Jewish and Muslim rituals of animal slaughter. She may have made other comments about people of those religions that I am not aware of; the objections to the ritual slaughters are what I found. She has been fined and cited several times for making remarks against Jewish and Muslim traditions, so I think Bardot is not particularly wise when it comes to expressing her opinions.
Neither is President Trump, and neither are most people I encounter on the internet.