Gerry Brakus at The New Statesman:
Bardot’s significance was never confined to her acting. She mattered because she altered the image of womanhood at a moment when female beauty was expected to reassure. She unsettled instead. Her looseness, physical and emotional, her apparent boredom with approval, her refusal to perform refinement, all suggested a form of autonomy that was felt before it was articulated. She did not argue for freedom. She behaved as if it already belonged to her.
She never aligned herself with feminism in any organised or ideological sense, and she showed little interest in collective struggle. Yet her presence did feminist work all the same. Desire, in her case, did not feel offered up for permission. It seemed to reside with her first. She expanded what a woman could look like without claiming responsibility for what followed. Part of Bardot’s authority came from her refusal to revise herself. She did not attempt to improve her face, correct her body, or negotiate with time. Nor did she soften her views to remain agreeable.
more here.
Enjoying the content on 3QD? Help keep us going by donating now.