“The Last Supper” performer at Paris 2024 reports cyberbullying
French DJ and lesbian activist Barbara Butch has filed a complaint with French prosecutors over cyberbullying and death threats related to her performance at the Olympic opening ceremony, which was seen as disrespectful to Christian religions.
The French DJ star of the Olympic show is reporting cyberbullying, her lawyer and a source close to the case said on Tuesday. Barbara Butch, a body-positive feminist, was at the centre of a scene in the opening ceremony with dancers and drag queens during Friday’s show that the world’s largest religion says was reminiscent of depictions of Jesus’ last supper with his apostles.
This was seen as offensive and a mockery of a sacred moment for Catholics and Christians, such as the institution of the Eucharist, and caused outrage among many people worldwide, not just Catholics.
Dear American friends,
From what I’ve read you have an issue with yesterday’s #ceremoniedouverture.
Let’s make a deal.
You keep Taylor Swift, Bud light and country music. We keep Philippe Katerine, Barbara Butch, le burlesque, la folie et l’extravagance.
PS: we keep Gaga too. pic.twitter.com/W3rK0GmbyW— Sophie 🎗️🧡 (@Mllesoss0) July 27, 2024
Many other religious figures and institutions, including Islamic ones, as well as several world leaders and senior officials, including former US President Donald Trump, have criticised the opening ceremony. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan joined the condemnation on Tuesday, calling it “immorality against all Christians”.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, although not a Catholic and a Muslim, also condemned on Tuesday the “insults” he said were made against Christianity at the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics.
“Respect for Jesus Christ … is an undeniable, unequivocal matter for Muslims. We condemn these insults directed at the holy figures of divine religions, including Jesus Christ,” said the statement on the official X social media account attributed to Khamenei.
Respect for #JesusChrist (pbuh) is an indisputable, definite matter for Muslims. We condemn these insults directed at the holy figures of divine religions, including Jesus Christ (pbuh).#Olympic2024
— Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) July 30, 2024
A group of French bishops also condemned the events in a statement on 27 July, calling them “scenes of ridicule and mockery of Christianity”.
The organisers have said they intended to depict a pagan festival and meant no offence, although Catholic groups and French bishops have criticised the scene as a disrespectful parody of what is described in the Holy Scriptures and brilliantly depicted by the Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci, who worked between 1495 and 1498.
On Monday, Butch wrote in an Instagram post that she had become the target of “particularly violent, cyber-harassment”. “Although I initially decided not to speak out to let the haters cool down, the messages I receive are becoming more and more extreme,” the activist and renowned French DJ said.
Dear American friends,
From what I’ve read you have an issue with yesterday’s #ceremoniedouverture.
Let’s make a deal.
You keep Taylor Swift, Bud light and country music. We keep Philippe Katerine, Barbara Butch, le burlesque, la folie et l’extravagance.
PS: we keep Gaga too. pic.twitter.com/W3rK0GmbyW— Sophie 🎗️🧡 (@Mllesoss0) July 27, 2024
“Today, she is filing several complaints against these acts, whether committed by French nationals or foreigners, and intends to prosecute anyone who intimidates her in the future,” the lawyer said. Msellati said on Tuesday that she believed the DJ’s French critics “can’t stand that she represents France because she’s a woman, a lesbian, fat and Jewish, and that the problem is their intolerance”.
The scene, intended to promote tolerance of different sexual and gender identities, also featured French actor Philippe Katerine, who appeared on a silver platter, almost naked and painted blue. He was supposed to be Dionysus, the Greek god of wine and pleasure, who was the father of Sequana, the goddess of the Seine.
Olympic organising committee spokeswoman Anne Descamps said her team stood by its artists. “We strongly condemn the cyberbullying to which our ceremony and our artistic team have been subjected,” she said.
“It depicts a pagan festival,” she stressed. “If any people were offended, it was unintentional,” Descamps said. Former president and current US presidential candidate Donald Trump told Fox News on Monday, “I’m very open-minded, but I thought what they did was a disgrace.
The IOC has taken note of and welcomes the clarification given by the Paris 2024 Organising Committee regarding the Opening Ceremony. pic.twitter.com/kEB9zyw3Ue
— IOC MEDIA (@iocmedia) July 28, 2024