Olympics drag artist Barbara Butch takes online haters to court after opening ceremony controversy
Barbara Butch, the drag artist, at the Paris Olympics opening ceremony Photograph:( Instagram )
Story highlights
Barbara Butch, a drag artist, has faced death threats and cyberbullying after appearing at a drag performance at this past weekend's Paris Olympics opening ceremony. Now, she is taking her detractors to court. Who is Barbara Butch, and why did she face so much hatred?
Barbara Butch, a drag artist, has faced death threats and cyberbullying after appearing at a drag performance at this past weekend's Paris Olympics opening ceremony. Now, she is taking her detractors to court. Who is Barbara Butch, and why did she face so much hatred?
After the Paris Olympics opening ceremony, the drag artist Barabara Butch was mocked online and was given death threats over a controversial set that some felt was a display of the Last Supper of Jesus Christ. Now, after days of cyber-bullying, Butch is moving court against her detractors.
Butch is filing "several complaints against these acts, whether committed by French nationals or foreigners and intends to prosecute anyone who tries to intimidate her in the future," said Butch's attorney Audrey Msellati.
In a statement shared on Instagram on Monday (Jul 29), Msellati noted that Butch has been the target of an "extremely violent campaign of cyber-harassment and defamation."
Barbara Butch reacts to online haters
In an Instagram post accompanying her lawyer's statement, Barbara Butch said she was honoured to have taken part in the Olympics opening ceremony while hitting back at her critics.
"My heart is still broken and I thank you for all the love and strength you have given me since then," she said, as per an auto-translation of the post originally made in French.
"Through my DJ career and militantism, I have always promoted love and inclusivity - for me, it is what will save the world, even when it falls apart.
"However, today I am the target of an umpteenth cyber-bullying - particularly violent one. If at first, I decide not to speak on it to let the haters get off, the messages I receive are becoming more and more extreme," she wrote.
"Some people don't like me, I exist. I’ve never been ashamed of who I am and I own it all - including my artistic choices," Butch added.
"All my life I’ve refused to be a victim: I will not shut up. I'm not afraid of those who hide behind a screen, or a pseudonym, to vomit their hatred and frustrations. I will fight them with no trembling."
Who is Barbara Butch?
Barbara Butch is an artist-activist and DJ who appeared in a drag performance as part of the opening ceremony of the Olympics in Paris this past weekend. The drag show was criticised by a section of Christians and the right wing as mocking the Last Supper of Jesus Christ, while the Olympics organisers said it was depicting the Greek God of joy, Dionysus.
According to her lawyer, Barbara Butch received death threats and was warned of "torture and rape".
She was also targeted with "anti-Semitic, homophobic, sexist, and grossophobic insults," said Msellati.
(With inputs from agencies)
