French DJ Barbara Butch on Harassment Following Olympic Opening Ceremony Backlash: “Not an Excuse to Want to Murder Someone”
Barbara Butch is a self-proclaimed “love activist.” This, she says, is why her feelings weren’t hurt when her appearance in the Paris Olympics Opening Ceremony unleashed an avalanche of death threats, abuse and harassment.
The French DJ was the centerpiece of a tableau during the four-hour event on July 26. Drag queens and dancers struck poses along a long table with Butch on the decks in the middle. Singer Philippe Katerine, painted in sparkly blue and semi-naked, sang while resting on a dinner platter in front.
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Social media users were quick to claim the image resembled Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper, the portrait of Jesus Christ and his 12 apostles before he was crucified. Suddenly, Butch was caught at the center of mass backlash.
Archbishop Charles Scicluna, the highest-ranking Catholic official in Malta and Vatican official for its doctrinal office, said he contacted France’s ambassador to Valletta to complain about the “gratuitous insult.” Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán spoke publicly of the “moral void of the west.” Former U.S. president Donald Trump said of the tableau: “I’m very open-minded but I thought what they did was a disgrace.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson, French far-right politician Marion Maréchal and Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker were also among those berating the tableau. “Last night’s mockery of The Last Supper was shocking and insulting to Christian people around the world,” Johnson said on X, formerly Twitter.
The artistic director of the entire ceremony, Thomas Jolly, was soon forced to clarify: “We wanted to talk about diversity. Diversity means being together. We wanted to include everyone, as simple as that.” Organizers shared photos of the moment in question, noting that it was meant to reference the Greek god Dionysus. “Clearly there was never an intention to show disrespect to any religious group,” said Paris Olympics spokesperson Anne Descamps. “If people have taken any offense, we are really sorry.”
But it was too late. Butch’s social media channels were flooded with threats — and they haven’t stopped. After talking to The Hollywood Reporter, the LGBTQ+ activist displays a message she received on Instagram from an anonymous account: “I’m going to fucking murder you,” it reads. “A fat fuck like you should know it’s place in the world to never mock Jesus. Your fucking dumb ass pisses me off because you look like a [sic] inbred liberal tranny. End your life.”
Butch has now opened an investigation with the Public Prosecutor’s Office in Paris in a bid to catch those threatening her. In a conversation with THR, she discusses being a victim of cyber-harassment, why Trump and Elon Musk are partly to blame, and what Jolly’s flamboyant tableau was really trying to honor: wine, revelry — and France.
Can we start by you telling me a little bit about you and your career in France?
I’m DJ and producer in France, in Paris, and my life is about making people dance, to make people dance from all over the world and to feel happy and safe on my dance floor. That’s it. I define myself as a love activist, because I like to share love, to spread love everywhere I go and at the ceremony.
What sort of activism? What causes are you championing?
I work a lot on self-esteem, body positivity. I’m teaching my followers how to love themselves, and I also tell them — if nobody told them that they were loved — that I love them. My goal is, really, to make all the people that I talk to or I make dance, feel love. That’s my mission in life.
How did you get involved in the Olympics Opening Ceremony?
The choreographer and Thomas Jolly called me for a meeting with all the artistic team of the Olympics and they told me about the show. They saw me perform on New Year’s Eve on the Champs-élysées [a major avenue in Paris] in front of one million people. They told me, “We think you are the image of what represents diversity and love.”
During COVID, during lockdown, I was DJing on Zoom for 35 weeks. So I held parties on Zoom and every Saturday one thousand people in France and all around the world joined. So they remember that. I work on some operas in France, in the cultural center [of things] and so in the art community in Paris, I’m known as the cool DJ. That’s why they asked me.
This tableau that people thought depicted The Last Supper, what was it meant to be honoring?
The Festival of Dionysus. At the end of the tableau, there’s Philippe Katerine, he’s a French singer who was Dionysus… Dionysus was the god of parties, of wine, the French vibe. Feast paintings are always the same everywhere — people [look] like that. There were 35 of us on the tableau. So I’m sure that the people who make this interpretation, it’s because they just felt safe to be homophobic, transphobic, fatphobic, every phobic you can find. And they had an excuse to be all that.
So you don’t think people were actually offended by the religious element of it mimicking The Last Supper?
It’s only their interpretation. It’s an excuse for them to be as phobic as they can. Also did you know that Elon Musk, Donald Trump, [Recep] Erdogan [the current president of Turkey], said on the internet that it was offensive and everything? It’s also their fault that people think that [it was The Last Supper]. They created this. But they create hate between people just to be elected, or re-elected, or to make money.
How long were rehearsals? Did anyone at any point think maybe it could resemble the painting, and that it would offend people?
Like, three days before. We were in another place near Paris, because we had to hide from people, because the ceremony was a secret. I think it’s been really misunderstood by people. We never worked off of The Last Supper, we worked off of Dionysus. Also the broadcasting [commentary], how it was on the TV — maybe that’s how they wanted to see it. I don’t know. I’m sorry for the people we offended but first, it’s not my fault, and secondly, it’s their misinterpretation. We are in France, we have a lot of humor. We are a little provocative. That’s French. The British are also like this.
What was your reaction after the ceremony, when you started to get some hateful messages?
After the ceremony, I had a lot of amazing message and [Instragram] stories and so I shared them without seeing them because I was really excited. I was crying all over myself. We were all crying, all my team were really crying because we worked so hard on this thing. Also it was raining cats and dogs. So it was a really intense 24 hours. I was crying and praying. I felt really emotional because I felt so lucky to be there, to be a part of it. And I had really nice comments, and it felt cool, it felt so good and empowering.
Then everything after… [when] they spread the fake news and everything about the representation of [The Last Supper]…. that is when the harassment starts on my social media.
Were you shocked?
I was really upset. I was not sad. It didn’t hurt me, because I know who I am, I know what I do in my life. I’m proud of who I am, who I became, and from where I started and where I’ll go. So it didn’t hurt me, but I thought about all the young people, other people in life who are harassed all the time, who commit suicide because of the hate of others, and that’s the reason why I don’t want to leave [the perpertrators] alone.
I’m working with a cyber-security enterprise and we are tracking all the people who send me messages about death, violence, rape, and everything. We want to get justice. We already found many, many identities of the haters and we will [file a police report against] them. Even if they are in the U.S., Colombia, France, we will. For the people who cannot anymore.
Are you comfortable sharing what these people have been saying to you? The content of these messages?
Let me check my phone [pause]. So this morning, we are talking right now, and in my messages I have a message in Spanish. I don’t speak Spanish, but I made the [translation] and it says: “If you are in Paris, I will kill you.” And it’s a woman who wrote this, because there is no gender in hate.
I had a lot of anti-semitic messages, like, “Adolf Hitler didn’t do the full job. He forgot you,” but I was not born in the war, so they are stupid. I had another one that was like, “I will make soap with your skin like they did in World War II.” [Editor’s note: During the war, there were widely circulated rumors that soap was being mass-produced from the bodies of the victims of Nazi concentration camps.] I had many, “Kill yourself.” I had fatphobic [messages] which is the first thing, like “big” or “whale.” But I don’t care about those messages, because it’s talking about their insecurities, not mine. But yeah it’s, “I want to kill you. I will see when you are DJing and I will go on stage and cut your head in front of the audience.” Really horrible things.
The Olympics Opening Ceremony had like, two billion views on the TV. So it’s normal to have some haters on social media. But if you don’t like something, it’s not an excuse to want to murder someone.
Has it made you fear for your safety?
At first I was like, I wasn’t really taking care… But the messages were getting worse and worse and worse. And they were from fanatics and when people are fanatics about something, we don’t know what could happen. So I am in a safe place now. In Paris, they have opened an investigation to see how real the threats are. And when I come back to Paris, I will see if I need the security.
Tell me about the legal action you’re taking. Is it a lawsuit?
It’s best to ask my lawyer. I don’t want to spread fake information. But I want people to get charged. And I want people to not feel safe about spreading hate. I want to punish them, not me, but the justice system.
[Butch’s lawyer, Audrey Msellati, tells THR that the complaint has been filed with the Public Prosecutor’s Office, specifically with the National Centre for Combating Online Hate. The public prosecutor informed Msellati that the investigation has been opened and entrusted to another office, one that is particularly effective when it comes to offenses and crimes committed for discriminatory reasons. The advantage is that this office can coordinate international investigations with the various countries involved. The prosecutor’s office is trying to move forward as quickly as possible, but Butch has received so many hate messages that it is taking some time. Instagram accounts have been identified and passed on to investigators. For a case to go to trial, a complaint must be filed and an investigation launched, and investigators must feel their inquiry has yielded sufficient evidence.]
Is anyone else that took part in the tableau getting the same amount of abuse as you?
Yeah, the drag queens. Not all the people, but Thomas Jolly, who directed the whole ceremony. [I’m getting more abuse] because I was central in the tableau and I think for people, it’s easier to attack a fat girl. For them, I am insecure, I don’t love myself, they think I’m weak, so it’s easier for them to attack me.
But they will understand that I’m not weak, I’m really strong. And all the insulting and everything, it goes around me. I don’t care. I want to turn all the shit into gold. I will transform everything.
Do you think you became maybe somewhat of a scapegoat in this?
Yes, I think I am.
Have you had any support from the International Olympics Committee?
I had a message from the artistic team. I didn’t get an official message from the president [Thomas Bach]. But hopefully I will get one. They have a lot to deal with right now.
On that note, I’m sure you’ve seen the same abuse directed at female boxer Imane Khelif after she was accused of being a man (Khelif was born a female and identifies as female).
Yes, it was awful. This Olympics, all the haters are really just transphobic people, fatphobic, homophobic. We saw this, on the first day at the ceremony. There are victims of the Olympics Games and [Khelif] is one of them. And it’s not the first time. Every time a woman is strong, haters say she’s not a woman. Remember Serena Williams?
If you could talk to all the people that have sent you these messages, what would you say to them?
What I answer whenever I answer [them], because I don’t give a shit but sometimes I answer with love, and they block me. (Laughs.) No, what I want to tell them is to be really careful because words can kill, for real. Words already kill and have killed. And they kill children, they kill LGBT people, trans people. I’m also thinking about justice because I will never give up. I have the time and I have the patience.
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