Meet Barbara Butch, ‘fat, queer, Jewish’ and Olympics opener icon

The woman at the centre of the controversial ‘Feast of Dionysus’ tableau featured during the Olympics opening ceremony on Friday is something of an LGBTQ+ icon in Paris – and a proud Jew to boot.

French DJ and lesbian activist Barbara Butch, 43, stood front and centre among a glamourous lineup of models, performers and drag queens in a segment of the opening ceremony that has been dubbed “blasphemous” for supposedly parodying Leonardo Davinci’s Last Supper painting, according to Christian figures around the globe.

The response to the performance, which many perceived to be a mockery of the iconic painting of Jesus and his 12 apostles, was one of outrage among Catholic and Christian groups as well as conservative politicians, especially in the US. 

Butch, a self-described “love activist” who grew up in a traditional Jewish household, said her aim was to “unite people, gather people and share love through music.”

Butch told Attitude magazine in 2023 that members of her family were killed in the Holocaust, and she experienced antisemitism during childhood. She found acceptance in the French Jewish Scouts, which she describes as a “safe space” with “poor and rich kids” where she learned to play the guitar and began to explore her sexuality.

She came out to her family at 18 and described suffering an abusive first relationship with a woman, an experience which spurred her activist efforts to this day.

“I’m a fat, Jewish, queer lesbian, and I’m really proud of all my identities, because they make me what I am now as a human. All the violence and negativity I’ve experienced, I can make it something bigger to help others go forward with a lot of love.”

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Meet DJ Barbara Butch, the Jewish ‘love activist’ at the centre of the Olympics controversial opener (JC)