Feminists expressed outrage today after footage circulated of France’s first lady Brigitte Macron using a slur against activists who disrupted the show of an actor-comedian who had once been accused of rape.

The first lady’s team said she had intended to criticise their “radical method” of protest.

Activists at the weekend interrupted the stand-up show of 51-year-old Ary Abittan, wearing masks of the actor bearing the word “rapist” and shouting “Abittan rapist”.

A woman in 2021 accused the actor of rape but in 2023 investigators dropped the case, citing lack of evidence.

Brigitte Macron the next day went to see the show with her daughter Tiphaine Auziere, and spoke to Abittan before he went on stage, according to a video published by local media Public on Monday.

“I’m scared,” Abittan is heard saying in the clip.

“If there are any stupid b***hes we’ll kick them out,” Brigitte Macron is heard to jokingly respond, using a vulgar expression in French.

The feminist group behind the action, #NousToutes (literally “All of us”) on social media turned the insult into a hashtag and many posts shared it in a show of support.

Among those using it was actor Judith Godreche, who has become a feminist icon since accusing two directors of sexually abusing her when she was a minor and calling for an end to such behaviour in France’s cultural sector.

“I too am a stupid b***h,” she posted on Instagram.

An activist who took part in the action, and who gave the pseudonym of Gwen to avoid repercussions, said the collective was “profoundly shocked and scandalised” by Brigitte Macron’s language.

“It’s yet another insult to victims and feminist groups,” she said.

The first lady’s team argued her words should be seen as “a critique of the radical method employed by those who disrupted the show”.

“Brigitte Macron does not approve of this radical method,” a member of her team told AFP.

France has been rocked by a series of accusations of rape and sexual assault against well-known cultural figures in recent years.

Screen icon Gerard Depardieu was in May convicted of sexually assaulting two women on a film set in 2021 and is to stand trial charged with raping an actor in 2018. He denies any wrongdoing.

French President Emmanuel Macron in 2023 had expressed admiration for Depardieu and said at the time the actor was the target of a “manhunt” and he stood behind the presumption of innocence.

-Agence France-Presse