Burchill has made frequent attacks on various celebrity figures, which have attracted criticism for their cruelty. On the 25th anniversary of John Lennon's murder by shooting in 2005 she told "The Guardian" "I don't remember where I was but I was really pleased he was dead, as he was a wife-beater, gay-basher, anti-Semite and all-round bully-boy". In the essay "Born Again Cows" published in "Damaged Gods" (1987), she wrote: "When the sex war is won prostitutes should be shot as collaborators for their terrible betrayal of all women".