Bette Midler Defends Her Tweets That Were Criticized As Transphobic
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Yesterday, Macy Gray defended some transphobic comments she made in a Monday interview with Piers Morgan. Now, Bette Midler has walked back similar comments that were criticized as being transphobic after tweeting: “WOMEN OF THE WORLD! We are being stripped of our rights over our bodies, our lives and even of our name!” And “They don’t call us ‘women’ anymore; they call us ‘birthing people’ or ‘menstruators, and even ‘people with vaginas’!,” her tweet reads. “Don’t let them erase you! Every human on earth owes you!”
On Tuesday, the Hocus Pocus sequel star retweeted a controversial opinion piece from the New York Times with the caption: “PEOPLE OF THE WORLD! My tweet about women was a response to this fascinating and well written piece in the NYT on July 3rd.” Midler also tweeted: “There was no intention of anything exclusionary or transphobic in what I said; it wasn’t about that.”
The piece Midler was pointing to was published on July 3 and was written by Pamela Paul and is titled “The Far Right And Far Left Agree On One Thing: Women Don’t Count.” Paul posits that inclusive language such as “pregnant people,” “menstruators,” and “bodies with vaginas” is tantamount to women’s erasure. Suffice it to say, this line of thinking has met with considerable backlash online.
Midler added in her defense:
It was about the same old shit women – ALL WOMEN – have been putting up with since the cavemen. Even then, men got top billing. But seriously, folks, if anyone who read that tweet thinks I have anything but love for any marginalized people, go to Wikipedia and type in my name.
I’ve fought for marginalized people for as long as I can remember. Still, if you want to dismiss my 60 years of proven love and concern over a tweet that accidentally angered the very people
I have always supported and adored, so be it.
But the truth is, Democracy is slipping through our fingers! I’m all in on trying to save Democracy for ALL PEOPLE. We must unite, because, in case you haven’t been paying attention, divided we will definitely fall.
