Bette Midler is responding to all the backlash about her alleged “transphobic” comments from earlier this week, defending her original tweet and doubling down on why she wrote it.
“PEOPLE OF THE WORLD! My tweet about women was a response to this fascinating and well written piece in the NYT on July 3rd. There was no intention of anything exclusionary or transphobic in what I said; it wasn’t about that,” Midler shared.
“It was about the same old sh** 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,” she continued in a follow-up.
“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,” Midler continued.
“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,” she concluded.
The linked article led to a New York Times opinion piece titled, “The Far Right and Far Left Agree on One Thing: Women Don’t Count.” The article blames conservatives for stripping women’s rights by overturning Roe v. Wade, but it doesn’t let liberals off the hook. Instead, the author accuses radical leftists of disrespecting women in a different way.
“A number of academics, uber-progressives, transgender activists, civil liberties organizations and medical organizations are working toward an opposite end: to deny women their humanity, reducing them to a mix of body parts and gender stereotypes,” writer Pamela Paul argued. She does not agree with language which eliminates the word women or their essential roles, including new terms such as “menstruators” and “bodies with vaginas.”
Midler seems to agree with that assessment. The original tweet that got her into trouble said, “WOMEN OF THE WORLD! We are being stripped of our rights over our bodies, our lives and even of our name!”
“They don’t call us ‘women’ anymore; they call us ‘birthing people’ or ‘menstruators,’ and even ‘people with vaginas!’ Don’t let them erase you! Every human on earth owes you,” the tweet read.
Critics were quick to call out Midler for what they called trans-exclusionary language, comparing her to another famous TERF (trans-exclusionary radical feminist), J.K. Rowling. Other followers agreed with Miller and applauded her for speaking out on the highly controversial topic.
Source: Dailywire
