‘Women are the n-word of the world’: Twitter unrelenting in takedown of Bette Midler for hot take
Actress and singer Bette Midler has been verbally flayed online after an ill-judged hot take stating: “Women are the n-word of the world.”
Midler, 72, is widely known as both an environmental and civil rights activist as well as a self-declared ally of marginalized groups in society. However, her past good behavior did not spare her from the baying Twitter mob Thursday night.
— Shammy Savage (@ShammySavage) October 5, 2018
— Starla Tobias (@MizzusTobias) October 5, 2018
Please keep going 🤣😂🤣😂🤣 pic.twitter.com/RRZL7z4v5g
— Traveling Fools 💃🏿🕺✈️🏖 (@travelandfish) October 5, 2018
Just calling to report that we're all n-words in this world. Because, you know... Yoko and Bette said it. pic.twitter.com/SVQ7d2PjG2
— Attiyya K (@AttiyyaK) October 5, 2018
Double down? pic.twitter.com/Y9Fwi2wHVq
— Kendra Shuler (@kendrashulerr) October 5, 2018
Midler initially defended the tweet by drawing attention to the cause-du-jour, Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, while also claiming she was invoking the sentiments of Yoko Ono, who infamously penned a song with her late husband John Lennon called ‘Woman is the N***er of the world’, in 1972.
SEE WHAT I MEAN?? https://t.co/C5xReWPqa2
— Bette Midler (@BetteMidler) October 5, 2018
Yoko was wrong then, and you're wrong now.
— Sofia Quintero (@sofiaquintero) October 5, 2018
@BetteMidler I see you have decided to double-down on this insensitive, ridiculous madness. Your arrogance and deliberate disregard for the experiences of Black women and by extension The Black community as a whole is breath-taking. Your privilege is showing! https://t.co/yUNGB69WUx
— Nina Turner (@ninaturner) October 5, 2018
— Neele P (@NeeleP) October 5, 2018
It wasn’t long before the tidal wave of backlash forced her into an embarrassing climbdown mere hours later in which she deleted the offending tweets and apologized.
The too brief investigation of allegations against Kavanaugh infuriated me. Angrily I tweeted w/o thinking my choice of words would be enraging to black women who doubly suffer, both by being women and by being black. I am an ally and stand with you; always have. And I apologize.
— Bette Midler (@BetteMidler) October 5, 2018
Once again, however, backlash was immediate, intense and unrelenting. She was then accused of ‘whitesplaining’ as a means of damage limitation.
Nothing like a white woman telling another white woman that her offensive Tweet, which invalidated black suffering, “didn’t invalidate black suffering.”This is a classic example of whitesplaining.
— Bishop Talbert Swan (@TalbertSwan) October 5, 2018
Bette Midler What are you doing? pic.twitter.com/XoTLV3VQa3
— Matthew A. Cherry (@MatthewACherry) October 5, 2018
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