On Thursday night, many people discovered that Bette Midler trending on Twitter in October was unfortunately not Hocus Pocus-related.
Midler tweeted out “Women, are the n-word of the world,” and then went on to detail how women are silenced and disrespected. It’s a dated view on feminism, and to many, it was the epitome of white feminism in action.
After the pushback started, Midler tried to explain the quote—which is the title of a song from John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s 1972 album Some Time in New York City and was reportedly first coined by Ono in a 1969 magazine interview. Midler then doubled down on its perceived relevance, stating, “This is not about race, this is about the status of women.” That also didn’t help.
Midler eventually apologized, saying the “too brief investigation of allegations against Kavanaugh infuriated me” and that she “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.”
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.
— bettemidler (@BetteMidler) October 5, 2018
But people were not feeling her apology and her erasure of black women’s experience.
https://twitter.com/TalibKweli/status/1048038841196728320
BLACK WOMEN EXIST BETTE
— Franchesca Ramsey (@chescaleigh) 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
Damn. @BetteMidler had to go get herself canceled in October, of all the months?? I haven’t even gotten to watch Hocus Pocus yet, this Fall.
— GNCordova (@GNCordova) October 5, 2018
Midler landed in deleted-tweet-land in 2016 as well, when she made a transphobic joke about Caitlyn Jenner.
H/T Daily Mail
