Bette Midler

[FireFlyBoogaloo]

Just posted on Twitter. The usual suspects are all over the replies, obviously, so give her some support if you can—but there's a surprising amount of balance. Seems to me that the scales have finally started to tip.

It was always going to be sunlight.

---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!---

Re gaslighting, don't fall for it.

So called inclusive language puts women into a subset - the term woman is now merely an umbrella term, also meaning trans women and trans men.

In this subset trans women become as valid as women who are hearby known as Cis women. In fact Trans go a step further now because they have a privilege (TW more so) to use any space or category they chose and we all know the issues with that. Our cis privilege on the other hand is yet another stick to beat ordinary women with, and they are already doing so, it'll get worse.

Never relent.

They aren't erasing women physically, obviously, but they are severing the connection between women and their female biology.

Which wouldn't be of quite so much concern, if we weren't oppressed on the basis of that biology.

And the latest incarnation of that is banning abortion. Again, it's about female biology.

If you can't align oppression and sexism to the sex at whom it's directed, you can't address it.

Women are oppressed. Sometimes it's through the control of like marriage or making them reliant on men, sometimes it's through denying them bodily autonomy, sometimes it's through selling and buying their bodies.

Men who identify as women want the concept of women to be superficial. Hair, make up, pronouns. So they can claim it.

Therefore women and female biology must be decoupled. Hence women being known by individual body parts, depending on the context, and not a collective term.

it's not always obvious how decoupling women from their biology can be detrimental.

But it's women who are being denied an abortion. People know full well that it's not random. It's not a 'people' thing. You don't see any suggestions for men having compulsory vasectomies, do you? And it only being reversed when society at large seems it appropriate. Or their girlfriends and partners say it's ok. It's unthinkable.

Men aren't being disadvantaged in order to stop pregnancies. Even mildly. They're not even included in the equation.

It's not a people thing. It's a woman thing.

And such is the rage over the overturning of Roe v Wade, that removing the means to describe the very cohort who is affected is really hitting home how this ideology affects women.

I hope Bette is clued up enough about the tactics to see that for the condescending, arrogant, controlling crap it is.

The tweet about the ‘pregnant girl in the classroom won’t have to sit under the rainbow flag whilst she’s shot’ - was it on this thread? Trying to find it to share with friends.

It's not a people thing. It's a woman thing.

YY.

Macy’s capitulated. Tweeted an apology and affirmation of support.

Hm. Not sure. That's not enough abasement and repentance to save her, I'm afraid.

'i got nothing but love for
lgbt+ and transgender communities.
i've been a supporter since day one and never a fake one.
my statement on piers morgan was GROSSLY misunderstood.
i respect everyone's right to be whoever they wana be.'

Well she's not wrong that it will be grossly misinterpreted. As hate, death wishes, threats.

I hope she holds the line.

She hasn’t withdrawn what she said. Just said she supports the transgender community. Good. So do I. Men can’t be women.

Absolutely nailed it.

That’s going to make them worse. A full scale denunciation of TERFs might redeem her (they like to gloat about these things), but even then only provisionally.

I’m not sure how the actual words she said being broadcast can be totally misrepresented 🤔

@Datun has it. Everyone knows who women are for the purposes of oppressing us and removing rights. Everyone knows when it's time for a pay rise or a promotion. Everyone knows when a man wants to sexually assault a woman who we are. Everyone knows when needed healthcare has to be banned.

It's only when someone's feelings needs to be most important everyone is confused.

Brilliant and thoughtful responses to my post - thank you, I love mumsnet and I love the solidarity between women here.

Look what IW subjected her to

i respect everyone's right to be whoever they wana be.'

I can't see this latest tweet anywhere but she pretty much said that on piers Morgan.

She was respectful. She just asked for respect back. Recognition of being a woman.

Better context of rant:

Once you see the subtext, that women must be uncoupled from their biology, so men can be women, you can't unsee it. It's in everything they say.

Claiming that we have a unique biology is wrong because it's 'reducing us to our parts'. And then they go and actually reduce us to our parts, in order that we can be known by individual functions like menstruators, not the collective term woman.

Munro Bergdorf famously told women on their own Woman's March, not to centre their biology as it was exclusionary. They weren't allowed to wear 'pussy hats', as a protest against Trump using that word. 'Because not every woman has one'.

But yes, yes they do.

Munro Bergdorf famously told women on their own Woman's March, not to centre their biology as it was exclusionary. They weren't allowed to wear 'pussy hats', as a protest against Trump using that word. 'Because not every woman has one'.

That was my wtf moment.

Well. The first of what has become a long string of such moments.

twitter.com/BetteMidler/status/1544470451476467715?t=kxm6trikSZuhrQLx2MkS4A&s=19

Here we go, the "that's not what I meant" has begun. She does however, link to the NY Times article that lead to many mantrums and hyperbolic angry cries so you can imagine how that's gone down.

A range of responses, mainly telling her she needs to educate herself, others very disappointed because they were expecting a good old self flagellation to make them feel all righteous and she's left them wanting. It's never enough mind!

But she does use the phrase "women - ALL WOMEN". And we know what that usually means 😬 Let's hope not this time.

I ADORE Bette. Truly.

The article she publicly agrees with is unequivocal.

Women didn’t fight this long and this hard only to be told we couldn’t call ourselves women anymore.

She's may still be at the stage where she doesn't realise that fawning capitulation is the only acceptable stance.

Re: "I love how so many of the comments are 'it's not erasure it's inclusive!' Well why can't women just be called women then ffs"

Yeah, this new talking point has definitely evolved in the last week or two, I think in response to the New York Times starting to show signs of heresy.

My response: Replacing the word "women" with "people" in female-specific contexts is maddening in the same way as replacing "Black Lives Matter" with "All Lives Matter". Women are a class facing specific challenges, they have to be able to name themselves.

We can’t have it both ways. We can’t stage a fight back against the removal of women’s rights at the same time as pretending we aren’t a thing. Bette had probably just had enough. That doesn’t mean she hates trans people (she clearly doesn’t). It does mean she isn’t prepared to call women ‘menstruators’ and ‘womb carriers’, because it’s incompatible with feminism.