Twitter experienced some Independence Day fireworks yesterday thanks to a highly problematic tweet by inexplicably beloved entertainer and proud liberal warrior Bette Midler:
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!
— bettemidler (@BetteMidler) July 4, 2022
Poor Bette had no idea that she had just kicked a massive hornet’s nest. She thought she was sticking it to the Right over the end of Roe v. Wade, but she was also alienating the trans community and their woke allies. You hate to see it. By which we mean, of course, you love to see it.
Bette Midler mistaking woke rhetoric for dehumanizing conservative misogyny could be my favorite thing that's ever happened on Twitter. pic.twitter.com/zUSVLCRe4w
— Noam Blum (@neontaster) July 5, 2022
Midler’s tweet is still very much a hot topic of conversation today, so it makes sense that it would be trending on Twitter:
Peep that description, you guys:
"criticising inclusive language around bodies" is quite the phrase pic.twitter.com/G3XT1yLK4Z
— Jeryl Bier (@JerylBier) July 5, 2022
It is indeed quite the phrase. It is quite the ridiculously stupid phrase.
What does that even mean?
— Joe Human (@JoeHumanearth) July 5, 2022
It means that Twitter is trying way too hard and still not doing it right.
When meaningless terms wrap around themselves.
— Richard Hudson M.D. PhD 🌈🇺🇦🇹🇼 🏳️⚧️ (@AdonMadeon) July 5, 2022
… And then cut off the brain’s supply of oxygen.
https://twitter.com/TPCarney/status/1544314775286554624
Also, I don't think Midler knew what she was saying in the first place. But Tim's right, calling this "inclusive" is risible.
cc: @JerylBierhttps://t.co/HkaYCHsfGC
— Ed Morrissey (@EdMorrissey) July 5, 2022
Words still mean things. At least they’re supposed to.
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