Bette Midler tweets "women are the n-word of the world" and caused uproar with the 49-year-old Yoko Ono quote. Photo / Getty Images
Bette Midler tweets "women are the n-word of the world" and caused uproar with the 49-year-old Yoko Ono quote. Photo / Getty Images
Bette Midler caused uproar on Thursday with a 49-year-old Yoko Ono quote.
The actress tweeted that "women are the n-word of the world" — and the internet was not happy about it.
The 72-year-old was attempting to make a point about the oppression of women, just like the originator, reports Daily Mail.
"Raped, beaten, enslaved, married off, worked like dumb animals; denied education and inheritance; enduring the pain and danger of childbirth and life IN SILENCE for THOUSANDS of years," she wrote. "They are the most disrespected creatures on earth."
The post was met with fury, with many attacking her use of the racist term, however censored or derived.
Many more slammed the Hocus Pocus star for comparing the plight of women to the mistreatment of black people.
"It's time to retire that quote. It minimizes racism and is counterproductive to intersectional feminism. The shock value is in NO WAY worth the harm to Black people," one Twitter user wrote.
"There is no reason to use this quote," another added. "Among MANY problems with it, it erases black women and this is unacceptable at any time, but especially now when we as white women are in such debt to black women and should be using our privilege to elevate, not eliminate, their voices."
"Woman Is the N****r of the World" eventually became a song by John Lennon and Yoko Ono, from their 1972 album Some Time in New York City, three years after she coined the phrase in a Nova Magazine interview.
The 72-year-old was attempting to make a point about the oppression of woman, just like the originator. Photo / Twitter
It also caused controversy when it was originally released, although the former Beatle tried to explain at the time their use of the n-word referred to any oppressed person.
Some defended Midler insisting she was not the originator of the quote, but they were drowned out.
"People defending it while attributing it to the man (John Lennon) instead of to the woman who coined it (Yoko Ono) is just the ironic s**t-cherry on this c**p sundae," one Twitter user summarized.
The post garnered more than seven thousand responses in two hours, before Midler eventually relented and deleted it.
She even attempted to explain it, before deleting that tweet, too.
"I gather I have offended many by my last tweet," she wrote. "Women are the... etc is a quote from Yoko Ono from 1972, which I have never forgot. It rang true then, and it rings true today, whether you like it or not.
"This is not about race, this is about the status of women; THEIR HISTORY."
It took a third tweet for Midler to eventually apologize.
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.
