Bette Midler has angered one of her most loyal fanbases — the LGBTQ community — after she criticized terms like “menstruator” and “people with vaginas,” saying those terms serve to erase women.
The Hollywood star appeared to be completely ignorant of the left’s embrace of radical transgender ideology under which the term “woman” has become taboo in many situations because it excludes transgender “men.”
On Sunday, Bette Midler, who apparently never got the memo, attempted to rally women to her side by condemining terms like “birthing people,” “menstruators,” and “people with vaginas,” saying they rob women of “our name.”
“Don’t let them erase you!” she wrote. “Every human on earth owes you!”
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
Midler’s comments were remarkably similar to those made in a New York Times op-ed this weekend in which columnist Pamela Paul claimed that the far left and far right both agree that “women don’t count.”
Paul argued that among leftists, “even the word ‘women’ has become verboten. Previously a commonly understood term for half the world’s population, the word had a specific meaning tied to genetics, biology, history, politics and culture. No longer. In its place are unwieldy terms like ‘pregnant people,’ ‘menstruators’ and ‘bodies with vaginas.'”
Midler’s tweet backfired badly on Sunday after followers accused her of denigrating transgender people and of making “anti-trans” comments. The ensuing woke-lash came swiftly and without mercy.
Bette you started your career in bathhouses and were at like the first Prides… you should know better than this tweet which demonizes trans people for no reason https://t.co/HAMQDLp8YH
— Molly Shah (@MollyOShah) July 4, 2022
No. Don’t fall for the anti-trans panic fake nonsense. No one is erasing women. In a few small healthcare cases where appropriate they are using trans inclusive language. That’s all.
— Dr Panti Bliss-Cabrera (@PantiBliss) July 4, 2022
No, Bette. Please rethink this. I am a woman, who is a parent to a non binary kid. We both can be pregnant. The language you don’t like is actually inclusive of the reality that many people who don’t identity as women are still capable of becoming pregnant. You are erasing them.
— Michelle 🏻 Needs a Deep Breath ☮️ (@CitizenAtLarge_) July 4, 2022
Really disappointed in this as a trans man and a Bette Midler fan.
Bette, including trans men in the conversation about reproductive health does not harm women. We have the same organs, and even greater vulnerability, as cis woman.
— Evan Urquhart (@e_urq) July 4, 2022
Bette, this is disappointing to see from you. These are terms we use to include trans men and non-binary people who can get pregnant. It is absurd and dangerous to be lumping attempts at trans inclusivity in with right wing attempts to control our bodies as threats
— Louisa 🌈👭 (@LouisatheLast) July 4, 2022
Bette Midler received positive feedback from at least one prominent name — Harry Potter novelist J.K. Rowling, who signaled her approval by liking Midler’s tweet.
Rowling has earned the enmity of transgender activists who have repeatedly attacked her for arguing that gender is based in biological sex, and that transgender “women” aren’t the same as actual women.
Follow David Ng on Twitter @HeyItsDavidNg. Have a tip? Contact me at dng@breitbart.com
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