Bette Midler Tweets That Women "Are The N-Word Of The World"

On Thursday, protests unfolded in Washington in response to the sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanuagh and his upcoming procedural vote in the Senate. Actress Bette Midler took to Twitter to discuss her feelings about what was happening. Ultimately, the Hocus Pocus star tweeted an offensive phrase from a John Lennon and Yoko Ono song and was highly criticized. She later apologized.

“‘Women, are the n-word of the world,’” the actress tweeted on Thursday, according to The Washington Post. “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[.]”

Midler was paraphrasing the title of a 1972 song by Lennon and Ono, but on Twitter, she was met with outrage. People condemned the actress and called her to delete the tweet, which received 14,000 likes and more than 8,000 replies, most of them negative. She responded hours later, but did not apologize.

Full stop. https://t.co/KcQUASkzVu

— Jemele Hill (@jemelehill) October 5, 2018

Bette Midler out here thinking she’s a white woman of color.

— Genie Lauren (@MoreAndAgain) October 5, 2018

If only it was so simple. If only all women were treated the same. Can you, perhaps, listen when SOME WOMEN are saying they took offense to this? Ain’t I a woman? Do you know that quote?

You know what? Never mind. *jumps out window, lands on Women’s March*

— Angela Nissel (@AngelaNissel) October 5, 2018

“I gather I have offended many by my last tweet,” she wrote, according to The Post. “‘Women are the . . . etc’ is a quote from Yoko Ono from 1972, which I 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.”

She later deleted both tweets and apologized hours later.

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.

— Bette Midler (@BetteMidler) October 5, 2018