Mae Martin’s thoughtful response to Bette Midler’s ‘transphobic’ tweet is compulsory reading
Bette Midler’s controversial comments many have deemed ‘transphobic’.Hocus Pocus actress Midler, 76, had come under fire for wading into a debate about the word ‘women’, after tweeting: ‘WOMEN OF THE WORLD!
We are being stripped of our rights over our bodies, our lives and even of our name!’She went on: ‘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!’After intense backlash to her comments, which came amid Macy Gray’s controversial appearance on Piers Morgan Uncensored, Midler today clarified her tweet and insisted there was no intention of anything exclusionary or transphobic in what she said.Fans responded to suggest her phrasing could be seen to be transphobic, while Martin chimed in to share meaningful insight into the conversation.Feel Good star Martin, 35, who identifies as trans/non-binary, said they had been receiving messages about Midler’s tweet and wanted to share some thoughts ‘in case this is useful to you if you have people in your own life – older feminist icons even – who are perplexed and threatened by inclusive language’.They wrote in a lengthy statement: ‘These figure heads, like Bette Midler, fought hard for women’s rights and they’re upset when, in the context of reproductive rights, they read phrases like “people with uteruses”.
They feel reduced and negated and confused.‘I would say to them: Nobody is negating the fact that people assigned female at birth have a unique struggle against an oppressive patriarchy.
