Bette Midler- Page 2

[Jay Lerner-Z]

Posted: 7/6/22 at 11:40am

Okay, you're even worse than I thought.

The world burning doesn't give license to people to be islamophobic or transphobic. Or stop us from pointing it out when they are.

Tell me, with the world burning, just what are we allowed to care about? Clarence Thomas? Marriage equality? Anything other than what directly impacts your own life?

Please forward on the list.

[Call_me_jorge]

Posted: 7/6/22 at 8:06pm

Surely someone of Bette’s stature has a publicist that helps run her social media, no? I would hope to think there someone for her to ask if this was okay to tweet, but I guess not. 
 

I think Bette is just too old and not willing to accept the current changes in gender wording, not necessarily meaning she’s transphobic, but stuck. Most boomers are. It’s more difficult to adapt when you’re older.

Updated On: 7/7/22 at 08:06 PM

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 7/7/22 at 5:47pm

I no longer stick up for celebrities just because I have a deep affinity for them. They are responsible for their words, they are responsible for their own learning or not, they can confront themselves or not, they can make amends or not. 

In some cases my connection to them is tarnished just a little and in some cases it's broken and unfixable.

I alway think back on the deeply homophobic and misogynist (and talented AF) early Beastie Boys, who grew up and got smarter and addressed their past ignorance. They are my go-to model of quality celebrity evolution and I've learned most good-yet-fallible humans move in similar directions.  

Here's a really fantastic twitter thread by Kay Whitlock which she addresses to Bette and Katha Pollit (an old school Village Voice writer whose every syllable I used to drape myself over) that lays it out in ways that might help them evolve. Or not. Regardless, her insight might serve us all as we find ourselves in more and more tense discussions with people in our lives.

Kay Whitlock on Twitter

[TotallyEffed]

Posted: 7/8/22 at 11:39am

The photo she tweeted of the Supreme Court was unacceptable.

[RippedMan]

Posted: 7/8/22 at 6:10pm

We can't come up with a better term than "birther?" I'd be outraged too.

[DAME]

Posted: 7/9/22 at 2:23pm

I love Bette.  She can say whatever she wants.  I do wish she would lay off the twitter and go out on tour one last time. 

[inception]

Posted: 7/10/22 at 7:32am

Life would be a lot better if we had an age regulations for phones like we do for drinking alcohol or driving cars.

You can't get a phone until you are at least 21.

Once you turn 65, you have to turn in your phone.

 

[Melissa25]

Posted: 7/10/22 at 7:41am

So let’s get ageist too. 😞

[David10086]

Posted: 7/10/22 at 11:28am

Looks like Macy Gray has gotten tangled into this. She told British journalist Piers Morgan, “Just because you go change your parts, doesn't make you a woman, sorry.” Later that day Midler's tweet came out. 

https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/bette-midler-macy-gray-s-transphobic-comments-are-bad-women-n1296877

Updated On: 7/10/22 at 11:28 AM

[RippedMan]

Posted: 7/10/22 at 3:25pm

The world is so designed by boxes. Just stop trying to box people in with words. I'm a gay male, and I recently bought a pair of women's shoes cause they were cute and in my size and then I had people asking me if I'm trans now, I'm like, no they're just cute shoes. Just let people be themselves and don't get bogged down in the semantics. 

 

[David10086]

Posted: 7/10/22 at 4:09pm

RippedMan said: "The world is so designed by boxes. Just stop trying to box people in with words. I'm a gay male, and I recently bought a pair of women's shoes cause they were cute and in my size and then I had people asking me if I'm trans now, I'm like, no they're just cute shoes. Just let people be themselves and don't get bogged down in the semantics."

 

In this case, it may be a good idea for stores just to have a 'shoe' department, and not distinguish it by 'women's shoes' and 'men's shoes'.  Just have 'shoes' all mixed in together and let the buying public by what they wish - with no labels attached to their purchase. Probably solve a lot of problems and questions. 

 

[shocktheatre]

Posted: 7/11/22 at 7:29pm

Bette needs to re-read her Twitter stuff before she signs off on it.

I was thinking this even before her latest.

I did guffaw though when she referred to Melania as "FLOTITS" and shared a pic of the "First Lady" in some type of mesh thing in an airplane cockpit.

If Bette does Twitter, she should stick to Trump-bashing. There's a wealth of material, God knows.

 

 

[Jay Lerner-Z]

Posted: 7/13/22 at 9:58am

RippedMan, if you don't like labels, why did you use them to describe yourself? It doesn't seem fair for you to get to use your ones, then begrudge others for using theirs. Nobody has ever argued that liking women's shoes makes you trans. The problem in what you describe lies with your friends, not trans people.

FindingNamo, thank you for those Kay Whitlock tweets.

[MisterJosh85]

Posted: 8/7/22 at 12:35pm

Namo, it's not understandable to you that there are women who have a problem with the language some trans people use to describe them? The first step to dehumanizing someone is the way you speak about about them. Considering what's going on with women's rights right now in this country, it doesn't seem surprising that some women are pushing back.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 8/7/22 at 9:18pm

I've never looked to Bette Midler (whom I worship and about whom I will not cotton one negative utterance) for cutting edge explorations of sexuality and gender. (Believe me, I have read a LOT of interviews, including Rolling Stone in the early-'70s when she dropped "f*gg*t*" bombs aplenty in explaining how she thought she could become an artiste with mainstream appeal.

 I look to the Gen Z kids who draw very firm lines in the sand over which bigots dare not cross. I love how they come right out and tell older people, no, this will not stand, this is not tolerable. If they were socialized like all the generations before them not to mind Uncle Racist and Grampaw Prejudice, they're old and from a different time. This generation is like "the time is now and we will not stand for it." I love that.

As French philosopher Guy Dubord once said, "Ideas improve. The meaning of words participates in the improvement." So basically, I can "understand" that some people have problems, but instead of digging in heels, it's time to work on the problems and participate in the improvement.

 

[Valentina3]

Posted: 8/9/22 at 10:29am

I find this to be a pretty good conversation - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-flrJx-bTpk

[Highland Guy]

Posted: 8/9/22 at 1:00pm

Updated On: 8/9/22 at 01:00 PM

[Jay Lerner-Z]

Posted: 11/1/22 at 1:10pm

How was Hocus Pocus 2 for you all?

I liked it. I never expected it to match the first one, so I was not disappointed. Actually surprised at how much I liked it. The three sisters were great, as I knew they would be, but they don't turn up until about thirty minutes into it. The new Elton John song is okay, but doesn't really excite me much. Bette deserved better.

Also, fifty years this week since the release of her first album. Happy Divine Golden Jubilee.

[Call_me_jorge]

Posted: 11/7/22 at 12:04pm

I think the new film was mostly about introducing the story to a new generation and I think they succeeded. I’m pretty sure the movie is supposed to be a set up for new tv series featuring the three new girls.

[Jay Lerner-Z]

Posted: 11/7/22 at 5:30pm

50 years ago today since her first album.