Ladies, ladies, ladies. Let us get our bearings together and let it be known that yes, being a woman is a struggle in this world, but adding in the ever-so complicated realities such as race and class, can make it infinitely harder. IT IS NOT A CONTEST. I’m not sure when this turn happened in the feminist movement where it became glamorized to be oppressed, but I can certainly tell you anyone who is inherently being oppressed isn’t thinking about how their oppression squares up against others or scrambling to find comparisons to validate their plight.
It reminds me of this person I knew who would constantly feel the need to let others know their background because to the naked eye they just looked like a run of the mill person of European decent, but they did in fact have a parent who was non-white. I completely understand wanting others to know you’re different than what they assume, but the way they went about making this known was well- questionable. When I first met this person, they didn’t identify as a person of color, but after BLM exploded onto the scene and various other movements started, everything changed. Now that I think about it, I guess it’s nice those movements coaxed a part of them out into the open that they didn’t really confront before, but the reality is, while they are coming to terms with their newfound pride, not everyone has the ability to move through the world declaring their heritage, instead many of us “visibly ethnic” people have been judged harshly by our skin color all of our lives.
Anyway, back to the news of the day which is good ol’ Bette Midler weighing in on the world with a anger-driven tweet that upset a lot of people. C’mon girl. Quoting lyrics from an already controversial 70s song does nothing to better the cause of uniting us all or encouraging positive action. What it does is trigger a too familiar ideal that it’s okay to compare atrocities and lump adversity together in a pile of ignorant garbage rhetoric. No, I don’t think Midler is completely incapable of grasping just how ignorant her statement was, but it just furthers the reality that there is a disconnect in the fact that she even thought to say what she did, because there’s a part of her that truly believes that, and she’s not alone.
Yes, being a woman of any race/ethnicity is difficult. Yes, there are certainly degrees of difficulty. Yes, we should acknowledge this and figure out ways to better everyone, but we should never erase or pretend to completely understand the plight of another. Let’s face it. We will never know exactly how it feels to be anyone else, just as we won’t ever know how it feels to be of another race/ethnicity and that’s not a bad thing. Our differences are what make things interesting on this deteriorating rock of insanity. What we can do is empathize/sympathize with others situations and truly think about how to express frustration without comparison.
Bette, I’m glad you apologized, but I seriously hope you understand why so many people were upset and use your platform to open up a dialogue.
If you’ve made it this far, first of all, bless you, and second of all, SIGN THIS TO STOP KAVANAUGH. If he gets that seat, I honestly don’t know what I’m gonna do.
