RESPECT! Aretha Franklin’s ‘Natural Woman’ now deemed offensive

**Editor’s note: In a world where it’s becoming increasingly difficult to decipher parody from reality, American Wire mistakenly reported ‘TCMA’ Twitter account as serious trans activists. We’ve come to learn that the account has labeled itself ‘parody/satire.’

When activists go after the Queen of Soul and claim one of her greatest hits, “Natural Woman,” is offensive, you know the trans movement has hit peak stupidity.

“Aretha Franklin’s 1968 song ‘Natural Woman’ perpetuates multiple harmful anti-trans stereotypes,” declared the Trans Cultural Mindfulness Alliance (TCMA) on Twitter. “There is no such thing as a ‘natural’ woman.”

“This song has helped inspire acts of harm against transgender women,” the group continued. “TCMA is requesting it is removed from Spotify & Apple Music.”

There is so much wrong with this statement, it’s hard to know where to begin.

Aretha Franklin was one of the few people on the planet who united people from all walks of life every time she opened her mouth.

In 2015, at 73 years of age, she brought the house down with a performance of “Natural Woman,” a song co-written by Carole King, who was receiving the Kennedy Center Honors Lifetime Achievement award.

“The 1967 single is sensual and spiritual; after 48 years, Ms. Franklin felt it more deeply than ever,” The New York Times wrote in a tribute to the legendary singer at the time of her passing in 2018.

The performance that night was so moving, it brought then-President Barack Obama — arguably the “wokest” President in American history — to tears.


(Video: YouTube)

She was a champion of the Civil Rights Movement, and in 1968, she sang at the memorial of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.


(Video: YouTube)

Aretha Franklin is remembered as a hero to blacks, feminists, and, until this ridiculous tweet from TCMA, gays.

The woman who wrote the screenplay for the outstanding 2021 biopic “Respect,” starring Jennifer Hudson is a lesbian, as was Franklin’s sister.

“I didn’t know that Carolyn [Aretha’s younger sister] was a lesbian and so, when I found that out, that was just huge. I was like, ‘Wow. I wonder what would’ve happened had I known that when I was a kid,'” screenwriter Tracey Scott Wilson told PRIDESOURCE.

“So I was just thinking about Carolyn and being a preacher’s kid, with a world-famous father at that. And then also, as a gay person, to decide you’re going to live your truth is just remarkable,” Wilson said, adding, “Aretha, you know, never questioned (it). They completely accepted that.”


(Video: YouTube)

So the notion that a trans rights activist group would go after the beloved singer’s song is not only absurd, it’s offensive.

Standing for Women founder Kellie-Jay Keen told Sky News Australia that it’s “really hard” to ignore the “misogyny” of the trans-rights movement.

“Being a mum, that is also being attacked, we’re now called birthing persons or pregnant persons,” Keen said.

“I don’t think many women really know how much we’re hated – I hate to say it … I don’t have a victim mentality, but it’s really hard to ignore the misogyny of this particular movement,” she continued. “It means a man who says he’s frightened to go in a man’s toilet – his words are more credible than a woman who says she doesn’t want that man in her space.”


(Video: YouTube)

Online, TCMA was schooled by Twitter users.

“You have to be freaking kidding me,” wrote one user. “No one cancels Aretha Franklin.”

 

 

Melissa Fine

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