Who's 'badder' than Taylor Swift? A Nazi-fighting grandma, Malala Yousafzai, and other superstrong women, says Twitter
Powerful women are at the forefront of Twitter today, all thanks to one Taylor Swift fan.
Swiftie @xnulz tweeted “Name a bitch badder than Taylor Swift” with a still of Swift’s power pose from the “Look What You Made Me Do” music video. Her original tweet was simply an attempt to compliment Swift. (I think we can all agree that between her mesh top and her dark lipstick, Swift does look pretty fierce in this photo.)
But fortunately for anyone interested in women’s history, the tweet took on a life of its own. The internet took her words quite literally, and commenters started to name women of all ages and backgrounds who are all, in fact, badass.
Shauna, aka @goldengateblond, may have started off the meme with her perfect response. “At 15, Malala was shot in the head by the Taliban for insisting that girls had the right to an education. At 17, she became the youngest winner of the Nobel Peace Price in history. At 18, she opened a school for Syrian refugee girls in Lebanon,” she wrote. “Bad bitch” isn’t the first phrase that comes to mind when we think of Malala Yousafzai, but we have to admit, the term definitely applies.
At 15, @Malala was shot in the head by the Taliban for insisting that girls had the right to an education. At 17, she became the youngest winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in history. At 18, she opened a school for Syrian refugee girls in Lebanon. https://t.co/UjPdnoqc0o
— shauna (@goldengateblond) December 3, 2017
Others followed Shauna’s lead and turned the tweet into an impromptu history lesson. People honored women who fought in wars, raised families alone, upended the status quo, and many more.
Elizabeth Freeman was the first enslaved Black person to sue for freedom & win. She ended slavery in Massachusetts. https://t.co/kAi4vxzrLY
— Mikki Kendall (@Karnythia) December 3, 2017
frida kahlo was disabled from polio at age 6, suffered a bus accident at 18 where she was impaled by an iron rail, spent months bedridden, had chronic pain all her life, had an unstable marriage and YET managed to paint and is now one of the most famous surrealist painters ever https://t.co/YtRcQg2jLN
— albin (@rrrroux) December 2, 2017
Ida B Wells Barnett. Orphaned at 16, she raised her younger siblings by teaching school–and writing for a local newspaper. After jealous whites lynched 2 successful Black store owners, she wrote an editorial that sparked the migration West of 100s of Memphis's Black residents. https://t.co/LBqhAYnuGH
— Lee in Iowa (@Lee_in_Iowa) December 4, 2017
Some chose to post a shout-out to their own mothers and grandmothers. It turns out that Twitter users have some truly rad, Nazi-fighting, boundary-breaking women in their families.
During WWI my grandmother chased a German soldier out of her kitchen by repeatedly hitting him over the head with a frying pan. https://t.co/erk7rtCUOZ
— Luc Sante (@luxante) December 3, 2017
My Mom was raising two kids by herself without a college education and a disability, cerebral palsy. She went back to school, attained her Masters in social work/counseling & worked in child protective services until she passed from cancer 3 years ago. https://t.co/KZwLLVwW1C
— Nada Bakos (@nadabakos) December 3, 2017
My mom escaped the Vietnam War at age 23 when the city around her was being bombed, was forced to leave her parents and 12 siblings behind with no notice, then spent the next 20 years raising money and bringing them slowly one by one to the US https://t.co/vyoiws7NCl
— Haku @ Comic Fiesta (@hakuku) December 3, 2017
Others used the tweet as an opportunity to post shout-outs about themselves. “I work, live, and raise my kids on my own, have done for 8 years, live with two mental illnesses that nearly literally killed me and made me unemployable,” wrote @TheRestlessQuil.
— Janey Godley (@JaneyGodley) December 2, 2017
me.
i work, live, and raise my kids on my own, have done for 8 years, live with two mental illnesses that nearly literally killed me and made me unemployable. https://t.co/LFeTIPrONN
— Sandhya (@TheRestlessQuil) December 4, 2017
The entire thread should be required reading for any woman who needs a little morning inspiration — and that includes Taylor Swift fans.
taylor swift, who so bravely took her attacker to court and smashed the idea that sexual assault survivors should be the ones to blame for their traumas. https://t.co/nz8sMimXiq
— amanda lovelace ♀️♀️ (@ladybookmad) December 4, 2017
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