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Back on November 10 a Twitter user asked their Twitter followers a simple, yet somewhat loaded question. The Twitter use, Nutella, asked: “name a bitch badder than Taylor Swift.”
Name a bitch badder than Taylor Swift 😍😛😤
Although there wasn’t a question mark there, so I’m not sure they were asking a question. They might have been actually making a statement.
Either way, Twitter was not particularly kind or ideally receptive in their numerous replies to the tweet. You can generally get the idea that a tweet missed it’s mark based on the ratio of likes to replies. If that ratio is in the likes’ favor, you nailed it. If it’s flipped, well, not so much.
Such is the case with Nutella’s tweet and as the replies came in, what was most likely intended to incite a Taylor Swift-praise fest morphed into an impromptu history class. Twitter users far and wide started responded with the stories of women in history who were in their opinion, significantly more of a “bad bitch” than Swift.
First there were replies comprised of significant female figures in history.
If you were concerned that Harriet Tubman wasn’t on that list, rest assured. She was brought up on multiple occasions.
And it wasn’t just the well known activists who were given some love. One Twitter user tweeted out the iconic picture of Ieshia Evans from protests in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in the summer of 2016, following the shooting death of Alton Sterling. The photo, taken by Jonathan Bachman, who was on assigment for Reuters, quickly became a symbol for protests across the country.
I’m not sure who this woman is but I would agree, she definitely seems like “a bitch badder than Taylor Swift.”
@xnulz A girl, using a riotshield wall formation as a mirror to apply her lipstick
People also tweeted out some more, generally obscure names, such as Mariya Vasilyevna Oktyabrskaya and Grace Hopper.
@xnulz 1. Grace Hopper: pioneering computer scientist responsible for one of the first high level programming language AND A NAVY REAR ADMIRAL.
2. Margaret Hamilton: wrote on-board flight software which sent man to the moon on 2KB of RAM. your phone has a thousand times that.
Then the list grew even more obscure and random as replies even featured Ching Shih, who was a Chinese pirate in the early 1800’s. Shih had been married to the notorious pirate, Cheng I, and then assumed control of his fleet after his death in 1807.
@xnulz Ching Shih, who took over her deceased husband’s pirate empire, united it further, defeated the Chinese, English, and Portuguese to rule the seas for decades.
More than a couple replies to the tweet were votes for the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, famous for her self-portraits, as well as her promotion of Mexican culture and feminist views.
With journalism and the media repeatedly under attack these days, it was fitting that someone responded by pointing out Nelly Bly’s numerous accomplishments.
One reply was “Molly Craig,” an Australian Martu Aboriginal woman who escaped the Moore River Native Settlement in Western Australia and then walked nearly 1,600 kilometers back home.
@xnulz Molly Craig, a 14 year old Aboriginal girl who walked 1500 miles to get herself and her little sister home after being forcibly taken from their family, got kidnapped again, and made the same trip back later. #badderthantaylor
Some people shared personal stories in response to Nutella’s question/statement.
https://twitter.com/Alzerz/status/937583060349894657
@xnulz Anyone battling cancer is a bigger badass than taylor or any other celeb that people praise for redic reasons. “Oh so and so is so brave because she cut off 4 inches of hair”. Bitch that ain’t “brave”. Come to me when you fight a real battle or have real problems
Then there were some people who chose to respond with answers that yes, might not be real people per say and instead, fictional characters. But please, they are all most definitely “a bitch badder than Taylor Swift.”
Like Wonder Woman. She pretty much won World War II, as well as Justice League.
And Cersei. She blew up a church just to prove a point.
Ellen Ripley defeated aliens for crying out loud. Taylor Swift gets bested by gossip and rumors.
Let this be a lesson kids. Don’t ask a question you aren’t prepared to be answered.
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A Taylor Swift Meme Shared on Twitter Backfired Spectacularly