As protests in Washington unfolded Thursday in response to the sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, actress Bette Midler took to Twitter to make her feelings known. The end result was the “Hocus Pocus” actress tweeting an offensive phrase from a John Lennon and Yoko Ono song and being on the wrong end of a lot of criticism.

“‘Women, are the n-word of the world,'” the actress tweeted. “Raped, beaten, enslaved, married off, worked like dumb animals; denied education and inheritance; enduring the pain and danger of childbirth and life IN SILENCE for THOUSANDS of years(.)”

Bette Midler apologized for a tweet that caused a social media backlash when she compared the struggle of women with the history of racism. Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, file

“They are the most disrespected creatures on earth.”

Midler was paraphrasing the title of a 1972 song written by Lennon and Ono. Much like the response Lennon and Ono received at the time of the song’s release, Midler was met with outrage and apologized hours later.