Singer Cyndi Lauper — who has an estimated net worth of $50 million — went on a feminist rant on Sunday at the MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs), where she proclaimed that “girls just want to have… funds, equal pay,” and “control over our bodies.”
“I won a Moon Person at the very first VMAs in 1984,” Lauper said while presenting an award on Sunday at the MTV VMAs. “Things are a little different now.”
“Yeah, girls still want to have fun. But we also want to have funds, equal pay, control over our bodies, you know, fundamental rights,” Lauper added — riffing on the title of her breakout pop hit “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” — before raising her fist in the air.
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Lauper’s mention of “control over our bodies” was likely in reference to the recently enacted pro-life law in Texas, which bans most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy — at which point a heartbeat is detected.
This has not been the singer’s first time making the bizarre claim that women in the United States today lack “fundamental rights.”
In 2020, days before the November presidential election, Lauper tweeted, “Girls just want to have FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS!” alongside an image of herself raising her fist in the air.
Earlier this year, Lauper joined other musicians — including Sheryl Crow and Linda Perry — on Amanda Shires’ abortion song, “Our Problem,” which was released on the 48th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision.
“Are you gonna tell? How long have you known? Did you tell him? Does he know?” the lyrics state. “Just a few weeks along, you told him, and he broke it off, and the money won’t cover the cost.”
“No one has to know, the scars won’t even show, at least that’s what I’ve heard, no bigger than a baby bird,” the lyrics continue. “I’m not sure who I am, staring into my empty hands, and all I could think to say, is everything’s gonna be okay.”
The pop singer is not the only celebrity to attack pro-life legislation.
Left-wing actress Bette Midler reacted to the life-saving law recently enacted in Texas by calling for a sex strike, suggesting that “all women refuse to have sex with men.”
Moreover, Cher faced backlash from her social media followers after trivializing the barbaric oppression women in Muslim majority nations face by comparing the pro-life law that sets out to protect the unborn.
Other celebrities — including Michael Moore, Amy Schumer, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Dave Bautista, Alyssa Milano, and Amy Brenneman — have also freaked over the law, as well as downplayed the oppression of women in Middle Eastern countries by dubbing Texas GOP lawmakers the “Texas Taliban” and accusing them of enacting “sharia” law.
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.