David Bridges
Standing her ground. Maren Morris is no stranger to receiving online criticism about her appearance, her parenting skills or even her career, but she’s not letting that get her down.
“If it’s confusing to you, it’s because you think we’re ‘fighting’ over politics. We’re not. This isn’t political,” the “Middle” songstress tweeted in August 2022, shortly after calling out Brittany Aldean’s alleged transphobia. “We’re calling someone out for being transphobic and thinking it’s hilarious. It isn’t.”
Morris made headlines several hours earlier after she criticized Jason Aldean’s wife over her controversial message comparing growing out of a “tomboy” phase to gender transitions.
“I’d really like to thank my parents for not changing my gender when I went through my tomboy phase. I love this girly life🤎✌🏼,” the blogger — who wed the Georgia native in 2015 — captioned an Instagram beauty tutorial.
After both Morris and Cassadee Pope slammed Brittany’s remarks, the boutique owner doubled down on her position.
“Advocating for the genital mutilation of children under the disguise of love and calling it ‘gender-affirming care’ is one of the worst evils,” the YouTube personality claimed in an Instagram Story statement at the time, tagging Pope’s account. “I will always support my children and do what I can to protect their innocence. The other day, [my son] Memphis wanted to be a dinosaur and tomorrow [my daughter] Navy will want to be a cat, they’re children.”
She continued: “Some parents want to be accepted by society so badly that they’re willing to make life-altering decisions for their children who aren’t old enough to fully comprehend the consequences of those actions. Love is protecting your child until they are mature enough as an adult to make their own life decisions.”
Brittany then shaded Morris’ involvement, nicknaming her “Karen Morris.” The “Bones” songstress didn’t take that shade lying down.
“You know, I’m glad she didn’t become a boy either because we really don’t need another a[ss]–hole dude in the world,” Morris wrote via Instagram comment after Pope proclaimed that they had gotten under Brittany’s skin. “Sucks when Karens try to hide their homophobia/transphobia behind their ‘protectiveness of the children.’ Weren’t they putting their kids in ‘[President Joe] Biden-is-a-pedo’ shirts on social media? Sounds like a real safe way to protect them from millions of eyes! … F–k all the way off to Insurrection Barbie and the fellow IB’s trolling this comment section with their hypocritical, hateful asses.”
Ryan Hurd — who married Morris in 2018 — had his wife’s back, noting via Twitter that he’s “so proud” of her advocacy efforts.
“Getting a lot of people telling me our career is over, as if the last time she spoke up about something it disappeared. Honestly, we’re pretty OK over here,” he tweeted at the time. “Tours are good, got a 2-year-old we love, we’re f—king fine and I promise she isn’t going to shut up now.”
Morris’ social media feud with Brittany is hardly the first time she’s spoken up amid social media criticism.
“She doesn’t need anybody to come in and help her out, but I just felt like sometimes Mama needs to know that I’m watching,” the “To a T” crooner exclusively told Us Weekly in August 2020 of his wife, noting she can handle herself. “She took [her first mom-shaming incident after son Hayes’ birth] really hard because that was such a weird situation and blown massively out of proportion. When people see somebody getting attacked, they sort of pile on because they think it’s safe. It’s just weird.”
Scroll below to revisit the country songstress’ best and fiercest social media clapbacks through the years:
Maya Kensington
Ivy Caldwell
