Gadot slammed for tweet on Hawking

Wonder Woman star Gal Gadot (left) had tweeted that physicist Stephen Hawking (above), who suffered from a motor-neuron disease and died last Wednesday, is now free of physical constraints.
Wonder Woman star Gal Gadot had tweeted that physicist Stephen Hawking, who suffered from a motor-neuron disease and died last Wednesday, is now free of physical constraints. PHOTOS: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS
Wonder Woman star Gal Gadot (left) had tweeted that physicist Stephen Hawking (above), who suffered from a motor-neuron disease and died last Wednesday, is now free of physical constraints.
Wonder Woman star Gal Gadot had tweeted that physicist Stephen Hawking, who suffered from a motor-neuron disease and died last Wednesday, is now free of physical constraints. PHOTOS: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS

NEW YORK • When physicist Stephen Hawking died last Wednesday, Gail Gadot tweeted: "Rest in peace... Now you're free of any physical constraints."

That has upset some folks, who lambasted the Wonder Woman (2017) actress for discriminating against people with handicaps.

"Disabilities are not tragedies. Abled people can go away," Fox News cited one person as tweeting.

"People with disabilities don't wish for death to be free of their challenges. We wish to be valued for what we can do, not pitied for we can't," another person wrote.

Hawking suffered from a motor-neuron disease that required him to use a wheelchair and a speech synthesiser to communicate.

But Gadot has defenders too, with one saying: "He literally had physical constraints, there's nothing been said here that's offensive.

"People really need to calm down and stop jumping down everyone's throats over every comment - it's like people go looking to be offended."

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on March 19, 2018, with the headline Gadot slammed for tweet on Hawking. Subscribe