Why JD Vance’s Comments on Cat Ladies Sparked a Nationwide Debate

Are you a cat lady, make yourself heard.

After Biden dropped out of the race and endorsed Kamala Harris, the first salvo from the Trump campaign was textbook misogyny.

An old clip of JD Vance, Trump’s running mate, resurfaced where he criticized Harris for being ‘childless.’

“We are effectively run in this country via the Democrats, via our corporate oligarchs, by a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable too,” Vance said.

Not so fast JD Vance.

Cat ladies equal miserable? How did you end up being such a misogynist? It’s not surprising, considering JD Vance is among the growing voices of toxic masculinity. If, God forbid, he becomes the next VP (which I highly doubt), the Republican party would turn back the clock to a time when American women had no voice.

Let’s not forget how the SCOTUS, filled with Trump-appointed justices, took away women’s reproductive rights by overturning Roe v Wade.

If you’re a woman in your 30s, childless, and unmarried, you must raise your voice now.

Condemn not only JD Vance and Donald Trump but the entire Republican Party. Your womanhood is under threat. Forget politics for a second — you must stand in solidarity with all women.

It was a long fight for the generations before us to gain the rights women in America have today.

And you’re not alone. Do you know who else they’re targeting for being in her 30s, childless, and unmarried? Yes, Taylor Swift.

. . .

JD Vance claims it is sarcasm

“Vance says liberals love to nitpick and that we’ve failed to see his sarcasm,” he remarked.

But why take the risk with both Trump and Vance? The Republican party is no longer the party of Reagan, who many conservatives still view as one of the best presidents in the last forty years. It’s now the de facto party of Donald Trump.

Anyone who opposes Trump is the enemy, as we’ve seen with the vilification of Liz Cheney.

Even Vance’s wife, Usha, tried to defend his statement. She had to read it over and over just to find the context. But even if she tries to lie to herself, it’s clear what JD Vance said. Remember, this is the same JD Vance who once called Trump — America’s Hitler.

. . .

JD Vance’s Comment on Fox News (2021)

We’re effectively run in this country via the Democrats, via our corporate oligarchs, by a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made. And so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too. And it’s just a basic fact.

You look at Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, [Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez]. The entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children. And how does it make any sense that we’ve turned our country over to people who don’t really have a direct stake in it? I just wanted to ask that question and propose that maybe if we want a healthy ruling class in this country, we should invest more, we should vote more.

We should support more people who actually have kids, because those are the people who ultimately have a more direct stake in the future of this country. Vance’s interview on Fox News in 2021.

. . .

Hillary Clinton’s Reaction on X:

What a normal, relatable guy who certainly doesn’t hate women having freedoms.

Twitter

Kerstin Emhoff’s Statement:

“These are baseless attacks. For over 10 years, since Cole and Ella were teenagers, Kamala has been a co-parent with Doug and I. She is loving, nurturing, fiercely protective, and always present. I love our blended family and am grateful to have her in it.”- Source: Kerstin Emhoff, the ex-wife of Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff.

Ella Emhoff’s Reaction on Instagram: “I love my three parents.”

Pete Buttigieg’s Response on CNN:

“The really sad thing is he said that after Chasten and I had been through a fairly heartbreaking setback in our adoption journey. He couldn’t have known that, but maybe that’s why you shouldn’t be talking about other people’s children, and it’s not about his kids or my kids or the vice president’s family. It’s about your family, people’s families whose well-being will depend on whether we go into a future led by somebody like Kamala Harris, who is focused on expanding the prosperity, the freedom, the well-being of our families.” This reasonable response boils down to “mind your own business.” — Source: Pete Buttigieg’s interview on CNN.

Jennifer Aniston’s Instagram Post:

“I truly can’t believe this is coming from a potential VP of The United States. All I can say is … Mr Vance, I pray that your daughter is fortunate enough to bear children of her own one day. I hope she will not need to turn to IVF as a second option. Because you are trying to take that away from her too.” — Source: Jennifer Aniston’s Instagram post.

Meghan McCain’s Post on X:

One of my best friends did rounds and rounds of unsuccessful IVF wanting to have a child. It is still painful to talk about. This “childless women” comment by JD Vance has made so many waves with so many different friends of mine for it’s insensitivity and cruelty to women.

Twitter

Just Weird

Photos of what appears to be JD Vance in drag are circulating on Twitter/X. There’s no community note, so it must be true. The Trump campaign is silent.

There’s nothing wrong with being in drag, although Trump seems to have a fixation on “men” in drag. Remember when Trump was so delighted to see Rudy Giuliani in drag?

The not-so-funny thing is that Republicans are known to be very anti-LGBTQ rights.

Patriarchy, plutocracy, and ethnonationalism fuel the vice-presidential candidate’s bizarre slur. — Jeet Heer

Calling cat ladies miserable is as old as time. It’s a putdown on single women who may or may not have been childless.

Guess who was childless and loved animals? The much-beloved Betty White. Was she miserable in all of her 99 years?

I don’t think so.

Unfortunately for Vance, all of human history makes the point that the childless are no less committed to social life than the fertile. As a Catholic convert, does Vance really believe that priests and nuns are more antisocial than those who have children? Does he think that childless founding fathers such as George Washington and James Madison should be seen as inferior to the traitor Benedict Arnold (robust patriarch with a clan of four sons and one daughter).

Does he believe that Jesus (no children) is of lesser value the the prophet Mohammed (who by tradition had seven children)? This is not to speak of the contributions to human civilization of Plato, Leonardo da Vinci, Plato, Joan of Arc, Isaac Newton, Ludwig van Beethoven, Jane Austen, Louisa May Alcott, George Eliot, Virginia Woolf, and Flannery O’Connor (to give only a small sampling of notable non-breeders). None of these illustrious figures could match Senator Vance’s success in thrice impregnating his wife, but their lives surely had some value. Do their voices deserve to be less audible than those whose main achievement is procreation? — Jeet Heer

Final words

Recently, a writer for Newsweek tried to shame Taylor Swift for being 34, childless and unmarried.

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Taylor Swift’s biggest crime, according to John Mac Ghlionn, is that she remained unmarried and childless at 34 and had 12 boyfriends throughout her dating history.

He even ventured into her present relationship with American football player Travis Kelce, who is the same age, childless, and unmarried, yet nobody questions his “morals.” He also thinks the couple won’t last. Is he a journalist or a celebrity gossipmonger?

Taylor, probably the most hardworking female musical artist of her generation, who commands a fandom we haven’t seen for a very long time, is always a target of misogynists who can’t fathom her success and influence, not only in pop culture but in society at large.

She has influenced young voters to register and vote and they did. If that wasn’t a good thing, I don’t know what is.

When men like John Mac Ghlionn can’t say anything about a woman’s accomplishments — Taylor Swift has many — they go personal. The attack lies mostly in Taylor’s choices. — Excerpt, Is Taylor Swift a Bad Role Model for Being 34, Childless, and Unmarried?

It was from the same textbook misogyny shared by men like JD Vance. By the way, Taylor Swift is a proud cat lady, and she proudly shared it in a video on her TikTok.

Tiktok

They want to discredit Taylor Swift by focusing on her personal life, not her accomplishments as an artist. Republicans are too afraid that she may endorse Kamala Harris — or maybe she did in a very subtle way recently in one of her concerts.

By the way, it wasn’t an endorsement … yet.

MAGA lost their minds, but it wasn’t hard for them to accept Kanye West’s antisemitism. And speaking of the MAGA supporters of Vance, can you name one person who left Trump because he said he was going to grab someone by the you-know-what?

If you’re angry about this, you’re right. They don’t deserve your vote. You need to vote them out. And yes, you need to voice your anger about misogyny.

They are attacking women and minorities. The focus on people of color was always going to happen. If you’re reading this and you’re a woman, please don’t be quiet. Vote in 2024.

Don’t give them a chance to do you more harm.

Thank you for reading.

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This post was previously published on The Reaction Room.

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