Even though “childless cat lady” sounds like the ideal life for many, Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance seemingly has a problem with that sentiment. In a recently surfaced 2021 video interview with Tucker Carlson, Vance claimed that the United States was effectively run by corporate oligarch Democratic cat ladies who are miserable in their own lives and thus want to make the rest of the country miserable as well.
The term “cat lady” is an insult usually used against women without children. Instead, Vance uses it as a dig against all biologically childless individuals, like Vice President and presidential candidate Kamala Harris, who Vance neglected to remember has two stepchildren.
His comments haven’t come without a response, as people have pointed out that numerous past presidents were without biological children. George Washington was a stepparent, just like Harris, yet Vance doesn’t call him sociopathic.
Vance seemingly disregards women who have an interest in having children but are unable to due to infertility, having voted against in vitro fertilization (IVF) in the past. He has failed to recognize that in an election already framed by the loss of reproductive rights for millions of American women, his comments may not be seen in a good light.
His response to the wave of criticism about his cat lady comment was to accuse Democrats of being anti-family, claiming their supposed refusal to tax parents less as evidence, when in fact, Democrats support the child tax credit in addition to lowering the cost of childcare and expanding preschool opportunities.
Vance’s sexist comments come as another blow to his political standing as more old interviews, leaked emails and past comments continue to come out of the shadows amidst his announcement as the vice presidential pick for presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump. He said that people with kids deserve more votes per election, “Let’s give votes to all children in this country, but let’s give control over those votes to the parents of those children.”
In 2014, after Michael Brown was killed by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, Vance said, “I hate the police,” in an email to a former classmate, a striking antithesis to the heavy Republican support for the police that he now aligns himself with.
He stated at a rally in July that Democrats would call him racist for drinking Diet Mountain Dew. He seemingly tried to make a joke off of a false rumor that has been circulating online that claims he once had sexual relations with a couch by saying his wife would make him sleep on the couch if he called her onto stage.
Vance's remarks are not helpful against the new Democratic strategy of pointing out that Trump is just “weird.” Using such simple, not overly aggressive language is a great strategy by the Democrats because it’s hard to see it as an attack instead of an observation, and the only real defense against it is saying you're “not weird,” which is really not a defense at all. Democrats are finally talking in a language that the Make American Great Again (MAGA) movement understands, labels and insults, and it's working in their favor.
Acknowledgment: The opinions expressed in this piece are those of the individual author.
Hi Alison,
I agree with a lot of the stuff you say here. It's clear that Vance's comments had a significant impact on women across the nation, and his refusal to retract the statement seems to be his way of doubling down on it. It's odd, as a woman, to hear politicians once again placing all our value on the number of children we can give birth to.