J.D. Vance insults women across the nation with “childless cat lady” comments
By: Vivian Cain-Weingram
The country has fallen into the hands of “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at…the choices that they’ve made and…want to make the rest of the country miserable, too,” according to Ohio senator J.D. Vance. Vance’s 2021 comments have gone viral since Donald Trump selected him as his running mate, enraging parents, single men, and ‘childless cat ladies’ alike. Vance’s claims underscore the ignorant and dangerous opinions he has about women, family structures, and children in our nation. In a position as powerful as Vice President, Vance’s opinions could reshape American law and policy to disadvantage those with nontraditional family structures.
Vance is already known for his traditionalist stance on family politics. He praises working fathers and stay-at-home mothers and frequently suggests that families should have more power at the voting booth, because they have more “physical commitment to the future of this country,” unlike the “childless left.” By this, Vance means that because Democrats have ‘no children’, they do not have as much at stake when considering the future of the country, so they may become careless, thinking only in the short term. If Vance’s suggestions were to be followed, and the rules of voting to be changed based on how many children a person may have, certain demographics less likely to have children would be disadvantaged. Furthermore, Vance supports Missouri senator Josh Hawley’s proposal to expand child tax credit laws to exempt households with stay-at-home mothers and working fathers from higher taxes; this “marriage bonus” is intended to incentivize traditional family structures, while punishing single parents, parents in same-sex marriages, and other kinds of families. Last year, Vance proposed expanding the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) to allow parents with newborns to take leave for several months while still accessing work-based health insurance. His proposal also mandates that 12 weeks of medical leave be provided after childbirth. Vance dubbed his bill the “Fairness for Stay-At-Home Parents Act”; the policy is meant only to serve as an advantage for people who follow highly traditional family structures and choose not to work.
Vance’s cat-lady comment distilled his retrograde opinions into a highly offensive insult. Not only was his phrase hurtful, but it was also ignorant. 11% of women of reproductive age in the United States have fertility problems, or are completely infertile; Vance believes it is the duty of all women to bear the nation’s children, and, in his insult, shames those who cannot. Though Vance later pleaded sarcasm, swearing the comment was not aimed at infertile women, its implications were blunt. Both Democratic and Republican women struggling with infertility were shocked and hurt to find themselves blamed for the nation’s problems, called out for ‘bad choices’ that they didn’t actually make. Infertility cannot be controlled and is not exclusively a female phenomenon. In fact, 9% of American males are also infertile. Yet, Vance implied that, even in such situations where the woman is fertile and the man is not, it is still the woman’s fault for her own childlessness. The comment proved that sexism has yet to be overcome in America. Though women have fought to shake off men’s expectations of willing childbearing, they have been unsuccessful. America is still as sexist as it has ever been. To men like Vance, the single most important job of a woman is to bear a child.
Vance’s statement is more than empty rhetoric. Vance and other conservative politicians in the U.S. have long sought control over women’s bodies, and their freedom to have children. Well into the twentieth century, women were considered the property of men; their purpose in society was to bear and raise children. In the past several decades, this idea has changed, but many conservatives still hang on to these sexist ideals. Vance clings to the idea that women are property; he uses the term “childless” as an insult, because, childbearing is what he believes is the true occupation of a woman. And while they can be interpreted as so, these ideas are not just the ravings of the far-right. This kind of language can be translated into warped policies and court decisions such as Dobbs v. Jackson, the Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade, shifting the control of women’s bodies from women into the hands of state legislators.
Vance’s “childless cat ladies” comment is not just ignorant: it is dangerous. Through the statement, he shows his true colors: his opinions on family are small-minded and sexist, and his opinions on women even more so. J.D. Vance, it has become clear, is ‘pro-family’, but only stands for families he sees as right: traditional families, with plenty of children and stay-at-home mothers who have lost their independence and dignity.
J.D. Vance, his children, and his wife–who is actually not a stay-at-home mother, but has had plenty of children–travel with the Trump campaign. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/jd-vances-family-shaped-sharp-edged-rhetoric-families-rcna165946 (5)
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