The saddest thing about Trump’s v.p. running mate isn’t that he hates cats and women, it’s that he just doesn’t get it.
He doesn’t get how wrong he is, how misogynistic, how arrogant, how condescending, how puerile. When he said it he actually thought he was being clever. Sorry, J.D. You stepped into some deep, poopy kitty litter and no one is going to scoop you out of it.
Of course the Internet immediately clawed back. Some of the biggest (and by biggest I mean most famous) childless cat ladies and their fanatical followers pounced– Swifties, in particular.
I won’t even mention Jennifer Aniston, Dolly Parton, and, of course, Vice President Kamala Harris, and the millions of women who are stepmothers, childless by choice, or childless and desperately trying not to be.
The bigger problem for J.D. Vance is that we’ve learned a lot these past four years and we’re on to them. He and a good number of his ilk use the word “childless” as code for anti family. They focus on women because of a deeply ingrained sexism that infects the MAGA universe. It’s not subtle. It’s part of a more far-reaching sense of entitlement that allows them, they think, to control a woman’s body. Women must know their place in a man’s world. If they don’t there’s obviously something wrong with them. I believe the term they love to use is “woke.”
There are few more effective ways to dismiss and demean a woman than to call her a “crazy cat lady.” I prefer to think of them as independent and compassionate. I’ve known quite a few cat ladies in my life. I’m one of them. Sure, some are childless. I’ve got news for J.D. We’re coming to get you and your boss– the crazy cat ladies and the childless ones. The cat men and cat seniors, and a lot of dog lovers, too.
All the ridicule and the cat lady memes online are entertaining and fun, but they mask something deeper. We’re mad as hell. We’re going to do something about it.
We are, admittedly, woke. It sure beats being asleep.
Meow.