There is so much to criticize Trump running mate JD Vance for, but recently, some particular past comments have drawn righteous ire. You see, he seemingly thinks very little of women who don’t have children.
Back in 2021, Vance gave an interview on Fox News (where else?) and felt the need to call Democrats “a bunch of childless cat ladies.” These women are, according to him, “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.”
He told Tucker Carlson, “Look at Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, AOC [Alexandra Ocasio Cortez], the entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children. How does it make any sense we’ve turned our country over to people who don’t really have a direct stake in it?”
Statements such as these are leveled against female and gay politicians constantly, and it’s disheartening and frustrating. It’s also inaccurate, because Harris is a parent—she’s a step-parent. She shares two kids with her husband Douglas Emhoff. Just because her children are not her biological children, that doesn’t make her “childless.”
And, speaking as a childless person myself, not having children also doesn’t mean you have no direct stake in the future. That’s an absurd thing to say. People should, and usually do (I suspect Vance himself is an exception), want to leave behind a better world for future generations, regardless of whether those people share their bloodline or not.
Jennifer Aniston has hit back at Vance’s statement
Many people have slammed Vance for his comments (including Pete Buttigieg, who is also now a parent via adoption), but one of the loudest voices has been that of actress Jennifer Aniston.
There was a time in the not-so-distant past when the media seemed just plain obsessed with Aniston’s fertility. Rumors spread that Brad Pitt, her most high-profile ex, left her because she didn’t want children … but this unsurprisingly turned out to be misinformation. Aniston actually did try to become pregnant with IVF in her thirties and again in her forties, but in the end she could not.
Aniston wrote a post on Instagram Stories directed at Vance. It read, “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.”
Yep … Vance voted against the Right to IVF Act last month. If you’re trying to wrap your head around how he can simultaneously criticize a woman for having no children and also take steps to prevent her from having them, rest assured that I am, too.
Aniston also wrote in her post, “I truly can’t believe that this is coming from a potential VP of the United States,” and many, many people on social media share those same sentiments. Many people have pointed out in response to Vance’s comments that first American president George Washington also had no biological children.
Aniston has had a long and difficult journey where countless people have seemingly felt entitled to comment on her choices. However, she told Allure magazine in 2022 that she had “no regrets” about where she ended up in life. “God forbid a woman is successful and doesn’t have a child,” she said.
Published: Jul 25, 2024 01:39 pm