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“In this country, (…) we are governed a group of childless women who are miserable with their own lives and the decisions they have made, and that is why they want the rest of the country to be miserable too.” That is what the then candidate for the United States Senate said JD Vance in an interview with the network Fox in 2021, which resurfaced on social media after his election as Donald Trump’s running mate for the November election.
And he used a pejorative term: cat ladies, which literally means “cat ladies”but it is a negative stereotype of single women.
Kamala Harris, Vice President of the United StatesGETTY IMAGES
The main targets of his attack were the vice president Kamala HarrisCongresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) and Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, the first openly gay person in an executive position in the US. “The entire future of Democrats is controlled by people without children”“What is the point of us handing over our country to people who have no real interest in it?” he said, adding: “What is the point of us handing over our country to people who have no real interest in it?”
The comments sparked harsh criticism against Vance.One of the most forceful was that of Hollywood actress Jennifer Aniston, who spoke publicly about her difficulties in trying to have children through in vitro fertilization (IVF).
“I truly can’t believe this is coming from a potential Vice President of the United States,” Aniston wrote on social media. “All I can say is… Mr. Vance, I pray that your daughter will be lucky enough to have children of her own one day.“I hope she doesn’t have to resort to IVF as a second option, because you are trying to take that away from her as well,” she added.
He was referring to Vance’s vote in June to block legislation proposed by Democrats to guarantee access to IVF nationwide.
Being one of the most beloved stars of film and television, his voice carries weightGetty Images
The resurrected interview is just one of several occasions in which the US vice presidential hopeful made disparaging remarks about childless people, as noted CNN.
Faced with the flood of protests, Vance had no choice but to tone down his messageWithout apologizing, he claimed that people had not understood his sarcasm, and justified himself by saying that it was really about “criticizing the Democratic Party for becoming anti-family and anti-children.”
That being the case, his problem with Kamala Harris seems to be that she has not given birth, because The vice president has been a stepmother since she married lawyer Douglas Emhoff in 2014.Her children are named Cole and Ella, and Harris is called “Momala,” a fusion of mom and Kamala.
Trump defended Vance by saying that he “likes families,” but also said that people with children are no better than those without children.Getty Images
But in the end, The question is whether highlighting the fact that Harris has no biological children could reduce her appeal among voters.. Possibly, believes Peggy O’Donnell Heffington, a historian at the University of Chicago. “There is a part of the electorate that really believes that having children is not just a civic duty, but something that gives meaning to life, that it is the highest goal of a woman’s life.”
Levy, car the Without Children. The Long History of Not Being a Mother (Childless – the long story of not being a motherin free translation; Seal Press) also observed that the The pejorative image of women who do not have children is long-standing.
“In the U.S., these efforts to encourage (or actually force) women to have children go back at least to the early 19th century, after the Revolution,” she said. “At that point, people in power began to make it very clear that the main civic contribution of women to this new nationor what they were expected to do as citizens, was to have children”.
Interestingly, not having biological children was something that worked in favor of the first U.S. president, George Washington (ruled 1789-1797), Heffington noted. The reason for the revolution was to become independent, found a republic and end the monarchy.
And since kings were usually sons of kings, the that Washington was not the biological father of anyone, “was something that people greatly admired“They thought, ‘He has no children who can inherit power, so he’s a very safe choice for a first president.’”
(Besides him, four other presidents did not have children: James Madison [1809-1817]Andrew Jackson [1829-1837]James Polk [1845-1849] y James Buchanan [1857-1861]).
Roosevelt called childless women cowards and incompleteGetty Images
A little more than a century after the Revolution, the historian commented, the president In a speech, Theodore Roosevelt compared women who do not have children to soldiers fleeing from battle.“The idea was that these women were cowards and refused to serve their country when it needed them most.”
Like little, He spoke of them as incomplete beings“He described childless women as bread made without yeast. He said they were useless, that they lacked something that was integral to life, and they also lacked something as people,” the author notes.
For Heffington, Vance’s remarks about childless women echo those convictions. “In a way, he’s saying that they have failed in their duties as citizens by not having children and therefore they cannot be trusted to govern the country.” And that It could be a sign of what Kamala Harris will facethe Democratic Party’s virtual candidate for the presidential elections on November 5.
“I think that It is a very convenient way to attack herbecause they don’t criticize her for being a woman, but for not having children,” says Heffington. “It’s as if they were saying ‘we don’t have a problem with women, but with a woman with a defect.’ So I fear this could be some sort of harbinger of a much deeper misogyny.”.
Historian Peggy Heffington has studied the issue of women who are not mothers in depth.
But, according to the historian, There is a background to this exaltation of motherhood.which is accompanied by limited access to abortion and contraception in some places: the decline in birth rates. “I think it’s more about upholding traditional gender roles as a way of controlling the way women’s lives can be seen.”
And she stressed that there is a historical precedent. “In the 19th century, the number of children a woman had began to decline in most of the world, but specifically in the US it fell dramatically.” Having fewer children meant having more time, being free from pregnancy and caring for babies..
“There was explicit concern on the part of some politicians: What will women do with their time? Maybe they will try to get into politics, into the market and get a job. “So, with the fertility rate going down, In the US there was an increase in expectations about what it meant to be a good motheras the propaganda rhetoric around it shows. It is very explicit that this thinking arises to take away women’s time, since they were no longer pregnant all the time. This prevents them from getting involved in politics.”
Those tensions haven’t gone away entirely, Heffington believes. “Some of the defenders of traditional gender roles and critics of childless women are concerned about what they consider to be the right way for women to spend their time.”[Para ellos], Women who devote their time to a career or politics instead of motherhood are, in some way, a threat”.
*By Marina Rossi
BBC World
