The Fluidity Of Misogyny

Cat ladies and feminism

I have not yet written about the horrible comments that the GOP Vice Presidential nominee J.D. Vance has made. In 2021, he spoke about (I am paraphrasing) how single, childless women are "cat ladies” who have miserable lives that cause them so much unhappiness, they want to impose their misery on the rest of the country. He asked, do we want these people— and he mentioned “radical leftists like” Kamala Harris, AOC and Pete Buttigieg— running our country?

This kind of comment harkens back to debates I recall in the 1980’s, statements about how feminists were angry women who could not find men because they were ugly, they didn’t shave their legs and hated men. The late 80’s were a period of serious backlash after the second wave of feminism through the 1990’s. Feminism was a dirty word, and women would not admit to being a feminist, even if they believed in women’s equality. I imagine the word is still looked at with suspicion (i.e. a form of man hating) in some circles still. In J.D. Vance circles.

I drew this in the mid-1990’s for The New Yorker. The little girl thinks “feminist” is an insult, she doesn’t understand it yet. But she was standing up for her mother which in a way is to me a feminist attitude. Although I don’t advocate violence!

I wonder if J.D. Vance’s wife considers herself a feminist. She has a Yale law degree, clerked for Supreme Court Justices and practiced for a while before she married Vance. I just don’t understand who she is—but then I don’t suppose I need to understand; it is not helpful to try to pigeon hole people into categories. But the morphing, the evolution of misogyny and feminism over the course of my lifetime is so confusing. Perhaps that’s the point: it keeps people (womnen) confused, while those that espouse those views take or continue to have control. This whole tone of returning to “traditional” family structure is so outrageous to me. It smacks of religious extreme conservatism and Handmaids Tale stuff. It is fabricated to perpetuate male power and the patriarchy.

Some think Vance won’t last as Trump’s VP pick. Is it less damaging to get rid of him, with all the press that would create, than to keep him? He is doing the GOP campaign a lot of damange, his comments are putting a bright spotlight on women’s concerns as well as the right to choose.

Kamala Harris will keep up the pressure.

Thanks for being here, hope your Friday is a good one. See you tomorrow.