JD Vance calling Kamala Harris a ‘childless cat lady’ is sexism he’d only get away with in America

The misogynistic comments by Trump’s pick for vice president are a tired cliché – women should not be judged for not having children

Could there be a more pejorative, more misogynistic label to give a woman than “childless cat lady”? Those three little words convey volumes, not about the subject, but the person saying them. 
No point pussy-footing about. If we didn’t already know JD Vance, Donald Trump’s pick for Republican vice president was a wrong ’un, here’s the incontrovertible proof. A video, from back in 2021, has emerged showing Vance (a father of three, if anyone cares) referring to Democratic presidential nominee-in-waiting and mother-of-none Kamala Harris as “one of the “childless cat ladies” who are “miserable at their own lives” and have “no stake in the nation’s future”. 
JD Vance says women who haven’t given birth like Kamala Harris are “childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives,” and have “no direct stake” in America. pic.twitter.com/3DJY3pQTGe
Is it any wonder then, he has drawn fire from, among others, Hillary Clinton, who tweeted: “What a normal, relatable guy who certainly doesn’t hate women having freedoms.” 
Whether Vance is au fait with sarcasm remains to be seen. But he knew what he was doing when he conjured up the pernicious “childless cat lady” trope to denigrate Harris. First, we have “childless”; once a progressive replacement for the sternly biblical and hugely judgemental “barren”, it is itself an increasingly archaic descriptor that has quite rightly been superseded by the less emotive, more neutral 21st-century term “child-free”. 
Then comes the “cat” reference. Again freighted with negativity, it is retrograde shorthand for “lonely old biddy who has no friends and isn’t even sociable enough to own a dog which would at least afford her the opportunity to hang out with normal, hearty people in the park”. 
Finally “lady”; a sly way of bothering a woman by using a word that superficially confers status but in reality sets her apart. It also implies she is a dithery old bat. To those still struggling with the definition of everyday sexism, the litmus test is always to insert the male equivalent into any phrase. Given there is no such thing as a “childless cat gentleman”, we can safely conclude the female version is predicated on sexism. In this instance of the clumsiest sort. 
Neither big nor clever, such cliches can be easily dismissed. But is the accompanying argument that is truly, toxically insidious, namely that by virtue of having no children, Harris is not invested in the future of the United States. “Why is this just a normal fact of … life, for the leaders of our country to be people who don’t have a personal and direct stake in it via their own offspring?” Vance demanded rhetorically, to no doubt rapturous applause. 
In Britain, that sort of crassness is both shocking and unacceptable; we need look no further than the 2016 Tory leadership battle when mother-of-three Andrea Leadsom was forced shamefacedly to withdraw her candidacy and apologise after she cast aspersions on Theresa May’s suitability for high office because she had no children. 
In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel, who was in charge from 2005 to 2021 had no children and was affectionately dubbed “Mutti” (Mother) by the whole nation. She good-naturedly embraced the title which largely reflected their perception of her as empathetic and caring, firm but fair – and comfortably un-flashy. Would the German nation refer to a child-free male Chancellor as Daddy? Absolutely nein. But then double standards abound; men’s reproductive choices and fertility are never discussed, analysed – indeed dissected – in the same prurient and suspicious way. 
Returning to Harris, possibly the most tellingly unpleasant and highly personal aspect of Vance’s opinions is the fact that she IS a mother. A stepmother. While she was a senator in 2014, she married lawyer Doug Emhoff and became stepmother to his two children, Cole and Ella. 
She even wrote an article for Elle magazine in 2019 about the experience and unveiled the amusing portmanteau name that is often used in headlines. “When Doug and I got married, Cole, Ella, and I agreed that we didn’t like the term ‘stepmom’. Instead they came up with the name ‘Momala’.” 
The very model of a modern blended family; but not in the eyes of Vance, whose narrow, nuclear vision of what constitutes motherhood does not encompass the deep love that binds step-parents and children together. 
Such attacks may prove significant miscalculations now that Harris, and Vance, are playing for the highest political stakes. For come November, the child-free, the step-parents and – let’s not forget – the cat-loving voters of the United States may come together and hit Vance and his mentor Trump right where it hurts – in the ballot box.