J.D. Vance Will Not Stop Insulting Childfree Women
Republican veep candidate J.D. Vance did a long interview with The New York Times during which he doubled (tripled? quadrupled?) down on his offensive comments about childfree women.
Your position on those family values have gotten a lot of scrutiny lately. You’ve talked about childless cat ladies. You’ve called childless people sociopathic, psychotic, deranged. And I know that you’ve said that those comments were sarcastic. But it’s hard to hear those words entirely as a joke. What do you actually think of childless women in society? Well, as I said when I made those comments — and look, they were dumb comments. I think most people probably have said something dumb, have said something that they wish they had put differently.
You said it in several different venues. In a very, very short period of time. It was sort of a thing that I picked up on. I said it a couple of times in a couple of interviews, and look, I certainly wish that I had said it differently. What I was trying to get at is that — I’m not talking about people who it just didn’t work out for, for medical reasons, for social reasons, like set that to the side, we’re not talking about folks like that. What I was definitely trying to illustrate ultimately in a very inarticulate way is that I do think that our country has become almost pathologically anti-child. [...] I do think that there’s this pathological frustration with children that just is a new thing in American society. I think it’s very dark. I think you see it sometimes in the political conversation, people saying, well, maybe we shouldn’t have kids because of climate change. You know, when I’ve used this word sociopathic? Like, that, I think, is a very deranged idea: the idea that you shouldn’t have a family because of concerns over climate change. Doesn’t mean you can’t worry about climate change, but in the focus on childless cat ladies, we missed the substance of what I said.
Sorry, I just want to clarify something. So women who don’t have children because they’re worried about climate change, that’s sociopathic? I think that is a bizarre way of thinking about the future. Not to have kids because of concerns over climate change? I think the more bizarre thing is our leadership, who encourages young women, and frankly young men, to think about it that way. Bringing life into the world has totally transformed the way that I think about myself, the way that I think about my wife. I mean, watch your grandparents interact with grandchildren — it is, like, a transformatively positive and good thing for there to be children in the world. And if your political philosophy is saying, don’t do that because of concerns over climate change? Yeah, I think that’s a really, really crazy way to think about the world.
As Jane McAvoy has written: "Choosing zero kids because of climate change is not only a rational response to a fear many of us share for our planet’s future, but also reflects a desire to take meaningful action regarding the environmental challenges we face."
Not having children is arguably the most impactful thing any of us concerned about the planet can do for it. Further, as I've said previously: "I could never get past the idea that no one consents to be born, nor wrap my head around plunging a person into this world without their having any say in the matter. Especially not when I might be dooming them to a life on a burning planet wrecked by climate change. I love my hypothetical kids so fiercely that I don’t want to subject them to a future that is uncertain, at best."
That position may be a lot of things to people who disagree with me — it may even be detestable to a person like J.D. Vance — but one thing it isn't is sociopathic.
If Vance wants people to not consider climate change when contemplating whether to parent, then perhaps he and his political party ought to change their position on letting the world burn.
More reflection on creating a better future and less talking about people's reproductive choices would be deeply appreciated.
Please support Zero Kids Zero Regrets by visiting Som Sleep. Better sleep. Better mornings.
