Message to women with self-respect, if you're not looking askance at Vance you're in a trance. If you glorify the grabber I feel sorry for you. By Hal Brown, MSW

These are made by Photo AI. They are not real. As far as I can tell he hasn't revealed how he feels about actual cats or if he has had them in his family.

Message to women with self-respect, if you're not looking askance at Vance you're in a trance. If you glorify the grabber I feel sorry for you.

Who woulda thunk? Trump put kitty cats, aka pussys, in the headlines. Now Vance brings back cats.

 

JD Vance In 2021: 'We Have To Go To War' Against The Idea That Women Don't Have To Have Kids

Here Are All Of JD Vance's Put-Downs Of Childless Americans

Above were the top two articles on HUFFPOST this morning.

Leave it to Vance to associate his retrograde chauvinistic opinions about women who decide not to have children with cats. It is ironic to note that it was Trump who almost lost the presidency because of using a crude kitty-cat slang term to describe a part of the female anatomy.

I can't determine whether Vance ever had cats in his family. Perhaps he did. It's possible he bought into the mythology of cats as being evil.

 This is from  the NY Times (subscription)

JD Vance and the Age-Old Trope of ‘Childless Cat Ladies’ 

In a relentlessly newsy phase of the presidential contest, the long history of bias against cosmopolitan cat-owning women finds its place.

In this country, we can go back to the Salem Witch Trials to find cats inextricably linked to ungovernable women. Late in the winter of 1692, as girls were writhing and convulsing their way to persecution, an enslaved girl named Tituba, married to one man and in love with another, was called to answer to charges of witchcraft before the relevant Massachusetts tribunal. One of the first to be accused, she confessed to the allegations, apparently claiming to have flown on a pole, signed a book by the devil and watched as possessed spectral cats pinched or choked other girls, driving them to madness.

Here's an example of cats depicted as anything but cute and cuddly. It is from the article Woman-as-Cat in Anti-Suffrage Propaganda.

It is difficult for me to fathom how any woman with self respect could support Trump, and not disapprove of his choosing Vance as his running mate. I think they lack self-respect. I feel sorry for them. How, I wonder, could this woman wear the homemade t-shirt (they are available commercially) to a Trump rally:

I'd like to learn more about her and even have a chance to talk to her. She seems to be posing for the photo. I have seen it reposted in other stories. My guess is that she'd be happy to discover that in her own small way she is famous. I'd ask her if she has a husband or boyfriend (I doubt she has a partner who is a woman) and if she does ask her how he feels about her wearing this. I'd inform her that she is being mocked or pitied for wearing this ask her how she feels about this. 

The following is the concluding paragraph in the Politico Magazine opinion essay 

JD Vance Has a Bunch of Weird Views on Gender

Overt chauvinism is the unifying thread of the New Right. 

Trump lost women by 15 points in 2020; if he has any hope of moving back into the White House he’ll need to make up at least a bit of that ground. But if he hoped the vice presidential pick would help with that he may be sadly mistaken. While Trump’s sexism has manifested as a crude machismo, Vance, along with his New Right fellow-travelers, is about to introduce voters to a more conceptual take on sexism — one which many women, and indeed many men, might find even more alarming.

I can see Vance, who probably unlike Trump, knows what it is, lamenting the fact that the Nineteenth Amendment was ever passed.

I wonder if some disparaging Vance comments about men who love cats being - you know the word used to disparage some men as being less than masculine, weak, and lacking in courage - will come out. 

This would include both Winston Churchill and Abraham Lincoln and we know what wussies they were /s ... the following is from this website:

Winston Churchill’s Feline Companions

Winston Churchill, the iconic British Prime Minister who led his nation through World War II, had a soft spot for cats. He famously said, “I like pigs and dogs. Cats look down on you; dogs look up to you; but pigs look you in the eye and treat you as an equal.” Churchill’s beloved pet cat, Jock, accompanied him during his time at Chartwell, his country residence. They shared a special bond, and Jock was even known to attend meetings with the Prime Minister.

Abraham Lincoln’s White House Cats

Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States, found companionship in the form of four-legged friends during his tenure. He and his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, were known for their love of animals, including their cats. President Lincoln’s son, Tad, rescued several stray cats and brought them into the White House, where they became cherished members of the family. These furry companions provided comfort during a tumultuous period in American history.

Of course President Clinton had Socks:

Full disclosure:

I am a cat lover. I've had cats in my life since I was a child. I don't have any now because I am too old at 80 to take one into my life and I don't want to burden anyone with adopting them if and when I die before they do. 

Maybe Vance would consider me a wussie (or the word that rhymes with it). I was a volunteer cat loving cop for 20 years working at least one shift a week usually at night. I wonder if he would have called me that name if I stopped him for suspected drunk driving (according to the article "Drinking with J.D. Vance" he does drink). My partner and I took lots of drivers who failed a field sobriety test to jail. I can visualize doing this to a smug J.D. Vance. 

Just for fun, here's an old photo of me taken at home before I went out to do a shift as a reserve police officer. I am with Julian, one of our cats.

Read all blogs here.