I was busy going about my business, living my post-menopausal life without grandchildren, when suddenly I was faced with an existential question:
That – to borrow Barbie's lament — What was I created for?
And why should I care what Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance thinks?
Opinion columnist
Robin Abcarian
I don’t normally engage in evolutionary biology-based introspection. I’ve heard too many immature arguments about how men are biologically programmed to cheat, blah, blah, blah. I’m too busy working full-time, raising my 14-year-old niece, cooking, cleaning, making sure the dog poop is picked up, and longing for the “post-menopausal zest” Margaret Mead promised me.
Last week, another of Vance’s shameful views on women and families — this time about women after menopause — caused a stir and helped push his approval rating even lower than it had been.
In 2020, Vance was a guest on a now-defunct podcast called “The Portal,” hosted by Eric Weinstein, CEO of Thiel Capital, whose founder, Peter Thiel, is Vance’s political godfather.
During a rambling (and frankly boring) two-hour-plus interview about the state of the American working class and the evils of neoliberalism, the conversation turned to family. Vance stated that her young son was a “better human being” for having his maternal grandparents involved in his life.
This led Weinstein to suggest that caring for grandchildren is “the primary purpose of the postmenopausal woman.”
Vance agreed, saying that when his first child was born, his wife, Usha, was about to begin a Supreme Court clerkship, and his Indian-born mother-in-law moved in with the family for a year. Coincidentally, his mother-in-law, Lakshmi Chilukuri, is the chancellor of the University of California, San Diego, and a marine biologist and biochemist. What a gift to be a tenured professor with financial stability and options like that!
Weinstein, who is also married to the daughter of Indian immigrants, acknowledged that having deeply involved grandparents is “a rare and unpublicized feature of marrying an Indian woman.”
Vance responded: “It’s one of those things… This is what needs to be done.”
She was probably evoking a specific stereotype about South Asian families, but she also implied that child-rearing is built into the DNA of women who are no longer fertile. This is the intellectual equivalent of believing that women are programmed to seek out a mate with a full head of hair and a Ferrari. Some do, some don’t. Some grandmothers take care of their grandchildren, some don’t.
Vance's comments probably wouldn't have been so bitter if his revelation hadn't been preceded by a series of other offensive comments about people who don't have children.
In 2021, he told Tucker Carlson: “We are actually run in this country by Democrats … by a bunch of cat-loving women with no children who are miserable with their own lives and the choices they’ve made. And so they want the rest of the country to be miserable, too.” People who don’t have children, he said, have “no stake” in this country.
And then she singled out Vice President Kamala Harris, who has two stepchildren, and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who is gay and was, at the time, in the process of adopting twins with his husband, Chasten.
According to a poll conducted in the first two days of August by the National Women's Law Center Action Fund in conjunction with polling firm Morning Consult, childless women with cats are happier than most voters. The poll, which was first reported by Mother Jones, found that 32 percent of childless women with cats said they were “very happy,” compared with 27 percent of voters overall.
What a gift for Democrats, already buoyed by Harris's unexpected campaign!
“Childless Cat Ladies for Kamala” became an instant meme. And despite efforts by people like Vance’s wife to pass off his comment as a “joke,” there was really no way to clean up the mess he had made.
Last week on Fox News, following Trump’s lead, Vance attempted to downplay the role reproductive rights will play in voter turnout, even though abortion protections will be on the ballot in at least eight states in November.
“I don’t think so,” said Vance, who has called for a nationwide abortion ban. “I think most suburban women care about the normal things that most Americans care about.”
How does he make room in his mouth for so many feet?
No wonder ABC News recently declared that “Americans don’t like Vance” in an article titled “JD Vance is more unpopular than Sarah Palin.” Oops!
It seems Vance's retrograde views on how American women should behave are dooming him.
“Every time JD Vance opens his mouth,” someone posted on X, “another woman dedicates the rest of her life to being his worst nightmare.”
There are an estimated 75 million menopausal Americans. We may be tired — of working, of raising families, of living our lives — but you know what? We're not too tired to vote.
@robinkabcarian
