Monday, August 26, 2024

Regrets, I've Had a Few...

 

JD Vance doesn't regret the disparaging and dismissive turn of phrase he has for childless people (mostly women) ...yet. It's their fault, he says, they take what he refers to as a joke the wrong way. His wife earlier this month tried to clean up this comment as a "quip" that went to the deeper question of whether this nation supported families (which makes no sense in context at all). 

It isn't a quip, and it wasn't a one-off. And it speaks to an attitude about what women are for--and isn't there something weird about women who aren't child-focused or domestic? The attitude is "Why should I listen to you? I have kids and you don't. You are a second-class person who should pay more in taxes and have less of a vote." 

See how that stops being funny in context? Someone else (a male?) should make our decisions for childless women, because look at our childless selves. Didn't we choose poorly? Aren't we so unfulfilled? 


When we look at this disparaging non-joke, converted to policies that Vance has discussed, in the light of whether we should carry our rapists' babies or be able to terminate a pregnancy that might injure or kill us, when taken in the context of adult humans considering the world we even want to bring babies into, doesn't it seem like he's kind of full of shit and should feel like shit? 

Where is his record on supporting families? Where does he support a more affordable birth--better health care, better and more affordable educational opportunities? When he says universal daycare is an "attack" on normal people--WTF? 

When people have suggested to JD Vance that he could try walking in their shoes, he has been the one offended. How dare they wish misfortune on him or his children?  And of course, no one is wishing that--they only want him to try empathy. Imagine it. Go through the process (in your mind, JD), of someone else's life choices and why they might have made them. 

This is a man, however, who lacks the empathy to make small talk and the imagination to create a goddamn donut order that makes sense. This is why the actual joke about Vance is couch-fucking. Even if you almost feel bad for the hypothetical couch. But the deeper question about couch-related quips go to whether JD Vance is pro-anyone enough to sit in judgment of others, or whether, like so many creepy little moralists, there's something off about him. 

I've got a dozen years of life experiences on JD Vance, all in a childless woman's shoes. I'm not actually "gut-punched" by his immature and barely formed opinion on my life and the validity of my choices. I'm offended that this dolt is in a position to reduce the choices other humans have in their own precious lives, about which he's too full of his own opinion to contemplate. 

I don't regret not having kids, myself, but who I am and the life I have is not a joke. If Vance truly does not get that, what is he doing in politics? 

3 comments:

Ten Bears said...

Vance is a joke, an embarrassment to real men everywhere.

In the real world he's sweeping up elephant crap after a parade ...

Richard said...

Is he a normal human being? Something seems off. I get an untrustworthy vibe, he doesn't seem to know who he is.

Vixen Strangely said...

Yes--there is something both embarrassing to watch and unreal about him--like he's trying to live up to other people's expectations or doesn't have an idea how to stand for values like a fully realized person. He was a never-Trumper, then decided he was not. Either he doesn't know who he is (a shame at his age) or simply doesn't care so long as he's someone's idea of somebody. Being anyone's else's toy or tool seems a poor choice, whether he has kids or not.

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