JD Vance puts his futon in his mouth again
Consider, if you will, the mysterious role of the postmenopausal female. Her ovaries have shrunk and she is no longer able to fulfil a woman’s biological destiny of bringing children into the world. What’s the point of her?
One Mr Eric Weinstein, a mathematician and host of The Portal podcast, has helpfully provided some intellectual light on this most vexing of questions. Drumroll please, per Weinstein the “whole purpose of the postmenopausal female”, is to help take care of her grandchildren.
A little more context: in 2020 Weinstein had Senator JD Vance on his podcast and the pair chatted about the importance of grandparents. Vance explained that his extremely accomplished mother-in-law, a biology professor, had taken a year-long sabbatical and lived with them for a year after the birth of the Vances’ first child. Weinstein heartily approved of this, noting that nurturing was, after all, the purpose of the “postmenopausal female”. Vance appeared to agree. He also seemed to agree when Weinstein proclaimed that having your grandparents help out with your kids is a “weird, unadvertised feature of marrying an Indian woman”. (Vance’s wife, Usha Chilukuri Vance, is the daughter of Indian immigrants.)
These recently resurfaced comments are attracting a lot of attention for obvious reasons. Ever since he was announced as Donald Trump’s running mate, Vance has been in the headlines for his history of weird comments about gender and marriage. During a 2021 event, for example, he seemed to suggest that it was far too easy for people to get divorced and it was best for people to stay married, for the sake of their kids, even if the marriages were violent. Vance has said these remarks were taken out of context. Around the same time he also memorably said that the US was being led by a “bunch of childless cat ladies”. Then, when recently pressed on the comment, he claimed it was sarcastic and added: “I’ve got nothing against cats.”
Was Vance’s apparent agreement with Weinstein’s assessment of the role of “the postmenopausal female” sarcasm as well? No, this time the excuse is that it’s all fake news. A spokesperson for the aspiring vice-president has accused “the media” of “dishonestly putting words in JD’s mouth”. The spokesperson also claimed: “JD reacted to the first part of the host’s sentence, assuming he was going to say: ‘That’s the whole purpose of spending time with grandparents.’”
You can listen to the excerpt yourself, if you can bear it, and come to your own conclusions. I think it’s fair to say, however, that Vance certainly doesn’t vocally disagree with Weinstein’s statement. He also doesn’t say anything along the lines of, “Eric, my friend, please don’t refer to women as females like that, it’s creepy and gives off major incel vibes.”
Ultimately, it’s difficult to give Vance the benefit of the doubt when it comes to these comments considering his past statements on gender and the sort of people that he surrounds himself with. Donald Trump, the man’s running mate, has been legally branded a sexual predator and is one of the most famous misogynists in the world, for God’s sake!
Then there’s Peter Thiel, who hired Vance at his investment firm in 2017 then groomed him for political stardom – donating $15m to Vance’s 2022 Ohio Senate campaign and helping to secure Trump’s endorsement. Vance has said that Thiel has been a major influence on him, which is worrying because the billionaire has a lot of incredibly archaic views. He’s called diversity initiatives “very evil and very silly” and has mused that women having the right to vote has been a setback for libertarianism. Weinstein, by the way, is also in the Thiel fold: at the time those “postmenopausal female” comments were recorded, the podcast host was the managing director of Thiel’s hedge fund. Males of a feather seem to flock together.
Anyway, even if one were to be very generous and say this postmenopausal controversy has been overblown, Vance seems determined to keep insulting as many women as he can. On Wednesday, for example, he suggested to Fox News that it’s not “normal” to care about abortion. “What do you say to suburban women out there who are marinating in this propaganda [that abortion has been banned nationwide]?” the Fox News host Laura Ingraham asked. Vance replied: “I don’t buy that … I think most suburban women care about the normal things that most Americans care about.”
Here’s the thing: suburban women do care about abortion. An April Wall Street Journal poll found that 39% of suburban women cite abortion as a “make-or-break issue for their vote” and Trump risks losing this important voting bloc because of it.
All of which to say: please keep talking, JD, you’re doing a great job of alienating half of the electorate! Kamala Harris already has a massive lead with likely women voters in the polls and Vance seems to be doing his damnedest to make the gender gap grow.
Katy Perry’s annus horribilis continues to get worse
This year was supposed to be Perry’s big comeback. Alas Woman’s World, the first single from her new album, was widely panned and there was a general sense that the singer is struggling to adjust her 2010s vibe to the present moment. Now the 39-year-old is being investigated by the government of Spain’s Balearic islands for filming on protected dunes without the necessary permissions. In the Guardian, Laura Snapes asks if Perry’s career can recover from these setbacks.
British woman wins rare payout after ‘sexsomnia’ rape case dropped
Days before the man charged with raping Jade Blue McCrossen-Nethercot was due to stand trial the case was dropped because two experts said it was possible she had a disorder which could cause her to engage in sexual acts while asleep. While sexsomnia is a real condition, it’s not exactly common. What is becoming more common, however, is it being used as part of a defence in criminal trials.
Indian women march to ‘reclaim the night’ after doctor’s rape and murder
There have been several days of protests across the state of West Bengal after an unnamed 31-year-old doctor was attacked while taking a break from a shift at a government hospital. “If the government cannot ensure the safety of women at a government-run institution, what hope is there?” one protester asked.
Hundreds of cases of femicide recorded in Afghanistan since Taliban takeover
It has been three years since the Taliban seized power again in Afghanistan, creating “the world’s most serious women’s rights crisis”. Since then there have been 332 reported cases of Afghan women being killed by men, with Taliban officials implicated in more than half of reported incidents. Sadly these numbers are probably just the “the tip of the iceberg”.
Draft Iraqi law would allow nine-year-olds to marry
In 1959, Iraq passed a progressive Personal Status Law that transferred jurisdiction over family affairs from religious courts to the state. It set the legal age of marriage at 18 and restricted polygamy. However, while technically illegal, there’s been an increase in child marriage in Iraq over the last 20 years; one survey by Unicef found 28% of girls in Iraq had married by 18. Instead of trying to reverse this, religious groups are trying to roll back the Personal Status Law and essentially legalize child rape. A bloc of female lawmakers have been trying to stop the draft law being passed but they have an uphill battle on their hands.
The week in pawtriarchy
The universe works in mysterious ways. Sometimes, for example, it gives you a cat. The Guardian has an explainer about the cat distribution system (CDS) meme and what you should actually do if a stray cat suddenly appears in your life. Mews you can use.