Jennifer Aniston vs JD Vance: Why ‘childless cat lady’ remark by Trump’s VP pick has outraged women

“I pray that your daughter is fortunate enough to bear children of her own one day.”

Hollywood star Jennifer Aniston, known best for her role as Rachel in the sitcom Friends, has gained a lot of traction on Instagram for her single post addressed to JD Vance, in which she prays for his daughter.

But what prompted the 55-year-old star to post the comment on the social media platform? And how has this snowballed into a larger issue about sexism in US politics.

We take a look.

JD Vance vs Jennifer Aniston

On Wednesday, the Hollywood star took to Instagram and shared a clip of Trump’s now vice-presidential pick JD Vance ’s resurfaced Fox News interview with a caption that began: “I truly can’t believe that this is coming from a potential VP of the United States.”

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She continued: “All I can say is… Mr Vance, I pray that your daughter is fortunate enough to bear children of her own one day. I hope she will not need to turn to IVF as a second option,” she wrote. “Because you are trying to take that away from her, too.”

Aniston’s comments came in reaction to Vance’s comment to Tucker Carlson during an interview he had given in 2021. In that meet, the Ohio Senator, who has now been selected to be Donald Trump’s running mate on a Republican ticket, said that the United States was being run by “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too.”

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“We’re effectively run in this country via the Democrats, via our corporate oligarchs, by a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and choices that they’ve made,” Vance told Carlson. “And they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too … You look at Kamala Harris , Pete Buttigieg, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children.”

In the same vein, he added: “They’re obsessed with their jobs. They’re obsessed with their wealth and with their fortunes,” have no “direct stake” in the nation’s future and “hate normal Americans for choosing family over these ridiculous DC and New York status games.”

Snowballing into a bigger row

Following Aniston, many others have also come forward to criticise the Republican vice presidential candidate.

Kamala Harris’ stepdaughter, Ella Emhoff, came to her defence in an Instagram story on Thursday. “How can you be ‘childless’ when you have cutie pie kids like Cole and I,” the 25-year-old wrote alongside a screenshot of CNN’s broadcast, which quoted her mother calling Harris a “loving, nurturing (and) fiercely protective” co-parent.

“@kemhoff say it louder for the people in the back,” Ella Emhoff wrote. “I love my three parents.”

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who was also named by Vance, said that maybe the Republican should steer clear of talking about other people’s children.

Whoopi Goldberg, a Hollywood star and now one of the hosts of popular TV show The View, also discussed Vance’s remarks, saying they were “not really helping him connect with a lot of voters”.

“Sir, there are people who have chosen not to have children for whatever reason. There are people who want to have children who cannot. How dare you," Goldberg said. “You never had a baby. Your wife had a baby. But you never had a baby, so you know nothing about this. How dare you.”

She further listed past presidents such as George Washington, James Polk, James Buchanan (who was also never married) and Andrew Jackson as figures who did not have biological children. “You know who else didn’t have (biological) kids? George Washington, the father of our nation. But you know what he did? Like Kamala, he raised Martha (Washington)’s children. He raised them with her,” Goldberg said.

Interestingly, Vance began getting a lot of hate from fans of singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, who has no children — and three cats.

“It’s bold, for someone seeking votes, to hone in on ‘childless cat ladies’ when the leader of Childless Cat Ladies is Taylor Swift,” British writer Caitlin Moran posted on X.

Another user on X shared the TIME magazine cover where the singer posed with one of her cats, writing: “Hell hath no fury like a certain childless cat lady who has yet to endorse a presidential candidate.”

Vance’s defence

While JD Vance and Donald Trump have yet to say anything on the issue, a spokesperson for Vance’s campaign referred CBS News to other 2021 comments from Vance, in which he clarified that the “target of his remarks” made on Fox News are not people who are not able or can’t have children for a variety of reasons, including medical.

In a statement to CBS News on Thursday, Taylor Van Kirk, a spokesperson for Vance, condemned “leftwing media” for having “spun up a false narrative about his position on the issues”.

“The Democrats are in complete disarray with the most unpopular vice president in history as their party’s nominee,” Van Kirk said. “The only childlessness we should be talking about are the childless parents who lost their kids to the murderous thugs and deadly fentanyl coming across Kamala’s southern border.”

Lindsay Lewis, Vance’s sister, said in a statement that her brother was not only “raised by some of the strongest women” she knows but also married “an incredibly strong woman in Usha .” “JD is a testament to the women in his life, and the attacks from the media and Democrats that assume anything otherwise is vile,” Lewis was quoted as telling CNN.

Trope of the ‘childless cat lady’

The use of childless cat lady isn’t new. For years, we have heard the phrase — some laughing it off, others getting offended about it.

In culture and historically, cats have been linked to women for some inexplicable reason. But many experts say that it’s steeped in sexism. Leora Tanenbaum, author of I Am Not a Slut: Slut-Shaming in the Age of the Internet, told USAToday: “Women often are likened to cats in a pejorative way — for example, a common insult is to call a woman ‘catty’. With a man, on the other hand, you would never use that word and are more likely to describe him as ‘spiteful’. And we describe arguments between women as ‘catfights,’ while an argument between men is just, well, an ‘argument’.”

For far too long, women without children have been looked at with a certain scorn. Women state that though society is becoming more accepting of not having children, there is a stigma attached to it. Many women state that they are often asked why they choose not to have offspring and people expect them to be regretful of their lack of progeny.

Tanenbaum states, “The ‘cat lady’ stereotype is an extension of dominant beliefs about what femininity should look like. If a woman is unmarried or childless, she goes against expectations for her gender role, which is to be partnered with a man and devote herself to her biological family. It’s alright if she works, but not if she’s too ambitious and puts her career above her family.”

Besides the social aspect of this sexism, there’s also a psychological impact. A woman’s lack of children can cause her to feel guilt, and an increased sense of worthlessness. This could result in anxiety, depression and in some tragic cases even suicide.

It also sends a wrong message to young girls — limit your aspirations to only being a wife and a mother.

It will be interesting to see if Vance can shake this off, as Cat Mother Taylor Swift once sang. However, it’s almost certain that the ‘catty’ women of American won’t forget or forgive Vance.

With inputs from agencies