In a 2021 interview, Donald Trump’s running mate, the ineffable JD Vance, called current Vice President of the United States Kamala Harris a “cat lady.” Really? It makes me like her even more, but that wasn’t JD’s intention. (By the way, JD stands for “I love Donald.”)
To treat someone as cat lady is a misogynistic and contemptuous insult, which goes back a long way. I did my research.
PHOTO PAUL RATJE, THE NEW YORK TIMES ARCHIVES
JD Vance, speaking along the border with Mexico, on May 1er august
In ancient Egypt, the cat was the symbol of femininity, personified by the goddess Bastet, with a woman’s body and a feline’s head. It was the representation of feminine power. A threatening power that the male wanted to repress.
In the Middle Ages, cats were associated with marginalized women, accused of witchcraft, who were burned at the stake.
The cat is a domesticated animal, but not completely, which remains independent. Which does not obey like a doggie. In short, a bad influence for the dominant’s companion.
In popular culture, from Dickens to Simpsonthere are plenty of examples of strange lonely old ladies, often surrounded by cats. Women who, according to narrow-minded people, have failed in life, since they have not managed to marry or have children.
The gist of Vance’s point is this. Let’s quote his statement. “We are run in this country, through the Democrats, by a bunch of childless cat ladies who are unhappy in their own lives and in the choices they’ve made, and therefore want to make the rest of the country unhappy too.”
The cat is out of the bag! Disgusting! The Republican vice presidential candidate is angry at people without children, who, to him, are worth less than parents. He claims that the most disturbed and psychotic people are those who don’t have children. According to him, childless leaders end up making the entire country more susceptible to becoming mentally unstable. Just that.
What a twisted theory! That doesn’t respect the twists of fate and personal choices. That means that according to JD, J.-C. could not lead the United States.
The irony of Vance’s reasoning is that Kamala Harris isn’t even a childless cat lady.
PHOTO KEVIN LAMARQUE, REUTERS ARCHIVES
Kamala Harris, likely Democratic presidential candidate and vice president of the United States
First, she is the stepmother to her husband’s two children from a previous relationship. Then, no matter how much research I did and how much I questioned artificial intelligence, I never found out if Kamala had cats or not. Anyway, JD is for “I digress.”
If Vance’s nonsense doesn’t apply to the Vice President of the United States, it’s more aimed at me.
I don’t have children and I have a cat. So I’m a cat person.
And rather than defending cat people, after loudly denouncing the odious remarks made by Vance towards Kamala Harris and all women, I would like to defend those who have been largely forgotten in this controversy: cats!
No, but, it’s true, why do cats always have the bad role?
Why is a dog person okay, but a cat person not? Why is a cat person suspect in literature? Why does the despot in movies pet a tomcat and not a dog?
Why all these prejudices surrounding the human-feline relationship?
Of course, the relationship with a cat is not as obvious as the one with a dog. It is not the master and the mastered. A cat does not bring you your slippers, does not bring you the ball, does not sniff out drugs in suitcases, does not find skiers buried under an avalanche.
A cat doesn’t do that, but a cat does cat: a cat walks without a leash and comes back without leaving you. He doesn’t need anyone to do his business. A cat doesn’t need to be trained. You don’t tell him to sit, stand, lie down. He does it when he pleases. You can go hours without seeing him, then he comes purring two inches from your nose: I haven’t forgotten you.
A cat is not your baby. A cat is your teenager. He needs you sometimes, but he also needs you, not the big ones. He doesn’t live in your house. You live together. He’s on the same footing as you, or on the same paw. He teaches you that a bond is not made to hold on, it’s made to fly away and find itself again.
In short, cat people are very adept at governing, because their pet has taught them that there is no solidarity without freedom.
There you go! Long live cat women! Long live cat men! And long live cats!