Friday, July 26, 2024

Lay off the cat people!

I am indeed a "childless crazy cat lady." Janeway and Mio will testify to that. 

When I first heard of this slur from Trump's mini-me JD Vance, I figured I was hearing garden variety homophobia. If we find these posturing bros repulsive, we must be queer. Well, yippee for that!

But Republican natalism -- their obsessive fixation on women bearing children -- is even more vile than simple homophobia. 

JVL of the Bulwark spells out the deeper scandal of GOPer bigotry:

... while Vance and his confederates are super-duper concerned about childless people who “have no stake in America’s future” I have also heard many conservatives/Republicans express a great deal of concern about brown people having too many babies.

... You may have forgotten, but back in the 1990s, conservatives were worried about African-American women having too many babies, so they pushed for a welfare “family cap” which denied extra benefits for low-income women (translation: African-American women) who had children while on public assistance.

Sometimes the Republican pro-natalists let the mask slip. Last year in Texas Republicans pushed a bill that would give large property tax credits to households with four or more children.

But not all households with four or more children. The bill was tailored so that in order to qualify the household would have to be comprised of two heterosexual married adults, neither of whom had been divorced, and—most importantly—who owned the property in which they dwelled.

I’m sure it was just coincidence that in Texas home ownership rates are significantly higher for whites than blacks and Hispanics.

So remember: When you hear JD Vance & Co. talk about the importance of having babies because parenthood gives you some sort of special stake in the country, sure, that’s a batshirt idea.

But this batshirt idea isn’t even on the level. They mean something very different. Here’s what they actually mean:

They are threatened by the fertility patterns of minorities and view white women who don’t have babies as race-traitors.

For too many of our MAGA compatriots, it comes back to racial fears projected outward as racism.

2 comments:

  1. The bill, TX HB2889, introduced by Rep. Henry Slaton.

    https://legiscan.com/TX/text/HB2889/id/2718374

    ReplyDelete
  2. Erratum: It was Bryan Slaton.

    ReplyDelete