2024 was Hunks v. Childless Cat Ladies – and the Hunks won

2024 was Hunks v. Childless Cat Ladies – and the Hunks won

The sex gap in the 2024 election, or men breaking for Donald Trump in large numbers and women voting for Kamala Harris was wide. To turn up the base, the Harris campaign attempted to weaponize vice presidential candidate JD Vance’s throwaway comment about Democrats being the party of childless cat ladies against the GOP. In retrospect, it might have backfired.

When Vance’s quip, made a few years ago during a podcast interview, first came to light, many conservatives panicked, rushing to explain that he didn’t mean to insult the voters — Vance wasn’t talking of ordinary Americans, but rather the likes of Kamala Harris and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, female politicians past their prime. That much is true and it goes without saying that many childless women are upstanding citizens and accomplished individuals who can’t be reduce to their family status, but in politics, if one is explaining, he is losing. And so the future Vice President-elect doubled down on his comment, apologizing to cats. It was a risky path.

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned — the childless cat ladies of America were angry and had nothing to lose. The older female voters popped up at Kamala rallies talking about their discontents. As it turned out, few of them chose to be barren — they were perhaps told that they can have it all and then they discovered that they can’t, or maybe they fell for the wrong kind of men or didn’t settle for the right one believing that there were more fish in the sea. Either way, our civilization is overflowing with those tragic life trajectories.

Reclaiming a put down can be a powerful rallying cry and many lefty voters began displaying feline pride as a political statement. Cat lady merchandise went for sale on Kamala’s campaign website — I spotted a few of these yard signs in my suburb. However, childless cat lady failed to do for Democrats what the basket of deplorables did for Trump in 2016 or garbage people in 2024.

Deplorables and garbage people are generic insults, but childless cat lady means something specific. It gives a spinster an opportunity to bitterly embrace her misfortunes in the company of the similarly miserable and even avenge her sad love life at the polls. Older single women are the Democrat base; a valuable asset, to be sure, since they can be relied to turn out. But Kamala should have that group in the bag regardless of whatever the Ohio Senator might have said once or twice. Unfortunately, the poignant phrase does not appeal to many people already not irreversibly committed to childlessness.

Men are not interested in the personal lives of elderly women other than their relations and young women apparently still dream of fairytale weddings and plump babies — or at the very least they are not energized by the thought of coming home after a long day of work to feed a collection of pets. From the perspective of an attractive twenty-year-old, a childless cat lady is a cautionary tale.

Young women turned out not as lefty as previously believed. Surely, Gen Z still voted Democrat, as expected of youth, but according to a CBS exit poll, for instance, the portion of women between 18 and 29 casting ballots for Trump was within the margin of error from the 30-44 age group (38% and 41% respectively). The former shifted sharply rightward compare to the 2020 election, cutting the Democrat lead in the cohort  almost by half.

Those Gen Z GOP voters were trendsetters — following the election, young people are more upbeat than the old about the incoming Trump 47. According to a CBS poll, Trump’s transition approval is at 59% and the younger the cohort, the more likely it is to be supportive of the once and future president — adults under 30 approve of his transition at the rate of 65%. Half of Americans under 30 now have a favorable view of the Republican Party.

The rightward shift is no fluke — it has deep psychological roots and comes with an authentic aesthetic dimension. This summer, a viral X post boasted of a sixteen-year-old boy reassuring his mother that “woke is only for ugly people”. It could be no more than an in-group opinion of young people growing up in right-of-center households, but one social psychology study found that attractive people are more likely to identify as Republican and conservative.

It’s not just that some kids registered discontent with the ubiquitous overweight genderqueers who dye their hair turquoise and are promoted by the establishment media, but in 2024 a certain Trumper aesthetic sensibility emerged during the campaign that went beyond the red hats and the catchy slogan make America great again. The enthusiasm is new — the first Trump Administration did not enjoy such grass roots support among the youth, nor did it ride on a comparable post-election approval bump.

Trump’s comeback capitalized on social media like never before, creating meme-able moments, most notably his stunt at a McDonald’s drive through and a ride on a garbage truck. In the final days, it snowballed into the Trumper movement embracing the libertarian exotic pets cause to champion Peanut, the squirrel, and a raccoon named Fred whom the state of New York confiscated from their owners and euthanized. The atmosphere around the campaign was all good vibes — comfort food, large vehicles and cute critters. In my more than thirty years in the United States, I have never seen a presidential run so positive.

Whereas the Democrats had to hire young men to represent Gen Z for their presidential campaign, and their social media appearances were cringe, scores of young Trumpers recorded themselves rocking out to they are eating the dogs, they are eating the cats — the lines from a Trump speech that got media to pay attention to the illegal immigration crisis in Ohio. Moreover, Trump’s YMCA dance became its own social media craze. The hype was picked up by frat boys, pro athletes and an Aritzia women’s closing store which arranged their puffer jackets to do the dance moves in the shopping windows.

Disco tunes and cartoon animals are infinitely more fun than mobilizing on behalf of bluestockings. It’s unfair — sexist even — that, while largely accepting of bachelors, we view single older women with contempt, but it might just be a natural inclination. And regardless, it’s foolish of a political campaign to try to change popular moods instead of appealing to them.

Trump aggressively courted young men — just as Kamala energized older women. But the young men challenging the existing social order had all the excitement on their side. Should it be surprising that young women moved in their direction?

Since the 10/7 massacre in Israel, women have been on the forefront of left wing protests — and the left failed. It feels like PJ O’Rourke’s Babe Theory of the political movement needs to be updated. O’Rourke suggested that movements featuring attractive young girls will succeed. There are different explanations for this phenomenon — that women bring in men or that the girls intuit promising social trends.

Nothing like that happened in 2024. Instead, young men, like the frat boys holding up the American flag, pulled the young women with them.

It could be time for a hunk theory of political movement.

Did power dynamics between the sexes shift? Did Gen Z guys create an appealing subculture that was more attractive to their female peers than the proposition of dying childless?

Regardless, throwing their lot with tragic cat ladies — or abortions, for that matter — was an unforced error on the part of Democrats. In our age of culture wars, they needed to offer young women something aspirational instead. JD Vance was right not to apologize.

Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.