Thread by @DrClarkM1

As a single, childless, woman in my forties with two cats and a registered Democrat, my mere existence seems to bother JD Vance quite a bit. (I am also a college prof🤯). Beyond the obvious insult, as a Catholic theologian, I want to note how dangerous Vance's position is. /1

Vance's view of society is one which values women & their contribution to society based on childbirth. Despite seeming to exempt out those who try but cannot have children, Vance is a 21st century version of patriarchy in which women w/o children are useless or dangerous. /2

Given Vance's conversion to Catholicism, I struggle w/ the way despite a celibate clergy and women religious, this fits into a nostalgia for a pre-Vatican II view of women (for which JP2 apologized in 95) and that still persists in some forms of "complementarity." /3

For Aquinas, women were equal in dignity, he maintained they were subordinate and based on Aristotelian bio needed to figure out what went wrong to produce a girl child...thus a damp wind might be to blame. Inaccurate biology & no women as equal interlocutors impacted A LOT. /4

Leo XIII sets up Aquinas as foundational for Catholic social teaching & while 1891's Rerum Novarum was concerned with exploitation of women, it was clear: "women again, are not suited for certain occupations; a woman is by nature fitted for homework" (RN 42). /5

Thru Vatican II, w/ Paul VI - both concern for women's "proper" role as well as establishing an almost super-hero quality to women on whom world peace seems 2 rest. Ambiguity and complexity exists within the history of how women religious have been treated as well. (ie. LCWR)/6

At 43, I am only 2nd generation of Catholic laywomen w/ Ph.D.s in theology. Given I am also unmarried, I am frequently still encountered with a degree of confusion or bemusement here in the United States. Where women have less access to education, often deeper perplexment. /7

It is my experience as an unmarried, childless Catholic woman theologian that makes me more than angry but fearful @ Vance's comments (& accompanying counterpoints in Project 2025). We need to be deeply attentive to how incideous and dangerous his deeper argument is /8

In comments about giving extra votes to parents, is the ground work to disenfranchise women who do not conform to what they consider "acceptable" by nature. - - reminds me of a cab driver in 2018 who insisted if I were willing to be managed, I would easily find a husband. /9

Many women have been speaking out. @RBrattenWeiss & @MRibnek drawing the connections to where this fits w/in a toxic brand of Catholic "trad" culture in the US. But what has been eating away at me - is how widespread distrust of women is in US Catholic culture more broadly. /10

@RBrattenWeiss @MRibnek The substance of Vance's comments are as inaccurate as they are offensive. His call to penalize ways of being that he disapproves of such as independent, educated women who do not have children must be condemned in its entirety. & be on guard for how religion used to mask it /11

@RBrattenWeiss @MRibnek It is not surprising that teachers - a feminized profession in their entirety are also a frequent scapegoat invoked by Vance & co as well. Teaching as a profession has its historical roots in the education & empowerment of unmarried women (nuns & laywomen). /12

@RBrattenWeiss @MRibnek Things to be on guard for: romanticization of marriage/parenthood, faulty claims that childless women are not invested in the future, that unmarried or childless women do not have "family," suggesting women should stay in "sometimes even violent" marriages for the children. /13

@RBrattenWeiss @MRibnek There will be a push within Catholic circles to interpret #notgoingback purely about abortion. It is not. We must resist & not allow open questioning of women as full members of civil & political society to be legitimized or acceptable period. /end.

@RBrattenWeiss @MRibnek Brief PS to look for: gaslighting on “profamily”: difference btwn urging expanded child tax credit or child allowances a la europe & specifically arguing for an established higher tax rate bc “punish the things that we think are bad” when specifically talking abt childlessness