Manliness, Cat Ladies, Fertility Panic and the 2024 Election
About this episode
Ezra Klein convenes Christine Emba and Zack Beauchamp to argue that the 2024 election is fundamentally about gender. They dissect JD Vance's 'childless cat ladies' remark and the ideological currents behind it: post-liberalism, the 'neopatriarchy' right, and pronatalist fertility panic amplified by figures like Elon Musk. The conversation contrasts two archetypes of manliness embodied by Donald Trump and Tim Walz, examines the marriage gap in voting and men's declining educational attainment, and explores how trans issues glue the conservative coalition together. Beauchamp places America's reactionary gender politics in cross-national context, from Hungary to South Korea's ultra-low fertility. Emba analyzes how Dobbs let Democrats talk about gender in concrete terms — and how Harris and Walz are reclaiming 'freedom' while modeling a warmer, caretaking masculinity.