Chelsea Handler recently sparked backlash from conservatives when she shared a comedy sketch about the joys of life without children. Now, it seems that men on Fox News are just learning that women can choose to be childfree.
The comedian – who has temporarily taken over as The Daily Show host after Trevor Noah’s exit – shared a video last week celebrating a “A Day In The Life of a Childless Woman,” which included a number of exaggerated daily tasks.
“This is a day in the life of a childless woman,” Handler, 47, began the satirical video. “I wake up at 6am. I remember that I have no kids to take to school, so I take an edible, masturbate, and go back to sleep.”
“I wake up at 12:30pm and get ready for a busy day of doing whatever the f*** I feel like,” she said, before putting on “my most impractical and stylish shoes since I won’t be chasing a child around the grocery store.”
Handler’s day as a childfree woman also included a day trip to Paris for a croissant, a workout on Mount Everest for a quick climb, and a night out with “whatever hot guy” the comedian met on Raya that morning.
“I do a meditation sesh on the plane since I have no screaming kids, allowing me all the time in the world to become enlightened. The weightlessness of my existence has granted me superhuman powers,” she joked. “It’s amazing what you can do when you have this much free time and that’s a day in the life of a childless woman!”
The sketch received nearly 21m views since it was posted to Twitter on 10 February. Unsurprisingly, Handler’s satirical video didn’t go over well with some conservatives, who blasted Handler for living a “sad, selfish existence” without children.
“This is extremely sad,” tweeted anti-abortion activist Lila Rose.
“Yes, you’re really living your best life, aren’t you. Just to be clear, because it apparently needs to be said by parents, I wouldn’t trade 10,000 of your supposedly carefree childless days in Paris and sleeping in until noon for one smile from my baby girl,” replied Fox News writer Justin T Haskins.
Conservative political commentator Liz Wheeler tweeted: “I wouldn’t trade my beautiful, sweet daughter for all the ‘self love’ in the world because you know what? ‘Self love’ is just materialism & self-idolatry. It’s nothing. It’s empty. It’s vapor in the wind. But the tiny precious soul I’m shepherding? That’s eternal. It’s real love.”
“You can’t hide your misery,” said Robby Starbuck, Republican candidate for Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District.
Handler’s viral video even caught the attention of Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who dedicated an entire segment during Tuesday’s broadcast of Tucker Carlson Tonight to the comedy skit.
On 14 February, the television pundit invited conservative radio host Jesse Kelly on his show, where he went on a “sexist rant” claiming feminist women are being lied to by society and compared Handler’s “womb” to a dried-up tumbleweed.
“Jesse, does narcissism – does living for yourself, when it’s always about you, is that the road to joy and fulfillment, I wonder?” Carlson asked the host of The Jesse Kelly Show.
“You know, I wonder why you called me a wise man, Tucker, because I’m actually very stupid,” he began his response. “See, when I was a kid I thought I was wise, I thought I was very intelligent, and you know why I thought that, Tucker? Because I had a mom who loved me.”
Then, Kelly bragged about his own 0.0 grade point average in college, before making an argument about the autonomy of women’s bodies.
“One day I’m 18 years old and I got a 0.0 grade point average in college – I’m not making that up – and I realised, ‘You’re not actually smart. Everything you’ve been told is a lie, Jesse. You’re actually quite stupid and you’re going to have to deal with that.’ That’s what you see women like Chelsea Handler, feminists like Chelsea Handler, going with now. They’ve been lied to by their society forever, that you can be a girlboss and you can do anything a man can do – which, everyone who’s ever seen a woman back up a vehicle knows that’s not true.
“Either way, they’ve been told they should do a career and don’t do a family, and soon you’re Chelsea Handler,” he continued. “Soon it’s Valentine’s Day and your womb resembles a dried up tumbleweed blowing down an old Western town and your Valentine’s Day date for the 10th year in a row is a 10-year-old copy of Magic Mike and half-full bottle of Xanax and you’re trying to pretend like you’re happy, but you’re not happy and it’s actually not her fault. She’s been lied to by a country that’s lost its way.”
Perhaps the Tucker Carlson Tonight segment was in retaliation against Handler calling Carlson a “whiny little b*tch” during her second night as guest host of The Daily Show earlier this month. Still, Jesse Kelly’s appearance on Fox News was widely criticised online, with one Twitter user saying: “This sexist rant is so unbelievably unhinged.”
“My man really followed up ‘I got a 0.0 GPA in college’ with ‘women can’t backup a car,’” another said.
Others were simply amused by the number of outraged conservatives in Handler’s comments section after she posted her “Childless Woman” comedy sketch.
“the absolute seething in the replies is the funniest part of the bit, i love chelsea handler now,” tweeted one newfound fan.
“The conservatives are so incredibly triggered by this (in the replies) and it’s just delicious,” another user said.
“The replies to this are deranged. Bravo Chelsea,” wrote someone else, while one person pointed out: “Something about women choosing things and being happy with those choices always gets people upset.”
Chelsea Handler’s viral video may not come as a surprise to some, considering the stand-up comedian has spoken out frequently about her choice to not have children. Just last month, she spoke about the constant pressure for women to have children and the lack of representation of child-free adults in society.
“[There are] some overtures to women and men out there, and anyone who doesn’t identify as either, that you are not defined by the children that you bring into the world [and] that you’re not defined by your relationships or being married,” Handler said during an appearance on the Today show.
The former Chelsea Lately host added that the pressure to have children is strong, “especially for women”.
“As a woman, I’m so sick – and have been so sick – of being asked that question repeatedly when I’ve made my views so clear to people,” she said, before admitting that there needs to be more representation for “people in this world that just want to be living their lives and live out loud and loving hard without a family and without that kind of societal construct.”
Handler went on to explain how she feels that many adults think they need to have children in order to feel fulfilled.
“A lot of people just think, ‘Oh, I have to do that. That’s the next step,’” she told Today. “And it’s so annoying, because it’s not what you have to do.”
