After the debate, JD Vance is getting the gay rebranding no one asked for - INTO
Chadification Station

After the debate, JD Vance is getting the gay rebranding no one asked for

Oct 1, 2024; New York, NY, USA; Donald Trump Jr. listens as Republican JD Vance speaks to Sean Hannity in The Spin Room after the vice presidential debate with Democrat Tim Walz moderated by CBS Evening News anchor and managing editor Norah O’Donnell and Face the Nation moderator and chief foreign affairs correspondent Margaret Brennan. Mandatory Credit: Jack Gruber-USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

After last night’s Vice Presidential debate, not even yassification can save JD Vance. And not for lack of trying. Despite the Republican VP hopeful trying his best to pretend to be a normal person, it wasn’t long before Vance was exposed as the flip-flopper he is.

And despite an attempt at a fashionable men’s haircut, Vance’s performance last night left everyone baffled. But it gave the Internet plenty of material.

https://twitter.com/SerpicoRising/status/1841334890794471476

Vance is the kind of clown we could spend all day picking apart, from his horrible tie choice to his shady dealings with the fact-checking gods. But the best possible Vance meme we’ve seen today came from the least likely of places: the opposition.

When Georgia congressman Mike Collins decided to post a FaceTuned version of Vance on Twitter/X this morning, it gave us the juice we needed to keep the laughs coming. If Republicans can transform Vance from a poisoned Care Bear into a snatched-looking Babe-raham Lincoln, well, two can play at that game.

Now queer folks are responding in kind with their own altered photos of Vance. It’s like The Picture of Dorian Gray in reverse, and also if Dorian Gray was a creepy Republican instead of a beautiful young vers top.

The idea is that Vance’s normal face isn’t quite masculine enough for your average voter. So why not chadify it?

The big question here is: why do Republicans need to snatch and contour JD Vance’s jaw in order to see him as more masculine? And the answer is: gender! It’s one hell of a drug.

https://twitter.com/brianmcg_/status/1841489117642633495

Seriously, what are we doing?

https://twitter.com/marcformarc/status/1841505477337006206

You have to admit, it’s kind of funny when even the people who are rooting for you feel the need to photoshop you to look less creepy. What is this, America’s Next Top Fascist?

https://twitter.com/hannnahmmarie/status/1841493628457197977
https://twitter.com/airbagged/status/1841492189819351389

They might stand against our human rights, our ability to safely and legally transition, and our very right to exist, but when push comes to shove, Republicans are just as ready to hop on the yassification train as the rest of us.

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Henry Giardina (he/they) is the editor of INTO. He lives in Los Angeles. Past publications include the New York Times, The Believer, The New Yorker, The Paris Review Daily, The Atlantic, Film Comment, and Gizmodo. He is @punkgroucho on Twitter.