The parenting style of a Republican candidate for Pennsylvania state Congress and her husband has sparked a fierce debate on social media after a profile in a British newspaper over the weekend depicted the husband hitting their young child.
Simone Collins, 36, her husband, Malcolm, and their four young children live on a farm in rural Montgomery County, just outside Philadelphia, where they run various businesses, run the ProNatalist Foundation, and record their Based Camp podcast and YouTube videos.
Collins will challenge Democratic Rep. Joe Webster in the November election for the 150th House District.
The Guardian journalist Jenny Kleeman visited the couple to explore the idea of ”pro-natalism”, an ideology that encourages people to have children to combat falling birth rates. But after Malcolm Collins “slapped” his two-year-old son in the face, the internet erupted in uproar, with some harsh criticism and others supporting the family.
In his article, Kleeman described how Malcolm Collins and his son Torsten were at a Thai restaurant when a child slammed his foot into the table, causing it to “nearly tip over” but then return to its normal position.
“Instantly, on impulse, Malcolm punched him in the face,” Klieman writes.
“It wasn't a hard blow, but it was a slap in the face of my 2-year-old son, directly in the palm of his hand, hard enough that I could hear it later on a voice recorder,” she said. “Malcolm did it in the middle of a public place, in front of journalists, who he knows are recording the whole thing.”
Klieman wrote that Torsten broke down in tears when his father told him, “You have to be nice in restaurants. I love you, but you have to be nice in restaurants.” She wrote that she was “speechless” by the incident and Malcolm Collins' indifference.
The lengthy profile detailed the couple's pro-fertility beliefs, their disdain for Christmas (the atheist family celebrates a future day instead), their aversion to heating the house in winter, and their disdain for parents who dote on their children's every want and desire, but it was this “slap in the face” that caught the attention of many.
Asked by PennLive on Tuesday if she was surprised by the backlash, Simone Collins said, “I'm not surprised at all. It makes perfect sense.”
Collins, 36, said X/Twitter is filled with progressives who are quick to attack people they disagree with.
“In progressive culture, any behavior that offends in the moment is seen as evil and horrible, which is why we have trigger warnings and the healthy-at-all-size movement,” she said. “It's considered imperative to never offend anyone, no matter how harmful that behavior may be in the long term.”
Simone Collins, who was not at the restaurant, said her husband's actions were more like a “nudge” or “flick on the wrist” than a slap. She said Kleeman “dramatized” the incident but said it was part of a parenting philosophy that Malcolm Collins' wife had observed between wild tigers and their cubs, to “redirect” the children's attention.
“It's a very gentle gesture. It's not painful. It's more like, 'Wake up! No, no, don't do that' or 'Stop it,'” Simone Collins said. “It's like tapping a dog on the nose when they're trying to bite into some roadkill that might have rabies. It's gentle and it's like, 'Oops, stop.'”
But Collins said she and her husband aren't upset by the article — they're happy it's gone viral because it means more people will learn about pro-natalism, concerns about declining birth rates, and their nonprofit and podcast.
The X message, which Kleeman first posted on Saturday, had been viewed more than 6 million times, liked 12,000 times and shared nearly 3,000 times by Tuesday afternoon.
“Jenny did us a huge favor by sensationalizing this and putting it at the end of the article after 'vegetables.' Hats off to her,” Collins said. “She's been a huge favor to our nonprofit's advocacy efforts.”
After saying that she enjoys being “badly treated” just like the rest of us, Collins revealed one regret: “I wish people had been a bit more explicit in their insults of me,” she joked.
It remains to be seen whether this will help Collins, who has a master's degree in technology policy from the University of Cambridge in the UK and a bachelor's in business administration from George Washington University in Washington DC, in his first political campaign.
Webster won 58.5% of the vote in the 150th Congressional District, a district that Gov. Josh Shapiro won in 2022 with nearly 70% of the vote.
By late Tuesday afternoon, Webster had not mentioned the Guardian article on his X-Page or Facebook page, and his campaign did not respond to messages seeking comment.
Politically, Collins said she supports reducing bureaucracy and increasing transparency in government and elected office. She also supports school choice (the couple plan to homeschool all of their children) and cultural sovereignty, which she said includes not telling parents how to raise their children, how people live, or how they get health care.
Regarding abortion, Governor Collins said she supports “reasonable restrictions” after the 15th week of pregnancy.
