First of all, I am a stay-at-home dad with a working wife, so we're about as far away from the "trad-wife" world as one can possibly be. But even I can see it's fake, because social media is always fake. So-called influencers are phony. This goes for Jazz Jennings, Dylan Mulvaney, and Hannah Neeleman. As McGuire says: "there is nothing traditional about filming v-logs of your morning routine with your children".
Comparing yourself to what you see on social media is the personal equivalent of reading Thomas More's Utopia and thinking it's a political how-to-manual. Trying to make Heaven on Earth always fails, whether politically or personally, because we're not perfect. So the trad-wife is phony and the tattooed, pink-haired, lesbian is too. Especially for Christians though, your role models need to real friends not social media "friends".
However, the Mother Jones piece is pretty over the top...
"Given the misogynistic messaging and white-centric ideals some of these influencers peddle"
A pink-haired woman who slices her breasts off and shows off her scars topless is daring.
A former second-rate male actor in pigtails and dressed like a 12 year old girl is a hero.
A dress-wearing woman cooks brownies while helping with kids' homework is a fascist.
What kind of mental warping has to happen to get you to that point? Where a woman who literally tries to slice the feminine off her body is celebrated while one embracing her feminity must be destroyed? Where you celebrate sterility but seeing a happy family makes you seethe in rage? Oh, this is what does it...
"You can never 'simply enjoy things'"
The feminist slogan "the personal is political" won't die. Trying to cram politics into the God shaped hole in your heart doesn't work, and it produces angry, bitter people. Because if you really "never enjoy things", why wouldn't you be angry and bitter?
The knee-jerk framing of trad-wifery as White Supremacy immediately self-disqualifies as serious commentary, exposing its reductionist "thinking." Similar to a recent article about J.D. Vance's book dismissing it as the view of a White Male. This isn't analysis, it's party propaganda. As for the Trad-wives--I've only observed from a distance and it seems performative, 1950s domestic cosplay.
Stay-at-home wives & mothers, homeschoolers, etc., are enjoying their lives (amidst the normal struggles!) all over the USA, especially among traditional Catholics.
That lifestyle does not fit the demonic agenda of destroying relationships between the sexes and destroying the family, so it does not get shown in the media. So many girls & young women are missing out on a wholesome and extremely fulfilling way of life.
Dostoyevsky famously said that beauty will save the world. What’s more beautiful than cooking meals from scratch, embracing a child, or picking flowers for the mantel?
Brian is right that there is very little that’s “real” about this — but as an artifact, a work of art, it promotes values I can get behind. Which I can’t say for the vast majority of what’s posted online.
First of all, I am a stay-at-home dad with a working wife, so we're about as far away from the "trad-wife" world as one can possibly be. But even I can see it's fake, because social media is always fake. So-called influencers are phony. This goes for Jazz Jennings, Dylan Mulvaney, and Hannah Neeleman. As McGuire says: "there is nothing traditional about filming v-logs of your morning routine with your children".
Comparing yourself to what you see on social media is the personal equivalent of reading Thomas More's Utopia and thinking it's a political how-to-manual. Trying to make Heaven on Earth always fails, whether politically or personally, because we're not perfect. So the trad-wife is phony and the tattooed, pink-haired, lesbian is too. Especially for Christians though, your role models need to real friends not social media "friends".
However, the Mother Jones piece is pretty over the top...
"Given the misogynistic messaging and white-centric ideals some of these influencers peddle"
A pink-haired woman who slices her breasts off and shows off her scars topless is daring.
A former second-rate male actor in pigtails and dressed like a 12 year old girl is a hero.
A dress-wearing woman cooks brownies while helping with kids' homework is a fascist.
What kind of mental warping has to happen to get you to that point? Where a woman who literally tries to slice the feminine off her body is celebrated while one embracing her feminity must be destroyed? Where you celebrate sterility but seeing a happy family makes you seethe in rage? Oh, this is what does it...
"You can never 'simply enjoy things'"
The feminist slogan "the personal is political" won't die. Trying to cram politics into the God shaped hole in your heart doesn't work, and it produces angry, bitter people. Because if you really "never enjoy things", why wouldn't you be angry and bitter?
I think this may be my favorite essay you’ve written yet!
The knee-jerk framing of trad-wifery as White Supremacy immediately self-disqualifies as serious commentary, exposing its reductionist "thinking." Similar to a recent article about J.D. Vance's book dismissing it as the view of a White Male. This isn't analysis, it's party propaganda. As for the Trad-wives--I've only observed from a distance and it seems performative, 1950s domestic cosplay.
Stay-at-home wives & mothers, homeschoolers, etc., are enjoying their lives (amidst the normal struggles!) all over the USA, especially among traditional Catholics.
That lifestyle does not fit the demonic agenda of destroying relationships between the sexes and destroying the family, so it does not get shown in the media. So many girls & young women are missing out on a wholesome and extremely fulfilling way of life.
Outstanding article.
Dostoyevsky famously said that beauty will save the world. What’s more beautiful than cooking meals from scratch, embracing a child, or picking flowers for the mantel?
Brian is right that there is very little that’s “real” about this — but as an artifact, a work of art, it promotes values I can get behind. Which I can’t say for the vast majority of what’s posted online.