11. The Well Trained Wife with Tia Levings

Flipping Tables

Monte Mader

Society & Culture

5 • 626 Ratings

🗓️ 16 April 2025

⏱️ 63 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Tia Levings is an author and advocate who writes and speaks about the realities of Christian fundamentalism, evangelical patriarchy, and religious trauma. Her memoir, A Well-Trained Wife: My Escape from Christian Patriarchy, was released on August 6, 2024.

In her memoir, Levings recounts her journey into and out of the fundamentalist Quiverfull movement. Married at 19, she was indoctrinated into a belief system that emphasized strict discipline, isolation, and the submission of women as "keepers of the home." Her husband exerted extreme control over her life, dictating everything from her clothing to her daily activities, and subjected her to physical and sexual abuse—all sanctioned by their church. Levings details how she was taught to be more submissive and to accept abuse as part of her role. One night, when she realized she and her children wouldn't live, she fled.

Levings' story sheds light on the hidden abuses within certain fundamentalist Christian communities and serves as a testament to resilience and the pursuit of freedom. Her work continues to educate and empower others who have experienced similar forms of religious trauma

Transcript

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0:00.0	When World War II ended in 1945, the USA had to address a very specific gender change that had
0:06.5	happened during the war. While the men were at war, women had gone out to work for the very first
0:10.8	time, and they liked their jobs. They liked having financial freedom, the ability to make choices.
0:15.9	They had friends outside of the home. They didn't want to go back to just being stay-at-home
0:20.1	wives who really didn't have
0:21.7	any job options once they were married. So the United States launched a massive propaganda campaign
0:27.0	that became known, as we know it today, as the 1950s housewife. Huge billboards and ads of beautiful
0:34.0	women perfectly done up, hair rolled, long skirts, happy and joyous to be cleaning
0:38.6	their home and so excited for a new vacuum cleaner. We see a lot of that around us today. The
0:44.5	Tradwife movement is in full bloom. You can walk into anthropology or target and see these long
0:50.7	little house on the prairie dresses and this convincing image online that you'll be so
0:56.8	happy here. You'll be so happy if you just come home and cook and clean and be a stay-at-home wife.
1:04.2	But what those propaganda campaigns don't tell you is that in the 1950s for women, suicide was
1:10.2	incredibly high. So was domestic violence. Amphetamines,
1:14.2	barbiturates, and benzodiazepines were so commonly prescribed to help women cope with their day
1:19.6	that they were advertised in magazines as mommy's little helpers. And traditional evangelicalism has
1:26.3	really pushed this idea of the traditional wife to the
1:29.5	harm of others. And today on the podcast, I have writer of the well-trained wife Tia Levings to come
1:35.2	share her story escaping Christian patriarchy on today's episode of Flipping Tables.
1:47.8	Hello and welcome back, everybody.
1:50.8	Thank you so much for the recent ratings and reviews on the show. It is incredibly helpful and it keeps me not only in a podcast playlist, but also helps me find sponsors for the show to bring you even bigger names to interview as well as to be
2:01.6	able to do some podcasts on location and specific Q&As. I'm really excited for today's episode.
	...

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