Hear Me Out: Tradwives Show Us Feminism’s Failures

Slate Debates

Slate Podcasts

Society & Culture, News

4.6 • 3K Ratings

🗓️ 25 June 2024

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On today’s episode of Hear Me Out: aprons off. Has there ever been a better time to be a woman in America? Probably not… but that’s a low bar. Modern feminism is having trouble making a case for itself, in the face of a challenging economy and backslides in reproductive rights. So when women on social media present themselves as traditional wives and homemakers, achieving the self-actualization of heteronormativity, have they given up? Or are they showing us what feminist thought might be missing? Dr. C. Nicole Mason joins us to share her journey into the minds of tradwives… and her realization that they might have a point. If you have thoughts you want to share, or an idea for a topic we should tackle, you can email the show: [email protected] Podcast production by Maura Currie. Want more Hear Me Out? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Or, visit slate.com/hearmeoutplus to get access wherever you listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Hear Me Out. I'm Celeste Hedley. Feminism is about choice. So what should feminists do when women choose subjugation?
0:10.0	If you're not familiar with the Trad Wife or Traditional Wife Movement, it's a pocket of social media
0:16.1	where women exalt the merits of being a homemaker and being a mother, both of which are
0:20.6	valid valuable choices.
0:22.4	The thing is, they're doing it because they think it's what women are meant to do,
0:26.8	and that they're meant designed to submit to their husbands.
0:31.7	That's a pretty surface-level description of what these women say they're after,
0:34.9	and there is a definite appeal to the idea of ease, of femininity in the harsh world of 2024. The question is, whether Trod wives still get a seat at the feminist
0:46.1	table. Feminism hasn't been able to answer for why despite all the organizing, all of the work, we're losing.
0:56.2	And I think some young women says, well, then if it's this hard, there must be an alternative. Dr. C. Nicole Mason joins Hear Me Out in just a moment.
1:05.0	Stay with us. Hi all how we doing afternoon afternoon afternoon let's get this meeting meeting
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1:44.8	Welcome back to hear me out.
1:46.3	I'm Celeste Hedley.
1:47.3	Let's make an important point.
	...

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