UK Times Article
Quote
And so, as a reaction to both the girl bosses and the frazzled mothers, along came a group of women who didn’t seem to care about any of that. They advocated for a life that rejected the drive for money, public power and success, and elevated gentle domesticity and hands-on motherhood to an almost divine state. Enter the trad wives.
One of the most influential trad wives is Nara Smith, a 22-year-old Mormon model (four million Instagram followers) who talks in a voice so soft she sounds as though she has been brainwashed by a cult, and is constantly pregnant and draining something fermented through muslin. “Keep up your beauty,” says Estee C Williams (120,000 Instagram followers), who gives off more of a submissive Fifties housewife vibe. “You and your husband will benefit.”
As a Mom Blogger who has been agitating for women to get back in their kitchens for the better part of twenty years, I have been delighted with the Trad Wife influencers who have fearlessly stepped out and shared their lives and worked their home businesses from Social Media.
Another quote (and this is the crux of the issue)
Many women I know, who have and want a life that looks totally different, are addicted to watching all this, though others are served it by an algorithm as if it is grooming us into submission. Some watch it as a sort of thrilling escapism, others simply find it soothing. And others still use it as a sort of rage-bait, taking pleasure in being annoyed by it all.
“Trad wives are seen as a counterculture against the ‘rot’ of low birth rates,” says Leslie Root, a behavioural scientist at the University of Colorado. “This isn’t isolated, it is part of a wider political anxiety that I am worried might ultimately end in attempts to circumscribe women’s lives.”
The horror of young gals happily choosing motherhood!
The author of this article is truly getting dragged all over the internet for trying to paint Daniel and Hannah as culty mormons who have lost the feminist mojo.
The Neelemans and their eight children are almost universally beloved by those who follow them on Social Media.
Please note, in her Instagram post informing her followers that she was being featured by the UK Times Hannah said back in May that the journalist and her photographer were going to “shadow” the family for a day.
Hannah doesn’t have to say one word about how great her lifestyle is for her children. Her happy dimpled baby Flora Jo is her “ad” for the ranching lifestyle she and Daniel have adopted!
The journalist reminds me of being interviewed by the British magazine Eve back in July of 2007. I was asked about being a Freebirther who only had my husband attend me during my last two home births. The editor titled my segment, “Mum or Criminal?”
The United Kingdom is the epicenter of garbage journalism, but the Times does have a reputation of being a bit more conservative, so this extremely biased hit piece was startling for me to read.
When you dump on one Mormon Mom you slander all of us, so do better next time!
Megan Agnew who flew over to Utah to interview Hannah and her Family is being outed by the Neelemans millions of fans, including me, for her salacious hit piece.
The final summary of the article was…
I can’t, it seems, get an answer out of Neeleman without her being corrected, interrupted or answered for by either her husband or a child. Usually I am doing battle with steely Hollywood publicists; today I am up against an army of toddlers who all want their mum and a husband who thinks he knows better.
Why, I ask before I leave, did she do those pageants in between babies? “Well, my sister called me and said, There’s a Mrs Utah, let’s do it together.’ Just to —” she gestures at the children around her —“break things up.”
And the sequined gowns? Well, they used to be in her bedroom cupboard, but with all of her stuff — and Daniel’s and Henry’s and Charles’s and George’s and Frances’s and Lois’s and Martha’s and Mabel’s and Flora’s — the cupboard got so full that there wasn’t any more room. So Daniel put them in the garage.
Listen to Megan Agnew discuss Hannah Neeleman and the trad wives movement on Monday’s episode of The Story, wherever you get your podcasts
It feels like everyone is talking about Hannah and her family right now. The mom blogging and podcast world is on 🔥 FIRE 🔥
Here are a few more main stream articles.
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