Trad wives are not new!
For those who don't know, Anna Sofia and Elizabeth Botkin were sisters who at 15 and 17 wrote a book called So Much More. The book is about how young women should not go to college, pursue career goals, and should focus on taking care of their families until a young man decides to court them for marriage. Until marriage, a woman should be entirely under the protection and authority of her father. They were the precursors to modern tradwives.
Last week, they released a long apology video and accompanying essay, dismantling the arguments they made in So Much More. They apologized for the harm their book did on the lives of the young women who followed them, including experiencing emotional, spiritual and financial abuse from their families and turning down educational or work opportunities.
Here's my probably unpopular opinion: I'm not sure why they feel like they need to apologize now. Discernment — knowing when to accept or reject an idea, taking ownership over how you incorporate that idea into your own life — is a responsibility all of us have. I dislike the notion that we can outsource our moral beliefs to a couple teenagers just because they’re pretty to look at and wrote a compelling book brimming with unearned confidence.
That said, over the years I’ve read some pretty persuasive arguments that this branch of Christianity was a bit cult-like, which does change the calculus of moral responsibility for me. And as someone who did not grow up in a very restrictive, religious environment, I am willing to concede that I just don't understand the level of control and brainwashing these families exert on their followers, especially women.
Anyone else have thoughts on this?