Within the last few years, women portraying themselves online with a “trad wife” aesthetic has skyrocketed in popularity. This new trend embraces long dresses, traditional gender roles, cooking homemade meals, and raising massive families. Josh and June take a look into what the Trad Wife life experience is all about, what’s so appealing about it to some women, and the aspects that make it more than just a harmless apolitical lifestyle.

***WE WANT YOUR THOUGHTS FOR THE WEEKLY MAILBAG! Send an email with feedback about this week's episode to illconceivedpod@gmail.com***

EPISODE ART: Abby Shapiro, a "traditional lifestyle" content creator who formerly published videos on YouTube as Classically Abby and now writes a newsletter called The First-Gen SAHM. She's also Ben Shapiro's sister.

AUDIO CLIPS:

• 21:54 – Nara Smith's homemade Cinnamon Toast Crunch TikTok
• 23:52 – Estee Williams prepares for her husband
• 29:59 – Alena Kate Pettit in a podcast interview about being a #TradWife
• 39:19 – Abby Shapiro on five lies the Left tells women from her YouTube channel, Classically Abby

SOURCES:

• A Trad Wife Tragedy
• Why the resurgence of trad wives is more alarming than you think
• The Rise and Fall of the Trad Wife
• Tradwife life isn't as good as it looks on TikTok — just ask former tradwives
• Meet the queen of the ‘trad wives’ (and her eight children)
• Is the Tradwife just a kink? Don't underestimate the happy housewife's power
• Florida Says It Plans to End All Vaccine Mandates
• The #tradwife Movement and Christian Womanhood
• Opinion: How Mormonism Churns Out the Most Influential #TradWives
• The Four Levels Of Manliness
• What it’s like to be a trad kid

FOLLOW THE SHOW:

• Website: illconceivedpodcast.com
• Bluesky: ‪@illconceivedpodcast.com
• Tumblr: @illconceivedpod

FOLLOW JOSH:

• Website: joshboerman.com
• Bluesky: @bosh.worstpossible.world
• Other podcast: The Worst of All Possible Worlds
• Stream: Traditional Scrench

FOLLOW JUNE:

• Bluesky: @junlper.beer
• Other podcast: Kill The Computer
• Writing: June's Substack

Purity is a load-bearing concept in the conservative Christian ideal of family and reproduction. From as young as five years old, Christian girls are told to guard their hearts and bodies against men with bad intentions. But what about a positive model of masculine pursuit? This week, Josh and June take a look at the men who believe the best way to teach their daughters about their worth is to take them out on dates and pledge to guard their virtue in elaborate ceremonies known as purity balls.

***WE WANT YOUR THOUGHTS FOR THE WEEKLY MAILBAG! Send an email with feedback about this week's episode to illconceivedpod@gmail.com***

EPISODE ART: Randy Wilson, field director for the Family Research Council and creator of the concept of the purity ball

AUDIO CLIPS:

• 13:41 – Dr. James Dobson talks about father/daughter dates in a Dr. Dobson Minute
• 19:42 – Dennis Rainey and Bob Lapine talk about father/daughter dates on an episode of FamilyTalk
• 50:54 – Hannah Lane and her father Ken in an interview from the documentary The Virgin Daughters
• 53:55 – Lisa Wilson in an interview from The Virgin Daughters
• 57:45 – Randy Wilson in an interview from The Virgin Daughters
• 1:00:44 – Interview from The Virgin Daughters
• 1:10:36 – Clip from Virgin Tales (2012)
• 1:16:35 – Jody Hice & Randy Wilson in an interview about Mike Johnson for the Family Research Council's Washington Watch

SOURCES:

• "'Purity Balls' Get Attention, but Might Not Be All They Claim" by Mark Oppenheimer (The New York Times, July 20, 2012)
• "Daddy’s Little Girls: On the Perils of Chastity Clubs, Purity Balls, and Ritualized Abstinence" by Breanne Fahs (Frontiers: A Journal of Woman Studies, 2010)
• 88 Great Daddy-Daughter Dates by Joanna & Rob Teigen (Revell, 2012)
• Daddy Dates: Four Daughters, One Clueless Dad, and His Quest to Win Their Hearts by Greg Wright (Thomas Nelson, 2011)
• "Would You Pledge Your Virginity to Your Father?" by Jennifer Baumgardner (Glamour, December 31, 2006)
• "The Purity Ball: A promise I didn't understand" by Eboni Statham (Cipher, March 13, 2017)
• "Women’s Bodies Are Bearing the Brunt of Purity Culture" by Karen Alea (Jezebel, September 20, 2022)
• Saving Sex: Sexuality and Salvation in American Evangelicalism by Amy DeRogatis (Oxford UP, 2014)
• The Virgin Daughters dir. Jane Treays (Channel 4, 2008)
• Virgin Tales dir. Mirjam von Arx (Ican Films, 2012)

FOLLOW THE SHOW:

• Website: illconceivedpodcast.com
• Bluesky: ‪@illconceivedpodcast.com
• Tumblr: @illconceivedpod

FOLLOW JOSH:

• Website: joshboerman.com
• Bluesky: @bosh.worstpossible.world
• Other podcast: The Worst of All Possible Worlds
• Stream: Traditional Scrench

FOLLOW JUNE:

• Bluesky: @junlper.beer
• Other podcast: Kill The Computer
• Writing: June's Substack

Josh is still really tired from his trip to Europe so we talked about James Dobson for a bit and then read some listener mail. Our regular programming will resume Friday, and we thank you for all of your thoughtful feedback!

***WE WANT YOUR THOUGHTS FOR THE WEEKLY MAILBAG! Send an email with feedback about this week's episode to illconceivedpod@gmail.com***

FURTHER READING:

"AI: The New Aesthetics of Fascism" by Gareth Watkins, New Socialist

FOLLOW THE SHOW:

• Website: illconceivedpodcast.com
• Bluesky: ‪@illconceivedpodcast.com
• Tumblr: @illconceivedpod

FOLLOW JOSH:

• Website: joshboerman.com
• Bluesky: @bosh.worstpossible.world
• Other podcast: The Worst of All Possible Worlds
• Stream: Traditional Scrench

FOLLOW JUNE:

• Bluesky: @junlper.beer
• Other podcast: Kill The Computer
• Writing: June's Substack