Posted on 12/24/2023 4:13:41 AM PST by cutty
Millennial Aria Lewis is infatuated with the 1940s—and has been since she was 15 years old, growing up in a somewhat "vintage" family in North Carolina.
Mrs. Lewis, now 22, has embraced the role of a “tradwife” (traditional wife), a neo-retro lifestyle trend adopted by some conservative newlywed women that has garnered a following on social media. She and her husband, Andrew Lewis, 28, embrace this choice, living together on a farm they purchased in Missouri.
Growing Up an Old Soul ..
As a child, I grew up on black and white movies,” she told The Epoch Times. “Dad really likes jazz. It was something that was a part of my life that I thought was normal. I read so many historical fiction books about the ’40s.”
Mrs. Lewis’s great-grandfather, who passed away in 2017, served in World War II—which probably instilled in her a strong sense of connection to this particular period.
“I started listening to more of the music and really started to get more vintage clothing,” she said. “It was just a really fun way to experiment with a different lifestyle.”
...
As she grew older, she incorporated more modern items into her fashion, she said. Though her style was still eccentric. “I never felt like I needed to fit in.”
“I enjoy more old-fashioned clothing and stuff like that,” she said.
Now married, having left the nest and high school behind, Mrs. Lewis embraced her penchant for vintage-era things and took the next step by living it.
Meeting and Marrying Andrew..
Mrs. Lewis met Mr. Lewis in May 2019. She reminisced about meeting her future husband for the first time. It was very traditional.
“We sort of have mutual friends,” Mrs. Lewis said. “My grandfather had friends within the church that my husband was going to at the time.”
Mr. Lewis spoke with her dad, in traditional fashion, and drove out from 12 or 13 hours away to meet her, a true act of chivalry.
Their first meeting was in June 2019. A week later, they were in a relationship.
...
We’ve been together since,” she said.
They married in June 2020, and Mrs. Lewis became Mrs. Lewis. The pair even saved their first kiss for that day.
Both Christians, they chose to glorify God in how they manifested their marriage, both leading biblical lives.
“I quit my job as a photographer,” she said. “I felt like I didn’t need to be as professional and modern and super relatable to clients because I didn’t need to do that anymore.”
Instead, she dove back into her roots.
“My purpose in life is to honor and glorify God,” she said. “I don’t see very much of that in modern society.
...
"I just like historical things—I always have. And I feel comfortable with it.”
One thing the Lewises shared was a desire for a farm, which helped in their decision to buy a fixer-upper house on a single acre.
They were married for a couple of years prior to being able to buy a house, while she was still working as a wedding photographer. By the time Mrs. Lewis quit, she'd saved money for an entire year for the downpayment.
It’s been really great, she said. Farm life has bestowed self-sufficiency on them. She keeps a garden now but later hopes to move to a bigger lot with room for chickens.
Marriage has taught the Lewises to respect each other’s space. She loves the ’40s, but Mr. Lewis can dress however he wants.
“I haven’t ever asked him to look vintage,” she said. “I want him to wear [what] he feels is most comfortable. And I wear what I feel is most comfortable.”
Some people who follow the couple on social media have asked, “Why doesn’t he look vintage, too?”
She said, “Because that’s not what he feels most comfortable in, so I’m not going to ask him to wear that.”
Living the Tradwife Dream..
Mrs. Lewis said that, unlike today, in the past men's and women’s roles were clear.
“Embracing who God made me to be as a woman is like embracing my femininity,” she said. “The very specific roles of men and women in older times, when our grandparents or great-grandparents or great-great-grandparents were alive, were defined.”
She laments how the media today tells us we can be anything with no consequences. But that’s not true.
Being a homemaker in 2023 is less common, and even shamed. Many feminists jockey against men for positions in the workplace, intent on shattering glass ceilings.
Mrs. Lewis and the tradwife trend defiantly and deliberately turn the feminist revolution on its head.
[Tradwifery] is hard to explain to people who just don’t get it,” she said. “The world has changed so much in the last 100 to 150 years. I just see it as almost completely opposite of what has been normal for thousands of years.”
That’s not to say there weren’t periods in history when society was rough, and women were persecuted. Yet today things have reached the other extreme, she thinks.
The role of the traditional wife means just that: filling the role of wife as it has long been defined. For Mrs. Lewis that means following the Bible.
It also means having particular standards in how you dress, what you say, and how you treat other people. And it might mean sacrifice, accepting what you don't have while embracing what you do.
“I think we’re headed for even harder times," she said. “I think we need to bring back a lot of these more frugal skills like I do.”
The traditional lifestyle isn’t for all women as adopting such values entails sacrifice and making do with what you have, even if it’s meager.
She said, “You make the most of what you have, and you seek to find beauty in that. That’s kind of what we’ve been doing.”
She looks happier than the man hating shrews America is growing.
Sweet story
In 10 years she'll divorce him, claim no skills whatsoever to support herself, get "lifetime" alimony, excessive support for the kids, put him on the hook for college education and get half of his social security and any pension benefits he worked for too.
Seen it dozens of times already.
Great insight. My daughter has been searching for a mate for many years. She’s pretty up front that when kids arrive she wants to be a full time mom (maybe some part time income)
The majority of men she meets shut that down right away.
She began dating a guy a few months ago who agrees with her stance. I assume she’ll be getting a ring soon.
I play the protective father but I really like the guy.
Taking bets for when the same media that promotes the idea that men can get pregnant starts to ridicule her.
And a cutie pie too!
“Words of wisdom” from a 22-year-old? *chortle* I knew everything when I was 22, too.
Best wishes to the family.
“Raising children in the home is persecution?”
Several years back I had a USAF job where I traveled the countryside doing service work at field stations. On one occasion I had to take along a gal from Madison Wisconsin. We were driving along and met a school bus. She asked what’s that doing out here? I said taking kids to school. She said do they live on farms? I said yes.
Her reply was “That’s child abuse”. This woman was a died in the wool leftist.
I knew she was a sensitive lefty, and made it a point to keep my remarks to a minimum. A couple days later my boss called me into his office and told me she filed a sexual harassment complaint against me. Laughed it off, wouldn’t tell me what I supposedly did, and just said to stay away from her. He made the complaint go away.
Correct. Several in my family, including my mother and grandmothers. Amazing human beings— smart, wise, with hearts of absolute gold, but tough, tough as nails.
Thanks.
There’s definitely some momentum behind the rejection of modern feminism. Some of it is just a result of a weak snowflake generation of women that realize this expectation to have a career is hard and not what it’s cracked up to be. They also think they’re a ‘10’ and work is beneath them, they deserve a guy that makes $300k/yr to support “the life I want and deserve”.
That said, there’s glimmers of hope. I enjoy the YouTube channel “Just Pearly Things”. The young lady that hosts this channel is a breath of fresh air when it comes to feminism and the culture wars. She shoots down many attitudes of the women she interviews. They’re so delusional - but it is epidemic. Now some ladies, such as this ‘trad wife’, realize what modern culture is offering is poison and are going in the opposite direction.
https://www.youtube.com/@JustPearlyThings
Mrs Deplorable does this, but we never thought of making it newsworthy. Truthfully, I think if taxes were lowered, so one can stay home, some parents would. One of Mrs D’s friends would love to stay home, but her husband works in retailing and she is an accountant.
Myself, growing up in the late 1960s/early 1970s, my mom and my friends’ mom’s stayed home. My mom’s rule was be home when the streetlight came on. My mom knew where I was...either in the basement running my model railroad layout, or at my friends’ house or fishing at BAP Pond or motorcycling/snowmobiling.
I think this is referring to things like bankers refusing home loans or car loans to women, men chasing their secretaries around the office, and so on. If a woman got divorced, even from an abusive, unfaithful husband, she could be subject to shame or gossip. Not long before tha 1940s, women could not vote.
The culture was far, far better in the 1940s, but it had a few blemishes that have been improved.
What a GREAT post!
The collapse of the educational system and the need for homeschooling are probably driving a lot of women out of the workforce and back into the home.
“BTW, why didn’t women want to compete with men in the workplace when it involved scratching the walls of a coal mine 14 hours a day, six days a week?”
They worried about chipping a nail?
I guess she doesn’t know that if it weren’t for large farm families, America would’ve starved in the 19th & 20th centuries.
Who did she think worked the farms 24/7/365 ... elves?
Indeed.
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