Matisyahu's Blog

For those who haven’t been keeping up with the latest ‘trend’ on the right I’m unfortunately going to take away the small joy that you have because you didn’t know about this phenomenon. The phenomenon I am referring to is the whole ‘trad wife’ (aka ‘traditional wife’) movement and like all movements that start online it leaves me with confusion more than anything else. There is a great video that goes into detail called ‘Fundie Fridays’ where this topic was touched on.

This blog entry isn’t addressing necessarily what was covered in the video but rather using it as a jumping off point to address a weird psychology that exists on the far right of getting angry not at the people who oppose them but instead they really dislike the people who are indifferent to their lifestyle choice – neither supportive or condemning but rather simply not caring (which is where I fit in – I simply don’t care, it’s their life, they can do whatever they want).

So what do they resort to? playing the victim by creating scenarios in their head of some imagined opponent so then they feel as though their life has meaning because they’re not only fighting for something but they’re also fighting an opponent(s) – the ever present feminist who is around every corner, condemning their lifestyle choice, criticisms from randos on the internet being conflated as if they were prevailing mainstream culture even though the very lifestyle that they’ve chosen isn’t a rebellion against the status quo but instead the re-enforcement of it. It reminds me of Paul Joseph Watson quip about ‘conservativism being the new punk’ when in reality the very views he holds onto are re-enforcing the status quo.

Side note: If your sense of security about the lifestyle you have embraced is derived based on feeling as though you’re rebelling against the status quo then essentially you’ve allowed the status quo to define you by virtue of your identity based on reacting in opposition rather than a wholly original identity created on its own terms where you do not feel the need to look for third party re-enforcement.