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.”
“and women were persecuted”
Raising children in the home is persecution?
Pictures at the link. Aria looks Not Guilty to me.
Only to feminists.
An acre is much nicer than a quarter acre.
Five acres is about the minimum for a self-sustaining farm.
requires a log in to read
She is dressing like in the pioneer days, not like in the forties. The forties wore midi length and stylish shoes.
Nonetheless, this trad wife thing is no different than stay at home mom. I did that. Stopped practicing law and stayed home with my kids. Loved it. Wouldn’t trade it. Baked. House was kept up. Cooked dinner every night.
She’s not hideous.
I married an Anglo-Tyrolean (Anglo-Italian?) girl to whom food is love and children are her life (now grandchildren). She stayed at home and raised our four children, for which they and myself are eternally grateful. 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?
If the household income allows for one of the two spouses to be “at home” that’s great.Particularly if it’s the wife who’s at home...raising the kids,keeping the house running. Both the breadwinner’s contribution *and* the wife’s are important. Vitally important.
And you probably were pregnant and had a couple kids to care for...no pampers so that means diapers to wash because birth control was not good. And no TV so nothing to do at night but make love.
Whatever floats her boat...as long as no one else is hurt.
Just three generations ago, everyone worked harder to simply exist.
My Grandfather was a trapper, hunter, and farmer. The farm used horsepower to do the heavy work, but wood for the stove to keep the farm house warm in winter was cut by hand from a mile away, then hauled to the farm by horses, then cut by hand and split by hand to fit the stove in the house.
Water was pumped by hand.
There was no indoor plumbing.
My father grew up on that farm. He learned trapping and hunting from his father.
He got his first tractor in 1949.
In 1800, 83% of people were farmers. In 1860, 53% were farmers. In 1900, about 40% were farmers.
When I was young, which was admittedly quite a while ago, feminism was about equality of opportunity, not outcome.
Modern feminists are nothing more than Deep State handmaidens.
I should have specified, Modern Day Feminists. The kind Rush used to rail against.
Choices. Good post. Thanks.
the only ones hurt are those that look at her lifestyle through the jaded eyes of the modern feminist and laugh at it on the outside...but on the deep inside of their very being they cry for the traditional roll of a natural woman that was ingrained by The Creator of the Soul and can never quite shake the deepseated feeling of having one’s ladder leaning against the wrong wall. I could be wrong.
I’m a feminist.
And a trad wife.
Contrary to what Deep State would like to have women believe, you can be both. :-)
I’m old enough to remember when everyone’s mom stayed at home. Growing up in the 60s (before taxes put all women to work), moms were home and your original (almost no divorce or illegitimacy) dad brought home the bacon.
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