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.”
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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.
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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.
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"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.”
Women were working “men’s jobs” in the 1940s. Looks like she and many here forgot about all the Rosie the Riveters.
GOOD FOR YOU!
Girls like you make this planet a much better place.
My wife and my daughter are stay-at-home moms, and I'm so very proud of them both.
The job is very hard, if done right, -- especially with young ones.
It has to be incredibly rewarding, too. Especially as we grow older.
Got bless you!
I'm glad the couple chose to live this was and wish them the best.
She’s partway there. Now start having kids instead of waiting until she’s 45 to decide she wants to be a mom.
She’s going to drive the democrats and other leftist critters up the wall after they spent so many years renaming all forms of normal lift sexist racist homophobe even speaking English white supremacy.
She’s going to drive the democrats and other leftist critters up the wall after they spent so many years renaming all forms of normal life sexist racist homophobe even speaking English white supremacy.
fixed
More power to them. Although, I think you can be modern and be traditional at the same time.
Yes, putting your cosplay choices all over TikTok or Instagram is a new “tradition.”
They’ll be happier, in my opinion, if they just live their life instead of making it a show. Hasn’t anyone learned a lesson from the Duggars?
I prefer the 1540s but to each their own. Back then my family owned their own land but didn’t have the responsibilities of the nobility.
Those were the days.
Sounds great! But there was also plenty to do at night (people had electric lights since the 10s and 20s, and radios, and before that, lanterns and candles)—knitting, sewing, mending, preserving food, sweeping, churning, reading the Bible, that sort of thing.
They also had plenty of books and magazines by the 40s, as well as agitator washers with wringers. I remember my grandmother's Reader's Digests, women's magazines, needlework magazines, devotional pamphlets, and well-worn Bible (I still have it), plus an assortment of gadgets for drying clothes to minimize ironing like aluminum-frame trouser stretchers and wooden frames with tack points all around for stretching lace curtains to dry. She was raised on a farm, and no one could beat her home cooking, plus large-quantity cooking for church suppers. She also drove a black Ford automobile and one of the joys of my childhood was accompanying her to the grocery or the streetside markets in the city.
My grandfather had a workshop in the basement in which he made all kinds of household objects for his grown offspring and toys for his grandchildren. I decorate my wooden dollhouse that he made in the late 40s every year for Christmas.
It was a modest, decent way of life. Home, family, church. Work and school on the side.
It was a modest, decent way of life. Home, family, church. Work and school on the side.
I grew up with traditional family structure. No mothers complained. They didn’t want to go climb power poles risking their lives to keep the electricity running for the city or emptying trash cans every morning. Put these girls in a REAL job, and not some BS comfy make work job in an air conditioned office and watch how fast they would want to have a husband take care of them and the kids.
Plus..... the cost of living allowed a single earner to cover all the bills.
Hopefully pay the trend takes off.
I don’t think that is what she is referring to
It is a wonderful thing to do. Happiest time of life.
She’s going back to the calling of her genes, her nature.
She’ll be much happier and have a more fullfilled life than following the siren song of the feminazis, who require her to deny and loathe her own reality.
I wish her well.
“minimum for a self-sustaining farm.”
Depends on the climate. That’s the size of my place. But I only get a good 5 months of growing season. The chickens help but chicken and eggs gets pretty boring after a while.
However with my friends and neighbors we all have hundreds of acres all producing our own meats and veggies. I must say I do enjoy just going to the Costco a few towns away and stocking up on canned goods and the convenience of the grocery store.
Because she was scratching meals up from almost nothing, washing clothes with buckets and washboard, sewing clothes...subsistence.
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